Can I generate messages as a separate project and then reuse these message types for server and client?

I am thinking about the following project structure:

+-- Messages
  |
  +-- messages.proto (compiled)
  +-- service.proto (not compiled, imports `messages.proto`)'
+-- Server (references `Messages` project, so generaetd message could be reused, generates server)
  |
  +-- service.proto (added as a link from `Messages` project)
+-- Client (references `Messages` project, so generaetd message could be reused)
  |
  +-- service.proto (added as a link from `Messages` project, generates client.)

Is it possible to achieve? And if yes, how?

[chwarr]

I think the Liber example is what you want to do:

• The Common project only runs codegen and compiles the messages.
• The Client project only runs codegen on the service proto and only generates client stubs.
• The Server project is similar.

The projects here use the GrpcServies metadata that I mentioned before to control what code is compiled into each project to avoid compiling anything twice so you shouldn’t have two types with the same name in different assemblies (and no aliases will be needed).

[JamesNK]

Messages can be generated on there own. But a client or server is always generated with messages.