services/chat/proto/chat.proto

syntax = "proto3";

package chat;
option go_package = "proto;chat";

service Chat {
  // New creates a chat for a group of users. The RPC is idempotent so if it's called multiple times
  // for the same users, the same response will be returned. It's good practice to design APIs as
  // idempotent since this enables safe retries.
  rpc New(NewRequest) returns (NewResponse);
  // History returns the historical messages in a chat
  rpc History(HistoryRequest) returns (HistoryResponse);
  // Send a single message to the chat
  rpc Send(SendRequest) returns (SendResponse);
  // Connect to a chat using a bidirectional stream enabling the client to send and recieve messages
  // over a single RPC. When a message is sent on the stream, it will be added to the chat history 
  // and sent to the other connected users. When opening the connection, the client should provide
  // the chat_id and user_id in the context so the server knows which messages to stream.
  rpc Connect(stream Message) returns (stream Message);
}

// NewRequest contains the infromation needed to create a new chat
message NewRequest {
  repeated string user_ids = 1;
}

// NewResponse contains the chat id for the users
message NewResponse {
  string chat_id = 1;
}

// HistoryRequest contains the id of the chat we want the history for. This RPC will return all 
// historical messages, however in a real life application we'd introduce some form of pagination
// here, only loading the older messages when required.
message HistoryRequest {
  string chat_id = 1;
}

// HistoryResponse contains the historical messages in a chat
message HistoryResponse {
  repeated Message messages = 1;
}

// SendRequest contains a single message to send to a chat
message SendRequest {
  // a client side id, should be validated by the server to make the request retry safe
  string client_id = 1;
  // id of the chat the message is being sent to / from
  string chat_id = 2;
  // id of the user who sent the message
  string user_id = 3;
  // subject of the message
  string subject = 4;
  // text of the message
  string text = 5;
}

// SendResponse is a blank message returned when a message is successfully created
message SendResponse {}

// Message sent to a chat
message Message {
  // id of the message, allocated by the server
  string id = 1;
  // a client side id, should be validated by the server to make the request retry safe
  string client_id = 2;
  // id of the chat the message is being sent to / from
  string chat_id = 3;
  // id of the user who sent the message
  string user_id = 4;
  // time time the message was sent in unix format 
  int64 sent_at = 5;
  // subject of the message
  string subject = 6;
  // text of the message
  string text = 7;
}