Make binary self-contained

[naturallymitchell]

Instead of generating openapi-spec.go, make it possible for users to download a single binary and not need a Go build environment.

So instead of using code generation, build in the cli dependencies and abstract the openapi spec environment.

[danielgtaylor]

@mitchtbaum how would this work exactly?

[naturallymitchell]

Make OCG able to run openapi files itself without an additional compilation step.

So, instead of generating hardcoded output, abstract the app to use configurable inputs.

[naturallymitchell]

@danielgtaylor I updated the issue. does that make sense? would you have interest in coding/merging it?

[danielgtaylor]

I've spent some time thinking about this idea. I like the flexibility of pointing the executable to an OpenAPI file and having it Just Work:tm: but I haven't come up with good solutions for:

1. How do you deliver a single zero-dependency executable for users to download? I don't want them to download this app plus my OpenAPI file, I just want one thing that works for my users.

2. Right now you can hook into various parts of the CLI, request/response, etc to build customization and high level commands. How would this work without a compilation step?

[naturallymitchell]

to get the ball rolling, I have some questions, starting with:

• what would it look like to switch the current codebase from a hardcoded cli interface to one that reads from a config file instead?
• what translation is necessary to generate an in-memory representation of an api's semantics that could make it read an openapi file directly, instead of from a config file? (which you're basically doing already in order to generate the compileable environment)

[phrohdoh]

Would creating a containerized version of openapi-cli-generator be feasible?

That way the user technically has everything they need but packaged up in a nice container that they can ask to generate CLIs and completely purge the container from their machine once they've done everything they want.

I just came across dockerize which may be a workable solution.

Edit: Added a link to dockerize

[joeblew99]

@danielgtaylor Its a weird issue but i can see its usefulness.

there is a openapiv3 parser that can do runtime parsing. https://github.com/getkin/kin-openapi

so then the developer woudl just have to implement handlers

Not sure if this hits the core of the use case ?