Use other fallback coders for protobuf message base class

sdks/python/apache_beam/coders/coders.py

@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@
 
 import google.protobuf.wrappers_pb2
 import proto
+from google.protobuf import message
 
 from apache_beam.coders import coder_impl
 from apache_beam.coders.avro_record import AvroRecord
@@ -65,7 +66,6 @@
 from apache_beam.utils import proto_utils
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
-  from google.protobuf import message  # pylint: disable=ungrouped-imports
   from apache_beam.coders.typecoders import CoderRegistry
   from apache_beam.runners.pipeline_context import PipelineContext
 
@@ -1039,11 +1039,18 @@ def __hash__(self):
 
   @classmethod
   def from_type_hint(cls, typehint, unused_registry):
-    if issubclass(typehint, proto_utils.message_types):
+    # The typehint must be a strict subclass of google.protobuf.message.Message.
+    # ProtoCoder cannot work with message.Message itself, as deserialization of
+    # a serialized proto requires knowledge of the desired concrete proto
+    # subclass which is not stored in the encoded bytes themselves. If this
+    # occurs, an error is raised and the system defaults to other fallback
+    # coders.
+    if (issubclass(typehint, proto_utils.message_types) and
+        typehint != message.Message):
       return cls(typehint)
     else:
       raise ValueError((
-          'Expected a subclass of google.protobuf.message.Message'
+          'Expected a strict subclass of google.protobuf.message.Message'
           ', but got a %s' % typehint))
 
   def to_type_hint(self):

sdks/python/apache_beam/coders/coders_test.py

@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 
 import proto
 import pytest
+from google.protobuf import message
 
 import apache_beam as beam
 from apache_beam import typehints
@@ -86,6 +87,23 @@ def test_proto_coder(self):
     self.assertEqual(ma, real_coder.decode(real_coder.encode(ma)))
     self.assertEqual(ma.__class__, real_coder.to_type_hint())
 
+  def test_proto_coder_on_protobuf_message_subclasses(self):
+    # This replicates a scenario where users provide message.Message as the
+    # output typehint for a Map function, even though the actual output messages
+    # are subclasses of message.Message.
+    ma = test_message.MessageA()
+    mb = ma.field2.add()
+    mb.field1 = True
+    ma.field1 = 'hello world'
+
+    coder = coders_registry.get_coder(message.Message)
+    # For messages of google.protobuf.message.Message, the fallback coder will
+    # be FastPrimitivesCoder rather than ProtoCoder.
+    # See the comment on ProtoCoder.from_type_hint() for further details.
+    self.assertEqual(coder, coders.FastPrimitivesCoder())
+
+    self.assertEqual(ma, coder.decode(coder.encode(ma)))
+
 
 class DeterministicProtoCoderTest(unittest.TestCase):
   def test_deterministic_proto_coder(self):