Protocol Buffer (protobuf)

https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers

Frameworks That Use Protocol Buffers

• gRPC

Installation

protoc - is compiler that takes a .proto file and outputs code in the specified language

from source

download the package and follow the instructions in the README

homebrew

brew search protobuf

brew install protobuf

Example Use

example .proto file

syntax = "proto2";

package tutorial;

option java_package = "com.example.tutorial";
option java_outer_classname = "AddressBookProtos";

message Person {
  required string name = 1;
  required int32 id = 2;
  optional string email = 3;

  enum PhoneType {
    MOBILE = 0;
    HOME = 1;
    WORK = 2;
  }

  message PhoneNumber {
    required string number = 1;
    optional PhoneType type = 2 [default = HOME];
  }

  repeated PhoneNumber phones = 4;
}

message AddressBook {
  repeated Person people = 1;
}

now run the compiler, specifying the source directory (where your application’s source code lives – the current directory is used if you don’t provide a value), the destination directory (where you want the generated code to go; often the same as $SRC_DIR), and the path to your .proto

protoc -I=$SRC_DIR --java_out=$DST_DIR $SRC_DIR/addressbook.proto

—java_out - specifies we want Java code (similar options are provided for other supported languages)