Intro To gRPC

gRPC

• gRPC = gRPC Remote Procedure Call

• Client can directly call a procedure on server as if it's local one.

• Uses protocol buffers as:

  • Interface Definition Language (IDL)

  • Message interchange format

[Recursive]

Why

• Define service once => generate servers, clients

• The complexity of communication between different languages and environments is handled by gRPC

• + All Protocol Buffers Advantages

• + All HTTP 2.0 Advantages

• Supported Languages

• Deadlines/Timeouts

• Bi-Directional Streaming

gRPC vs REST

[demo]

How?

service ServiceName {
  rpc procedureName (commaSeparatedParameters) returns (returnType) {}
}

Server

Client

Implements the methods declared by the service and runs a gRPC server to handle client calls.

Has a local object known as "stub" that implements the same methods as the service.

The client can then just call those methods on the local object.

proto compile