How to add interface and class in proto 3 payload in gRPC communication

Question

I need to write a framework and there are two app which are communicating using gRPC. They share some common proto payload. Now, challenge is this, I want to write some interface and implementation in that proto3 proto contract.It is c# based app so both will generate c# based proto type from .proto file.

Is there any way to achieve the same.

StackOverflow is not a code generation site. What have you tried so far? — Danny Goodall, Feb 18 '20 at 08:44
As a side note: if both sides are C#, have you considered *not bothering* with a .proto? protobuf-net / protobuf-net.Grpc allow you to work code-first, i.e. you *just* write your DTOs and interfaces in C#, and the library makes it all work; start here: https://protobuf-net.github.io/protobuf-net.Grpc/gettingstarted — Marc Gravell, Feb 18 '20 at 08:57

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 18 '20 at 08:49

In raw gRPC / .proto terms, this is service:

service MyService {
  rpc SomeMethod (SomeDtoDefinedSomewhere) returns (AnotherDtoDefinedSomewhere);
  rpc AnotherMethod (Blah) returns (Whatever);
}

Now; what happens next depends on the tools you're using; protoc will generate a client proxy and server stub for this, not a C# interface. You can either work with this "as is", or add your own interface as an abstraction.

However, protobuf-net (a separate implementation of protobuf on .NET) can work with this as a pure C# interface via protogen. Unfortunately, I have not yet updated the website with the tweaks to actually emit service definitions as interfaces. But it should work from the nuget preview drops.

How to add interface and class in proto 3 payload in gRPC communication

1 Answers1