CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaserializationtcpnettyprotocol-buffers
IAmYourFaja
IAmYourFaja

Reputation: 56894

The role of Google Protocol Buffers in network software

Edit: Here I'm talking about the Java binding of Protocol Buffers.

I'm trying to understand what Google Protocol Buffers are and what they do. Let's say I have a simple Netty-based network client/server pair. The client randomly sends Ping messages to the server, and the server responds with a Pong message.

How would Protocol Buffers fit into the equation here? Would I use them to serialize Ping and Pong messages, and then use Netty to do the actual transport of those serialized messages? Or does Protocol Buffers take care of the transport as well?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 218

Answers (1)

Marc Gravell
Marc Gravell

Reputation: 1062580

The public protocol-buffers drop only includes a specification for serialization. Some teasing and tempting hooks in place hinting at a full RPC stack, but no implementation or specification is provided. If you are using protocol-buffers, you will need your own transport or RPC stack, or a library that adds these features for you. To emphasize: all that protocol-buffers formally declares is a serialization protocol and a DSL that describes data to be stored in that format.

Upvotes: 1

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