PHP protobuf error - Undefined method for encode/decode

Question

I'm trying to learn about Protobuf in PHP using https://github.com/google/protobuf/tree/master/php . Currently I'm stuck in an error.

My steps to install protobuf:

• Install protobuf through pecl with command:

  sudo pecl install protobuf-3.2.0a1
  

• Set composer.json as below, then run sudo composer install

  {
      "require": {
          "google/protobuf": "^3.2"
      }
  }
  

Below is my code:

• Proto file:

  syntax = "proto3";
  
  message APIReq {
      string functionName = 1;
      string name = 2;
      int32 time = 3;
      string type = 4;
  }
  

• Command to generate PHP Class from .proto file:

  protoc --php_out=/var/www/html/ MsgFormat.proto
  

The protoc command resulted in two file, APIReq.php and GPBMetadata/MsgFormat.php

After that, I added require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php'; and require_once __DIR__ . '/GPBMetadata/MsgFormat.php'; in the generated PHP file because when I ran php APIReq.php it came up with

    PHP Fatal error:  Class 'Google\Protobuf\Internal\Message' not found in /var/www/html/testing/APIReq.php on line 13

After I added those line, the error disappeared, so I assume both line fixed the problem

• my PHP file (following example from https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/reference/php-generated, section Messages):

  <?php
      require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';
      include_once('APIReq.php');
  
      $param = new APIReq();
      $param2 = new APIReq();
      $param->setFunctionname('functionname');
      $param->setName('name');
      $param->setTime(123456);
      $param->setType('type');
      $dt = $param->encode();
      $param2->decode($dt);
  ?>
  

When I run the PHP code, it returns error message:

PHP Fatal error:  Call to undefined method APIReq::encode()

How can I fix this?

Edit: Tried this with protobuf 3.3.0 as well, with same result.

Answer 1

Encode & Decode not exist in the codebase as I traced down.

This change was introduced in 3.3.0

//to encode message 
$data = $param->serializeToString();

//to decode message
$param2 = new APIReq();
$param2->mergeFromString($data);