CODEWITHSUNDEEP
java.netinteropprotobuf-net
Edward Wilde
Edward Wilde

Reputation: 26527

using protobuf-net with WCF client and a java server

We are looking to communicate between a .net client and a java server using 'Protocol Buffers'.

Ideally would would like to use protobuf-net through WCF since all the rest of our communications to other services goes through the WCF stack.

I have a proof of concept .net WCF client talking to a .net WCF server using protobuf-net endpoint behaviour and that seems to work fine.

My question is how would we go about configuring the java server to send the proto-buf to our WCF client? I.e. Do we need to expose the java server to WCF as a SOAP services and send the proto-buf over that?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 819

Answers (2)

Marc Gravell
Marc Gravell

Reputation: 1063338

In that scenario, I would strongly recommend using regular SOAP for the protocol, and exposing a byte[] or Stream (or whatever works) as the payload - and then handle the encoding in your application.

The serializer hooks in WCF mean that it is largely similar to a byte[] payload (on a per-parameter/result basis), but I can't guarantee that it will be easily deconstructed outside of WCF.

Besides... if you describe it as a SOAP message that includes a BLOB, you are being truthful to SOAP.

Upvotes: 0

Jon Skeet
Jon Skeet

Reputation: 1502076

If your WCF client is using a protobuf-net endpoint, it's not using SOAP is it? I can't say I've used protobut-net personally, but I understood that it was an alternative to SOAP. Basically, have a look at the protocol it uses and implement the same protocol as a servlet. I would expect that to be reasonably simple, to be honest.

If it works and you can contribute the servlet as open source, I suspect you're not the only one who'd like to do this :)

Upvotes: 1

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