Google Protocol Buffers

Google Protocol Buffers

and

Apache Thrift

What are we looking for?

•
Scalable cross
-
language services

•
Why not JSON or XML?

–
XML is verbose

–
XML and JSON use UTF
-
8 encoding which are
larger than binary when sent across the wire.

Basic Information

Protocol Buffers

•
Open sourced by Google

•
Maintained by Google

•
Serialization API

•
Write a proto file to define
message and then use
compiler to generate classes
for target language

•
Supports Binary
serialization

Thrift

•
Open sourced by
Facebook

•
Maintained by Apache
Incubator

•
Serialization and RPC API

•
Write a thrift file to define
message and then use
compiler to generate classes
for target language

•
Supports Binary and JSON
serialization


Language Support

Protocol Buffers

•
C++

•
Java

•
Python


•
Community Supported

–
C#

–
Ruby

–
Perl

–
Objective C

–
Etc.

Thrift

•
C++

•
Java

•
Python

•
PHP

•
Ruby

•
Erlang

•
Perl

•
Haskell

•
C#

•
Cocoa

•
Smalltalk

•
OCaml

Primitive Types Supported

Protocol Buffers

•
Double

•
Float

•
Unsigned int32/64

•
Signed int32/64

•
Bool

•
String

•
Bytes

•
Repeated properties (lists)

•
Enumerations

Thrift

•
Bool

•
Byte

•
Signed int32/64

•
Double (64
-
bit floating point)

•
String

•
List<type>

•
Set<type>

•
Map<type1, type2>

•
Enumerations

•
Exceptions

•
Constants

Performance in Java

Protocol Buffers

•
Obj. Creation Time: 528ns

•
Serialize Time: 5227ns

•
Deserialize

Time:
2725
s

•
Serialized Size: 239 bytes

Thrift

•
Obj. Creation Time: 432ns

•
Serialize Time: 5644ns

•
Deserialize

Time: 2857ns

•
Serialized Size
: 349 bytes


Message Definition

Protocol Buffers

package tutorial;

option
java_package

= "
com.example.tutorial
";

option
java_outer_classname

= "
AddressBookProtos
";


message
Person {


required
string name = 1;


required
int32 id = 2;


optional
string email = 3;



enum

PhoneType

{



MOBILE
= 0;



HOME
= 1;



WORK
= 2;


}


message
PhoneNumber

{



required
string number = 1;


optional
PhoneType

type = 2 [default =
HOME];



}


repeated
PhoneNumber

phone = 4;

}


message
AddressBook

{


repeated
Person
person

= 1;

}

Thrift

namespace java tutorial

namespace
csharp

Tutorial


enum

PhoneType

{


MOBILE = 1,


HOME = 2,


WORK = 3

}


struct

PhoneNumber

{


1: string number,


2:
PhoneType

type = 2

}


struct

Person {


1: string name,


2: i32 id,


3: string email,


4: set<
PhoneNumber
> phone

}


struct

AddressBook

{


1: list<Person> person

}


RPC Implementation

Protocol Buffers


•
Not Applicable


•
ZeroMQ

is a possible RPC
implementation that has
cross language support

Thrift

•
Cross language RPC built
into the APIs

•
RPC interfaces reference
Thrift types

•
Json

and Binary Protocols


service Calculator
extends

shared.SharedService

{

void
ping(),

i32
add(1:i32 num1, 2:i32
num2)


throws
(1:InvalidOperation ouch
)

}


Object Creation
–

C#

Protocol Buffers

var

phoneNumberBuilder

=
PhoneNumber.CreateBuilder
();

phoneNumberBuilder.SetNumber
(number);

phoneNumberBuilder.Type

=
PhoneType.MOBILE
;

var

phoneNumber

=
phoneNumberBuilder.Build
();


Person.Builder

personBuilder

=
Person.CreateBuilder
();

personBuilder.Id

= 1;

personBuilder.Name

= "Matthew Kubicina";

personBuilder.Email

= "mkubicina@book.com";

personBuilder.AddPhone
(
phoneNumber
);

var

person =
personBuilder.Build
();


var

addressBookBuilder

=
AddressBook.CreateBuilder
();

addressBookBuilder.AddPerson
(person);

var

addressBook

=
addressBookBuilder.Build
();

Thrift

Thrift Client API
–

C#

Thrift Server API
–

C#

TServerSocket

serverTransport

= new
TServerSocket
(9090);

AddressBookService.Processor

processor = new


AddressBookService.Processor
(new
AddressBookServiceImpl
());

Args

serverArgs

= new
Args
(
serverTransport
);

TServer

server = new
TSimpleServer
(
serverArgs.processor
(processor
));

server.serve
();