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gRPC-kapt

A Kotlin kapt annotation processor for using gRPC with the transport of your choice (json, proto, etc.).

Supports client & server creation with coroutines.

Note This project is a preview. Please try it out and let us know what you think, but there are currently no guarantees of any form of stability or support.

Getting started

To create a gRPC client simply create an interface annotated with @GrpcClient.

To implement a server, create another class that inherits from your @GrpcClient, annotate it with @GrpcServer, and implement the server-side logic for the methods that you have defined on the client.

fun main() = runBlocking {
    // create the server (use .asGrpcService() to create long running servers)
    SimpleServer().asGrpcServer(8080) {
        // create a client and query the server
        SimpleServiceClient.forAddress("localhost", 8080, channelOptions = { usePlaintext() }).use { client ->
            val answer = client.ask(Question("what's this?"))
            println(answer)
        }
    }
}

// define the data types
data class Question(val query: String)
data class Answer(val result: String)

// generate a gRPC client
@GrpcClient
interface SimpleService {
    suspend fun ask(question: Question): Answer
}

// generate a gRPC service
@GrpcServer
class SimpleServer : SimpleService {
    override suspend fun ask(question: Question) = Answer(result = "you said: '${question.query}'")
}

In most cases, you should also add at least one object in your application with the @GrpcMarshaller annotation to specify how the data will be marshaled.

Here's another example using JSON and a bidirectional streaming API:

fun main() = runBlocking {
    // create the server
    ComplexServer().asGrpcServer(8080) {
        // create a client and call the server
        ComplexServiceClient.forAddress("localhost", 8080, channelOptions = { usePlaintext() }).use { client ->
            // bidirectional streaming
            val answers = client.debate(produce {
                repeat(10) { i -> send(Question("Question #${i + 1}")) }
            })
            for (answer in answers) {
                println(answer)
            }
        }
    }
}

// generate a gRPC client
@GrpcClient
interface ComplexService {
    suspend fun debate(questions: ReceiveChannel<Question>): ReceiveChannel<Answer>
}

// generate & implement a gRPC service
@GrpcServer
class ComplexServer : ComplexService {
    override suspend fun debate(questions: ReceiveChannel<Question>) = CoroutineScope(coroutineContext).produce {
        for (question in questions) {
            send(Answer("${question.query}? Sorry, I don't know..."))
        }
    }
}

// Use JSON serialization for the client & server
@GrpcMarshaller
object MyMarshallerProvider {
    private val mapper: ObjectMapper = ObjectMapper().registerModule(KotlinModule())

    fun <T> of(type: Class<T>): MethodDescriptor.Marshaller<T> {
        return object : MethodDescriptor.Marshaller<T> {
            override fun stream(value: T): InputStream = ByteArrayInputStream(mapper.writeValueAsBytes(value))
            override fun parse(stream: InputStream): T = stream.bufferedReader().use { mapper.readValue(it, type) }
        }
    }
}

More Examples

See the complete example here, a proto example here, and a Google Cloud API example here.

For the adventurous, see the gRPC reflection example here.

You can run the examples by running the following in the root of the project:

 $ ./gradlew :runExample
 $ ./gradlew :runExampleWithJson
 $ ./gradlew :runExampleWithProto
 $ ./gradlew :runExampleWithGoogle
 $ ./gradlew :runExampleWithProtoReflection

Note: :runExampleWithGoogle requires a GCP project with the Langauge API enabled. Set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable before running, i.e.:

GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=<path_to_service_account.json> ./gradlew :runExampleWithGoogle

Related Projects

It's sort of a simpler version of kgen.

Contributing

Contributions to this library are always welcome and highly encouraged.

See the CONTRIBUTING documentation for more information on how to get started.

Versioning

This library is currently a preview with no guarantees of stability or support. Please get involved and let us know if you find it useful and we'll work towards a stable version.

Disclaimer

This is not an official Google product.