What is GRPC ?

gRPC is an open-source high-performance Remote Procedure Call (RPC) framework that was developed by Google. It is designed to enable efficient communication between microservices and other distributed systems, and it uses Protocol Buffers as its default serialization mechanism.

Unlike traditional HTTP-based APIs, gRPC uses binary messages and a binary protocol that is designed to be more efficient and performant than traditional text-based protocols like JSON or XML. This makes it well-suited for high-throughput, low-latency scenarios, such as those found in microservices architectures and real-time data processing applications.

How does gRPC work?

gRPC works by defining a set of services and message types using Protocol Buffers, a language- and platform-neutral data serialization format. These service definitions are then compiled into code that can be used to generate client and server-side stubs for invoking the services.

When a client wants to call a gRPC service, it sends a request message to the server, which processes the request and sends back a response message. Under the hood, gRPC uses HTTP/2 as its transport layer, which enables efficient multiplexing of multiple RPC requests and responses over a single connection.

gRPC also supports a range of advanced features, such as bidirectional streaming, flow control, and error handling, which enable more complex communication patterns between services.

Benefits of gRPC

gRPC offers several benefits over traditional APIs and other RPC frameworks, including:

Performance: gRPC is designed to be highly performant, with support for efficient binary serialization, multiplexed connections, and other features that can help reduce latency and increase throughput.
Interoperability: gRPC supports a range of programming languages and platforms, including C++, Java, Python, Go, and many others, making it easy to build interoperable microservices and distributed systems.
Code generation: gRPC's use of Protocol Buffers and code generation tools enables developers to quickly and easily generate client and server-side code for invoking gRPC services, reducing the amount of boilerplate code that needs to be written.
Advanced features: gRPC supports a range of advanced features, such as bidirectional streaming, flow control, and error handling, that enable more complex communication patterns between services.
Community: gRPC has a large and active community of developers, with extensive documentation, tutorials, and support available online.

Conclusion

gRPC is a powerful and performant RPC framework that offers a range of benefits for building distributed systems and microservices architectures. With its support for efficient binary serialization, multiplexed connections, and advanced features like bidirectional streaming, gRPC is well-suited for real-time data processing applications and other high-throughput scenarios. If you're looking for a modern and efficient way to build microservices, gRPC is worth checking out.

Example

Create greet.proto file.

  syntax = "proto3";

  package greet;

  service Greeter {
    rpc SayHello (HelloRequest) returns (HelloResponse) {}
  }

  message HelloRequest {
    string name = 1;
  }

  message HelloResponse {
    string message = 1;
  }

Run this command on terminal

  $ python -m pip install grpcio grpcio-tools

  $ python -m grpc_tools.protoc -I. --python_out=. --grpc_python_out=. greet.proto

Create a file server.py

  from concurrent import futures
  import grpc
  import greet_pb2
  import greet_pb2_grpc

  class Greeter(greet_pb2_grpc.GreeterServicer):
      def SayHello(self, request, context):
          return greet_pb2.HelloResponse(message='Hello, %s!' % request.name)

  server = grpc.server(futures.ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=10))
  greet_pb2_grpc.add_GreeterServicer_to_server(Greeter(), server)
  server.add_insecure_port('[::]:50051')
  server.start()
  server.wait_for_termination()

Create a file client.py

  import grpc
  import greet_pb2
  import greet_pb2_grpc

  channel = grpc.insecure_channel('localhost:50051')
  stub = greet_pb2_grpc.GreeterStub(channel)
  response = stub.SayHello(greet_pb2.HelloRequest(name='World'))
  print(response.message)

Gitik Gupta's blog

Gitik Gupta's blog

What is GRPC ?

Conclusion

Example