Institute of Information Science - University of Miskolc

Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) is a method developed by Google for serializing structured data, similar to XML or JSON. It is especially beneficial in applications that communicate with servers or store data, where efficiency and the speed of data transmission are crucial. Protobuf is designed to be simpler and more efficient than XML and JSON, offering both smaller message sizes and faster processing.

Protobuf requires you to define your structured data in a standard format in a .proto file, which is then used to generate source code in your chosen programming language. This source code is used to write and read your structured data to and from a variety of data streams and using a variety of languages.

• Efficiency: Protobuf is designed to be more efficient than XML and JSON, both in terms of speed and the size of the serialized data.
• Cross-language: Protobuf supports generated code in various programming languages, allowing for easy data exchange between systems written in different languages.
• Backward compatibility: Protobuf is designed to maintain compatibility even if the structure of the data changes, allowing old code to read new data formats and vice versa.
• Less verbose: Protobuf messages are much less verbose than XML, leading to significant bandwidth savings.

Protobuf can be particularly useful in data integration scenarios where different systems or components need to exchange data efficiently.

• Cross-Language Communication: since Protobuf supports various languages (Java, C++, Python, etc.), it's an excellent choice for integrating systems that are developed in different programming languages.
• Microservices Architecture: in a microservices architecture, different services might need to communicate with each other over a network. Protobuf can be used to serialize the messages exchanged between services, ensuring efficient communication.
• API Development: when developing APIs, especially those that are used heavily or exposed to external users, Protobuf can be used to efficiently serialize request and response bodies. This can be particularly beneficial for mobile clients where bandwidth might be limited.
• Big Data and Streaming: For systems that process large volumes of data or stream data in real-time, Protobuf can be used to serialize data points efficiently. This ensures that the system can handle high volumes of data with minimal overhead.
• Data Storage: Protobuf can also be used for serializing data before storing it in databases or file systems. Its efficient serialization can lead to performance improvements and reduced storage costs.

To implement Protobuf in a data integration project, you would typically:

• Define your data structures in a .proto file.
• Use the Protobuf compiler (protoc) to generate data access classes in your preferred programming language from your .proto files.
• Use these generated classes to serialize and deserialize your data structures for communication between systems or services.

More details can be found here:

https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/tutorials

1.) Install the compiler from the official website. https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases - in the case of Windows, unzip the file protoc-XXXXXX-win64.zip.

2.) Create a directory called ./proto and the file book.proto with the following content:

syntax = "proto3";
 
message Book {
    int32 id = 1;
    string title = 2;
    string author = 3;
    float price = 4;
}
 
message Books {
    repeated Book books = 1;
}

We have created two messages named Book and Books. Books can contain several Books. = 1, = 2 at the end of the lines indicates the internal position of the structure field, numbering starts from one.

3.) Run the following command:

  .\protoc\bin\protoc.exe --python_out=.\ book.proto

After running, book_pb2.py is created, which is generated source code and contains the data interface. This can be used to manage (serialize and de-serialize) the data.

4.) Upgrade protobuf interface

 pip install protobuf

5.) Create the server.py file with the following content:

import socket
import book_pb2
import create_books as c

# protoc/bin/protoc --python_out=./ book.proto
# pip3 install --upgrade protobuf

books = c.create_books()

book_store = book_pb2.Books()
for book in books:
    book_store.books.append(book)

bytes_to_send = book_store.SerializeToString()

#TCP socket server
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.bind((socket.gethostname(), 4100))
s.listen(10)

while True:
    client_socket, address = s.accept()
    print(f"server> Connection from {address} has been established!\n")

    client_socket.send(bytes_to_send)
    print(f"server> Message sent: {bytes_to_send}\n")

    msg = client_socket.recv(1024)
    print(f"client> {msg}\n")
    client_socket.close()

    if msg == b'bye':
        break

s.close()

6.) Create the create_books.py file with the following content:

import book_pb2

def create_books():
    books = []

    books.append(book_pb2.Book())
    books[0].id = 1
    books[0].title = "Solaris"
    books[0].author = "Stanislaw Lem"
    books[0].price = 7.54

    books.append(book_pb2.Book())
    books[1].id = 2
    books[1].title = "Dune"
    books[1].author = "Frank Herbert"
    books[1].price = 9.87

    books.append(book_pb2.Book())
    books[2].id = 3
    books[2].title = "Foundation"
    books[2].author = "Isaac Asimov"
    books[2].price = 5.07

    return books

7.) Create the client.py file with the following content:

import socket
import book_pb2
from google.protobuf.json_format import MessageToJson
import json

#TCP socket client
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect((socket.gethostname(), 4100))

msg = s.recv(1024)
print(f"server> {msg}\n")

s.sendall(b'bye')
print(f"client> Message sent: {b'bye'}\n")

s.close()

books = book_pb2.Books()
books.ParseFromString(msg)

json_obj = MessageToJson(books)
print(f"client> The server's message in JSON:\n{json_obj}")

dict_obj = json.loads(json_obj)

with open('data.json', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    json.dump(dict_obj, f, ensure_ascii=False, indent=4)
    print("client> data.json saved\n")

with open('data.bytes', 'wb') as fb:
    fb.write(msg)
    print("client> data.bytes saved\n")