๐๐ก๐๐ญ'๐ฌ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐?
๐ gRPC is an open-source remote procedure call framework created by Google in 2016.
A local procedure call is a function call in a process to execute code. gRPC is a popular RPC implementation.
The core of this ecosystem uses ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ญ๐จ๐๐จ๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ as its data exchange format.
๐กProtocol Buffers is a language-agnostic and platform-agnostic mechanism for encoding structured data.
By default, gRPC uses Protocol Buffers to encode and send data.
While gRPC can support other encoding formats, such as ๐๐๐๐, Protocol Buffers offer several advantages that make it the encoding format of choice for gRPC.
Protocol Buffers support ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ฅ๐ฒ-๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฉ๐๐ schema. The data structure is defined in a proto file.
๐A gRPC service is also defined in a ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ by specifying RPC method parameters and return types.
The same tool generates gRPC client and server code from the proto file.
Developers use these generated classes on the client to make RPC calls and on the server to make RPC requests.
With support for many programming languages, the client and server can independently choose the correct programming language and ecosystem for their specific use cases.
๐ช๐ป The reason for the popularity of gRPC is its high performance. Two factors contribute to its performance.
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ is Protocol Buffers are a very efficient binary encoding format. It is much faster than JSON.
๐๐๐๐จ๐ง๐, gRPC is built on top of HTTP/2 to deliver high performance at scale.
๐There are many advantages to using HTTP/2.
This allows ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐๐ฌ to be sent over a long-lived TCP connection.
This allows the gRPC framework to handle many simultaneous RPC calls over a ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ฎ๐ฆ๐๐๐ซ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ง๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ between clients and servers.
๐ No browser currently provides the level of control over web requests required to support a gRPC client.
It is possible to make gRPC calls from the browser with the help of a proxy. This technology is called gRPC-Web.
So, where does gRPC shine, and when should we use it?
๐ฌ gRPC is an ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ-๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง mechanism chosen between ๐ฆ๐ข๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ฏ๐ข๐๐๐ฌ in data centers.
๐ฑIts efficiency and performance are very meaningful in environments with limited energy and bandwidth, which are ๐ฆ๐จ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐๐ฌ.