What Is gRPC and How It Works
gRPC (gRPC Remote Procedure Calls) is a high-performance, open-source universal RPC framework developed by Google. It’s widely used in microservice architectures to enable fast, reliable communication between services. In this article, we’ll explore how gRPC works, how it’s different from REST, and how to implement a simple example using Protocol Buffers. 1. Why gRPC? gRPC is designed for speed and efficiency, especially in distributed systems. Advantages: Compact binary data format (Protocol Buffers) HTTP/2 transport: multiplexed streams and better performance Built-in code generation for multiple languages Strong typing and contracts 2. gRPC vs REST Feature gRPC REST (JSON) Data Format Protocol Buffers (binary) JSON (text-based) Transport HTTP/2 HTTP/1.1 Performance Very fast Slower due to verbosity Tooling Auto-codegen via .proto Manual Streaming Bi-directional support Limited 3. How gRPC Works Step 1: Define Service in .proto File syntax = "proto3"; service Greeter { rpc SayHello (HelloRequest) returns (HelloReply); } message HelloRequest { string name = 1; } message HelloReply { string message = 1; } Step 2: Generate Code Using protoc: ...