Spring boot starter for gRPC framework.

Table of Contents

• 1. Features
• 2. Setup
• 3. Usage
• 4. Show case
  • 4.1. Service implementation
  • 4.2. Interceptors support
  • 4.3. Custom gRPC Server Configuration
• 5. Eureka Integration
  • 5.1. gRPC Server Project
  • 5.2. gRPC Client Project
• 6. License

1. Features

Auto-configures and runs the embedded gRPC server with @GRpcService-enabled beans as part of spring-boot application.

2. Setup

repositories {
   jcenter()
   // maven { url "http://oss.jfrog.org/oss-snapshot-local" } //for snashot builds

}
dependencies {
    compile('org.lognet:grpc-spring-boot-starter:2.1.5')
}

3. Usage

• Start by generating stub and server interface(s) from your .proto file(s).

• Annotate your server interface implementation(s) with @org.lognet.springboot.grpc.GRpcService

• Optionally configure the server port in your application.yml/properties. Default port is 6565.

 grpc:
    port: 6565

Note	A random port can be defined by setting the port to 0. The actual port being used can then be retrieved from the property local.grpc.port, or using @LocalRunningGrpcPort annotation which will inject the running port (explicitly configured or randomly selected)

The starter supports also the in-process server, which should be used for testing purposes :

 grpc:
    enabled: false (1)
    inProcessServerName: myTestServer (2)

1. Disables the default server (NettyServer).

2. Enables the in-process server.

Note	If you enable both the NettyServer and in-process server, they will both share the same instance of HealthStatusManager and GRpcServerBuilderConfigurer (see Custom gRPC Server Configuration).

4. Show case

In the 'grpc-spring-boot-starter-demo' project you can find fully functional example with integration test.

4.1. Service implementation

The service definition from .proto file looks like this :

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

Note the generated io.grpc.examples.GreeterGrpc.GreeterImplBase class that extends io.grpc.BindableService.(The generated classes were intentionally committed for demo purposes).

All you need to do is to annotate your service implementation with @org.lognet.springboot.grpc.GRpcService

    @GRpcService
    public static class GreeterService extends  GreeterGrpc.GreeterImplBase{
        @Override
        public void sayHello(GreeterOuterClass.HelloRequest request, StreamObserver<GreeterOuterClass.HelloReply> responseObserver) {
            final GreeterOuterClass.HelloReply.Builder replyBuilder = GreeterOuterClass.HelloReply.newBuilder().setMessage("Hello " + request.getName());
            responseObserver.onNext(replyBuilder.build());
            responseObserver.onCompleted();
        }
    }

4.2. Interceptors support

The starter supports the registration of two kinds of interceptors: Global and Per Service.
In both cases the interceptor has to implement io.grpc.ServerInterceptor interface.

• Per service

@GRpcService(interceptors = { LogInterceptor.class })
public  class GreeterService extends  GreeterGrpc.GreeterImplBase{
    // ommited
}

LogInterceptor will be instantiated via spring factory if there is bean of type LogInterceptor, or via no-args constructor otherwise.

• Global

@GRpcGlobalInterceptor
public  class MyInterceptor implements ServerInterceptor{
    // ommited
}

The annotation on java config factory method is also supported :

 @Configuration
 public class MyConfig{
     @Bean
     @GRpcGlobalInterceptor
     public  ServerInterceptor globalInterceptor(){
         return new ServerInterceptor(){
             @Override
             public <ReqT, RespT> ServerCall.Listener<ReqT> interceptCall(ServerCall<ReqT, RespT> call, Metadata headers, ServerCallHandler<ReqT, RespT> next) {
                // your logic here
                 return next.startCall(call, headers);
             }
         };
     }
 }

Global interceptors can be ordered using Spring’s @Ordered or @Priority annotations. Following Spring’s ordering semantics, lower order values have higher priority and will be executed first in the interceptor chain.

@GRpcGlobalInterceptor
@Order(10)
public  class A implements ServerInterceptor{
    // will be called before B
}

@GRpcGlobalInterceptor
@Order(20)
public  class B implements ServerInterceptor{
    // will be called after A
}

The particular service also has the opportunity to disable the global interceptors :

@GRpcService(applyGlobalInterceptors = false)
public  class GreeterService extends  GreeterGrpc.GreeterImplBase{
    // ommited
}

4.3. Custom gRPC Server Configuration

To intercept the io.grpc.ServerBuilder instance used to build the io.grpc.Server, you can add bean that inherits from org.lognet.springboot.grpc.GRpcServerBuilderConfigurer to your context and override the configure method.
By the time of invocation of configure method, all discovered services, including theirs interceptors, had been added to the passed builder.
In your implementation of configure method, you can add your custom configuration:

@Component
public class MyGRpcServerBuilderConfigurer extends GRpcServerBuilderConfigurer(){
        @Override
        public void configure(ServerBuilder<?> serverBuilder){
            serverBuilder
                .executor(YOUR EXECUTOR INSTANCE)
                .compressorRegistry(YOUR COMPRESSION REGISTRY)
                .decompressorRegistry(YOUR DECOMPRESSION REGISTRY)
                .useTransportSecurity(YOUR TRANSPORT SECURITY SETTINGS);

        }
    };
}

Note	If you enable both NettyServer and in-process servers, the configure method will be invoked on the same instance of configurer. If you need to differentiate between the passed serverBuilder s, you can check the type. This is the current limitation.

5. Eureka Integration

When building production-ready services, the advise is to have separate project for your service(s) gRPC API that holds only proto-generated classes both for server and client side usage.
You will then add this project as compile dependency to your gRPC client and gRPC server projects.

To integrate Eureka simply follow the great guide from Spring.

Below are the essential parts of configurations for both server and client projects.

5.1. gRPC Server Project

• Add eureka starter as dependency of your server project together with generated classes from proto files:

build.gradle

 dependencies {
     compile('org.springframework.cloud:spring-cloud-starter-eureka')
     compile project(":yourProject-api")
 }

• Configure gRPC server to register itself with Eureka.

bootstrap.yaml

spring:
    application:
        name: my-service-name (1)

1. Eureka’s ServiceId by default is the spring application name, provide it before the service registers itself with Eureka.

application.yaml

grpc:
    port: 6565 (1)
eureka:
    instance:
        nonSecurePort: ${grpc.port} (2)
    client:
        serviceUrl:
            defaultZone: http://${eureka.host:localhost}:${eureka.port:8761}/eureka/ (3)

1. Specify the port number the gRPC is listening on.

2. Register the eureka service port to be the same as grpc.port so client will know where to send the requests to.

3. Specify the registry URL, so the service will register itself with.

   • Expose the gRPC service as part of Spring Boot Application.

EurekaGrpcServiceApp.java

 @SpringBootApplication
 @EnableEurekaClient
 public class EurekaGrpcServiceApp {

     @GRpcService
     public static class GreeterService extends GreeterGrpc.GreeterImplBase {
         @Override
         public void sayHello(GreeterOuterClass.HelloRequest request, StreamObserver<GreeterOuterClass.HelloReply> responseObserver) {

         }
     }

     public static void main(String[] args) {
         SpringApplication.run(DemoApp.class,args);
     }
 }

5.2. gRPC Client Project

• Add eureka starter as dependency of your client project together with generated classes from proto files:

build.gradle

 dependencies {
     compile('org.springframework.cloud:spring-cloud-starter-eureka')
     compile project(":yourProject-api")
 }

• Configure client to find the eureka service registry:

application.yaml

eureka:
  client:
    register-with-eureka: false (1)
    service-url:
      defaultZone: http://${eureka.host:localhost}:${eureka.port:8761}/eureka/ (2)

1. false if this project is not meant to act as a service to another client.

2. Specify the registry URL, so this client will know where to look up the required service.

GreeterServiceConsumerApplication.java

@EnableEurekaClient
@SpringBootApplication
public class GreeterServiceConsumerApplication {
 public static void main(String[] args) {
   SpringApplication.run(GreeterServiceConsumerApplication.class, args);
 }
}

• Use EurekaClient to get the coordinates of gRPC service instance from Eureka and consume the service :

GreeterServiceConsumer.java

@EnableEurekaClient
@Component
public class GreeterServiceConsumer {
    @Autowired
    private EurekaClient client;

    public void greet(String name) {
        final InstanceInfo instanceInfo = client.getNextServerFromEureka("my-service-name", false);(1)
        final ManagedChannel channel = ManagedChannelBuilder.forAddress(instanceInfo.getIPAddr(), instanceInfo.getPort())
                .usePlaintext(true)
                .build(); (2)
        final GreeterServiceGrpc.GreeterServiceFutureStub stub = GreeterServiceGrpc.newFutureStub(channel); (3)
        stub.greet(name); (4)

    }
}

1. Get the information about the my-service-name instance.

2. Build channel accordingly.

3. Create stub using the channel.

4. Invoke the service.

6. License

Apache 2.0