protoDemo

This repository will be used to practice protobuf.

1. Install protoc compiler. I used windows desktop. So, I downloaded windows zip file, from the following location. https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases/tag/v3.14.0 After unzipping it, I copied the protoc.exe to ~/go/bin/ directory.

2. Install go packages and plugins for protobuf. Execute the following two comands. go get github.com/golang/protobuf go get github.com/golang/protobuf/proto

3. Write proto file.

4. Learn the basics of protobuf syntax and semantics.

5. Write the protofile, with a simple message structure.

6. Add "package demo1". The name of the package should be same as the directory, where the go-structures will be generated.

7. Add option package=github.com/fmagellan/protoDemo/demo1, to avoid some warnings, while generating go-structures.

8. Generate go-structures with protoc compiler. Go to the directory where proto file is there, and execute the following command. protoc -I=. --go_out=paths=source_relative:. person1.proto go_out flag indicates protoc to generate go structures. paths=source_relative:. indicates to generate the go-structures in the current directory, which I intended to use for go-package.

9. Initialise the go-module for our demo, which will setup the package structure properly, with the following command, in the protoDemo directory. go mod init github.com/fmagellan/protoDemo

10. Write the sample program. It does the following

11. Fill one protoMessage structure.

12. Marshal/Encode the protoMessage, which will result into []byte.

13. Write it into a file, person1.dat

14. Read the file, person1.dat, into a []byte.

15. Unmarshal/Decode the []byte into protoMessage structure.

16. Print the protoMessage structure and verify your data is correct.

Et voila !