@bufbuild/protobuf

What is @bufbuild/protobuf?

@bufbuild/protobuf is an npm package that provides tools for working with Protocol Buffers (protobufs) in JavaScript and TypeScript. It allows you to define, serialize, and deserialize structured data efficiently.

What are @bufbuild/protobuf's main functionalities?

Define Protobuf Messages

This feature allows you to define protobuf messages using JavaScript classes. The `@Field.d` decorator is used to specify the field number and type.

const { Message, Field } = require('@bufbuild/protobuf');

class Person extends Message {
  @Field.d(1, 'string')
  name = '';

  @Field.d(2, 'int32')
  age = 0;
}

const person = new Person({ name: 'John Doe', age: 30 });
console.log(person);

Serialize Protobuf Messages

This feature allows you to serialize a protobuf message into a binary format. The `encode` method is used to convert the message into a buffer.

const { Message, Field } = require('@bufbuild/protobuf');

class Person extends Message {
  @Field.d(1, 'string')
  name = '';

  @Field.d(2, 'int32')
  age = 0;
}

const person = new Person({ name: 'John Doe', age: 30 });
const buffer = Person.encode(person).finish();
console.log(buffer);

Deserialize Protobuf Messages

This feature allows you to deserialize a binary buffer back into a protobuf message. The `decode` method is used to convert the buffer back into a message object.

const { Message, Field } = require('@bufbuild/protobuf');

class Person extends Message {
  @Field.d(1, 'string')
  name = '';

  @Field.d(2, 'int32')
  age = 0;
}

const buffer = new Uint8Array([10, 8, 74, 111, 104, 110, 32, 68, 111, 101, 16, 30]);
const person = Person.decode(buffer);
console.log(person);

Other packages similar to @bufbuild/protobuf

protobufjs

protobufjs is a popular library for working with Protocol Buffers in JavaScript. It provides similar functionalities to @bufbuild/protobuf, such as defining, serializing, and deserializing protobuf messages. However, protobufjs has been around longer and has a larger user base.

google-protobuf

google-protobuf is the official Protocol Buffers library for JavaScript provided by Google. It offers core functionalities for working with protobufs, including message definition, serialization, and deserialization. Compared to @bufbuild/protobuf, google-protobuf is more closely aligned with Google's protobuf ecosystem.

README

@bufbuild/protobuf

This package provides the runtime library for the code generator plugin protoc-gen-es.

Protocol Buffers for ECMAScript

A complete implementation of Protocol Buffers in TypeScript, suitable for web browsers and Node.js.

Protobuf-ES is intended to be a solid, modern alternative to existing Protobuf implementations for the JavaScript ecosystem. It is the first project in this space to provide a comprehensive plugin framework and decouple the base types from RPC functionality.

Some additional features that set it apart from the others:

• ECMAScript module support
• First-class TypeScript support
• Generation of idiomatic JavaScript and TypeScript code.
• Generation of much smaller bundles
• Implementation of all proto3 features, including the canonical JSON format.
• Implementation of all proto2 features, except for extensions and the text format.
• Usage of standard JavaScript APIs instead of the Closure Library
• Compatibility is covered by the protocol buffers conformance tests.
• Descriptor and reflection support

Installation

npm install @bufbuild/protobuf

Documentation

To learn how to work with @bufbuild/protobuf check out the docs for the Runtime API and the generated code.

Official documentation for the Protobuf-ES project can be found at github.com/bufbuild/protobuf-es.

For more information on Buf, check out the official Buf documentation.

Examples

A complete code example can be found in the Protobuf-ES repo here.