improbable-eng/grpc-web
Grpc Web
grpc-web is a translation layer and proxy system that enables web browsers to communicate with gRPC backend services. It consists of a gRPC Web Proxy that converts browser-based HTTP and WebSocket requests into standard gRPC calls, along with a TypeScript gRPC client for making strongly-typed remote procedure calls from browsers or Node.js environments.
The project features a bidirectional streaming bridge that utilizes WebSockets to bypass browser limitations, allowing for full-duplex communication and client-side data streaming. It includes a protocol buffer code generator that parses schema files to produce typed JavaScript and TypeScript request and response classes.
The system covers a broad range of capabilities including transport selection, CORS management to restrict approved origins, and secure backend connectivity via TLS encryption. It also provides proxy traffic monitoring to track requests and connections through metrics and debug endpoints.
Features
- gRPC-Web Bridging - Implements a translation layer that converts browser-based gRPC-Web requests into standard gRPC server requests.
- Protocol Buffer Generators - Parses .proto files to generate typed JavaScript and TypeScript request and response classes.
- Schema-Based Code Generators - Parses Protocol Buffer schema files to generate typed request and response classes.
- TypeScript Stub Typings - Generates type-safe TypeScript declarations for gRPC client code in the browser.
- gRPC Code Generators - Automatically generates JavaScript and TypeScript client classes from Protocol Buffer service definitions.
- gRPC Implementations - Implements the translation of web requests into standard gRPC calls to allow browser-backend communication.
- HTTP-to-gRPC Transcoding - Converts browser-compatible HTTP requests into standard gRPC calls to bridge web clients and backends.
- Browser gRPC Clients - Connects web applications to gRPC backends by translating RPCs into browser-compatible HTTP protocols.
- gRPC-Web Clients - Provides client libraries that implement the gRPC-Web protocol for making requests from web browsers.
- Secure Proxy-to-Backend Connectivity - Establishes encrypted connections from the proxy to backend services using plaintext or TLS with custom certificates.
- Bidirectional WebSocket Streaming - Leverages WebSockets to enable full-duplex communication and bidirectional data streaming between browsers and servers.
- Server-Side Streaming - Enables the receipt of multiple response messages from a server for a single client request.
- WebSocket Transports - Uses the native WebSocket API to enable client-streaming and bidirectional data exchange.
- CORS Header Management - Manages allowed origins and CORS headers to control which web domains can access the proxy.
- Node.js Clients - Extends gRPC-Web communication to Node.js environments using specialized server-side transports.
- Node.js Integration - Executes gRPC client logic within a server-side JavaScript environment using specialized transport modules.
- Language Specific Libraries - Implementation of gRPC for web browsers using Go and TypeScript.
- Language Specific Tools - Implementation of gRPC-web for Go and TypeScript environments.
