Quick start

Prerequisites

• Dart version 2.12 or higher, through the Dart or Flutter SDKs

  For installation instructions, see Install Dart or Install Flutter.

• Protocol buffer compiler, protoc, version 3

  For installation instructions, see Protocol Buffer Compiler Installation.

• Dart plugin for the protocol compiler:

  1. Install the protocol compiler plugin for Dart (protoc-gen-dart) using the following command:

     dart pub global activate protoc_plugin
     

  2. Update your PATH so that the protoc compiler can find the plugin:

     export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.pub-cache/bin"
     

Get the example code

The example code is part of the grpc-dart repo.

1. Download the repo as a zip file and unzip it, or clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/grpc/grpc-dart
   

2. Change to the quick start example directory:

   cd grpc-dart/example/helloworld
   

Run the example

From the example/helloworld directory:

1. Download package dependencies:

   dart pub get
   

2. Run the server:

   dart bin/server.dart
   

3. From another terminal, run the client:

   dart bin/client.dart
   Greeter client received: Hello, world!
   

Congratulations! You’ve just run a client-server application with gRPC.

Update the app

In this section you’ll update the app to make use of an extra server method. The gRPC service is defined using protocol buffers. To learn more about how to define a service in a .proto file, see Basics tutorial. For now, all you need to know is that both the server and the client stub have a SayHello() RPC method that takes a HelloRequest parameter from the client and returns a HelloReply from the server, and that the method is defined like this:

// The greeting service definition.
service Greeter {
  // Sends a greeting
  rpc SayHello (HelloRequest) returns (HelloReply) {}
}

// The request message containing the user's name.
message HelloRequest {
  string name = 1;
}

// The response message containing the greetings
message HelloReply {
  string message = 1;
}

Update the gRPC service

Open protos/helloworld.proto and add a new SayHelloAgain() method, with the same request and response types:

// The greeting service definition.
service Greeter {
  // Sends a greeting
  rpc SayHello (HelloRequest) returns (HelloReply) {}
  // Sends another greeting
  rpc SayHelloAgain (HelloRequest) returns (HelloReply) {}
}

// The request message containing the user's name.
message HelloRequest {
  string name = 1;
}

// The response message containing the greetings
message HelloReply {
  string message = 1;
}

Remember to save the file!

Regenerate gRPC code

Before you can use the new service method, you need to recompile the updated proto file. From the example/helloworld directory, run the following command:

protoc --dart_out=grpc:lib/src/generated -Iprotos protos/helloworld.proto

You’ll find the regenerated request and response classes, and client and server classes in the lib/src/generated directory.

Now implement and call the new RPC in the server and client code, respectively.

Update the server

Open bin/server.dart and add the following sayHelloAgain() method to the GreeterService class:

class GreeterService extends GreeterServiceBase {
  @override
  Future<HelloReply> sayHello(ServiceCall call, HelloRequest request) async {
    return HelloReply()..message = 'Hello, ${request.name}!';
  }

  @override
  Future<HelloReply> sayHelloAgain(ServiceCall call, HelloRequest request) async {
    return HelloReply()..message = 'Hello again, ${request.name}!';
  }
}

Update the client

Add a call to sayHelloAgain() in bin/client.dart like this:

Future<void> main(List<String> args) async {
  final channel = ClientChannel(
    'localhost',
    port: 50051,
    options: const ChannelOptions(credentials: ChannelCredentials.insecure()),
  );
  final stub = GreeterClient(channel);

  final name = args.isNotEmpty ? args[0] : 'world';

  try {
    var response = await stub.sayHello(HelloRequest()..name = name);
    print('Greeter client received: ${response.message}');
    response = await stub.sayHelloAgain(HelloRequest()..name = name);
    print('Greeter client received: ${response.message}');
  } catch (e) {
    print('Caught error: $e');
  }
  await channel.shutdown();
}

Run the updated app

Run the client and server like you did before. Execute the following commands from the example/helloworld directory:

1. Run the server:

   dart bin/server.dart
   

2. From another terminal, run the client. This time, add a name as a command-line argument:

   dart bin/client.dart Alice
   

   You’ll see the following output:

   Greeter client received: Hello, Alice!
   Greeter client received: Hello again, Alice!
   

Contributing

If you experience problems with Dart gRPC or have a feature request, create an issue over the grpc-dart repo.

What’s next

• Learn how gRPC works in Introduction to gRPC and Core concepts.
• Work through the Basics tutorial.
• Explore the API reference.