Protocol Buffers: How to parse a .proto file in Java

4
votes

I am trying to dynamically parse a given .proto file in Java to decode a Protobuf-encoded binary.

I have the following parsing method, in which the "proto" string contains the content of the .proto file:

public static Descriptors.FileDescriptor parseProto (String proto) throws InvalidProtocolBufferException, Descriptors.DescriptorValidationException {
        DescriptorProtos.FileDescriptorProto descriptorProto = DescriptorProtos.FileDescriptorProto.parseFrom(proto.getBytes());
        return Descriptors.FileDescriptor.buildFrom(descriptorProto, null);
}

Though, on execution the previous method throws an exception with the message "Protocol message tag had invalid wire type.". I use the example .proto file from Google so I guess it is valid: https://github.com/google/protobuf/blob/master/examples/addressbook.proto

Here is the stack trace:

15:43:24.707 [pool-1-thread-1] ERROR com.github.whiver.nifi.processor.ProtobufDecoderProcessor - ProtobufDecoderProcessor[id=42c8ab94-2d8a-491b-bd99-b4451d127ae0] Protocol message tag had invalid wire type.
com.google.protobuf.InvalidProtocolBufferException$InvalidWireTypeException: Protocol message tag had invalid wire type.
    at com.google.protobuf.InvalidProtocolBufferException.invalidWireType(InvalidProtocolBufferException.java:115)
    at com.google.protobuf.UnknownFieldSet$Builder.mergeFieldFrom(UnknownFieldSet.java:551)
    at com.google.protobuf.GeneratedMessageV3.parseUnknownField(GeneratedMessageV3.java:293)
    at com.google.protobuf.DescriptorProtos$FileDescriptorSet.<init>(DescriptorProtos.java:88)
    at com.google.protobuf.DescriptorProtos$FileDescriptorSet.<init>(DescriptorProtos.java:53)
    at com.google.protobuf.DescriptorProtos$FileDescriptorSet$1.parsePartialFrom(DescriptorProtos.java:773)
    at com.google.protobuf.DescriptorProtos$FileDescriptorSet$1.parsePartialFrom(DescriptorProtos.java:768)
    at com.google.protobuf.AbstractParser.parsePartialFrom(AbstractParser.java:163)
    at com.google.protobuf.AbstractParser.parseFrom(AbstractParser.java:197)
    at com.google.protobuf.AbstractParser.parseFrom(AbstractParser.java:209)
    at com.google.protobuf.AbstractParser.parseFrom(AbstractParser.java:214)
    at com.google.protobuf.AbstractParser.parseFrom(AbstractParser.java:49)
    at com.google.protobuf.DescriptorProtos$FileDescriptorSet.parseFrom(DescriptorProtos.java:260)
    at com.github.whiver.nifi.parser.SchemaParser.parseProto(SchemaParser.java:9)
    at com.github.whiver.nifi.processor.ProtobufDecoderProcessor.lambda$onTrigger$0(ProtobufDecoderProcessor.java:103)
    at org.apache.nifi.util.MockProcessSession.write(MockProcessSession.java:895)
    at org.apache.nifi.util.MockProcessSession.write(MockProcessSession.java:62)
    at com.github.whiver.nifi.processor.ProtobufDecoderProcessor.onTrigger(ProtobufDecoderProcessor.java:100)
    at org.apache.nifi.processor.AbstractProcessor.onTrigger(AbstractProcessor.java:27)
    at org.apache.nifi.util.StandardProcessorTestRunner$RunProcessor.call(StandardProcessorTestRunner.java:251)
    at org.apache.nifi.util.StandardProcessorTestRunner$RunProcessor.call(StandardProcessorTestRunner.java:245)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.access$201(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:180)
    at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:293)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)

Any idea? Thank you!

3
javaprotocol-buffersprotobuf-java

3 Answers

8
votes

It looks like you're trying to use FileDescriptorSet.parseFrom to populate a FileDescriptorSet. This will only work if the bytes you're providing are the binary protobuf contents - which is to say: a compiled schema. You can get a compiled schema by using the protoc command-line-tool with the --descriptor_set_out option. What you're actually passing it right now is the text bytes that make up the text schema, which is not what parseFrom expects.

Without a compiled schema, you would need a runtime .proto parser. I'm not aware of one for Java; protobuf-net includes one (protobuf-net.Reflection), but that is C#/.NET. Without an available runtime .proto parser, you'd need to shell-execute protoc instead.

0
votes

Drawing from the other answers, here's a snippet of working Kotlin code from a library I'm developing. https://github.com/asarkar/okgrpc

private fun lookupProtos(
    protoPaths: List<String>,
    protoFile: String,
    tempDir: Path,
    resolved: MutableSet<String>
): List<DescriptorProtos.FileDescriptorProto> {
    val schema = generateSchema(protoPaths, protoFile, tempDir)
    return schema.fileList
        .filter { resolved.add(it.name) }
        .flatMap { fd ->
            fd.dependencyList
                .filterNot(resolved::contains)
                .flatMap { lookupProtos(protoPaths, it, tempDir, resolved) } + fd
        }
}

private fun generateSchema(
    protoPaths: List<String>,
    protoFile: String,
    tempDir: Path
): DescriptorProtos.FileDescriptorSet {
    val outFile = Files.createTempFile(tempDir, null, null)
    val stderr = ByteArrayOutputStream()
    val exitCode = Protoc.runProtoc(
        (protoPaths.map { "--proto_path=$it" } + listOf("--descriptor_set_out=$outFile", protoFile)).toTypedArray(),
        DevNull,
        stderr
    )
    if (exitCode != 0) {
        throw IllegalStateException("Failed to generate schema for: $protoFile")
    }
    return Files.newInputStream(outFile).use { DescriptorProtos.FileDescriptorSet.parseFrom(it) }
}

The idea is to use os72/protoc-jar to write out a compiled schema/file descriptor. Then use FileDescriptorSet.parseFrom to read that file, and recurse on its dependencies.

-1
votes

Don't use java String to hold the protobuf payload. The issue is that String does translations behind the scenes, and makes assumptions about character sets.

Protobuf works on byte arrays, and the exact representation in the array has to be unchanged. Going to and from String does not work.