nice-grpc client and ts-proto with typescript and nodejs

In this post I’ll go through how to setup nice-grpc client together with ts-proto using typescript and nodejs.

Installing dependencies

# gRPC library
$ yarn add nice-grpc

# For compiling protobuf files
$ yarn add protobufjs long
$ yarn add --save-dev grpc-tools ts-proto

Compiling protos

Compiling a single proto file

$ grpc_tools_node_protoc \
--plugin=node_modules/.bin/protoc-gen-ts_proto \
--ts_proto_out=compiled-protos \
--ts_proto_opt=outputServices=generic-definitions,outputClientImpl=false,oneof=unions,snakeToCamel=false,esModuleInterop=true \
--proto_path=protos \
protos/my_service.proto

To compile multiple protos in a folder

$ find ./protos -name *.proto -exec grpc_tools_node_protoc \
--plugin=node_modules/.bin/protoc-gen-ts_proto \
--ts_proto_out=compiled-protos \
--ts_proto_opt=outputServices=generic-definitions,outputClientImpl=false,oneof=unions,snakeToCamel=false,esModuleInterop=true \
--proto_path=protos \
{} \\;

Creating channel and a client

If you have the following proto file:

syntax = "proto3";

package nice_grpc.example;

service ExampleService {
  rpc ExampleUnaryMethod(ExampleRequest) returns (ExampleResponse);
}

message ExampleRequest {
  string messageRequest = 1;
}
message ExampleResponse {
  string messageResponse = 1;
}

Then calling the gRPC service looks like this:

import { createChannel, createClient, Client } from "nice-grpc";
import { ExampleServiceDefinition } from "./compiled_protos/my_service";

const channel = createChannel("localhost:8080");

const client: Client<typeof ExampleServiceDefinition> = createClient(
  ExampleServiceDefinition,
  channel
);
const result = await client.ExampleUnaryMethod({ messageRequest: "hello" });