Byndyusoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Formatters.ProtoBuf

ASP.NET Core MVC formatters for ProtoBuf input and output.

Protocol Buffers are Google's language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data – think XML, but smaller, faster, and simpler.

Content negotiation

Content negotiation occurs when the client specifies an Accept header. The default format used by ASP.NET Core is JSON. But client can specify ProtoBuf format:

using (var httpClient = new HttpClient())
{
	client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/protobuf"));
	var response = await client.GetAsync("/api/products/5");
	var product = response.Content.ReadFromProtoBufAsync<Product>();
}

In this example Byndyusoft.Net.Http.ProtoBuf package is used.

Configure formatters

Asp.NET Core Apps that need to support ProtoBuf format can add the Byndyusoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Formatters.ProtoBuf NuGet packages and configure support. There are separate formatters for input and output. Input formatters are used by Model Binding. Output formatters are used to format responses.

Installing

dotnet add package Byndyusoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Formatters.ProtoBuf

Add ProtoBuf format support to Asp.Net

ProtoBuf formatters implemented using ProtoBufSerializer are configured by calling AddProtoBufFormatters:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
     services.AddMvcCore()
        .AddProtoBufFormatters();
}

The preceding code serializes results using ProtoBufSerializer.

Response format URL mappings

Clients can request a particular format as part of the URL, for example:

• In the query string or part of the path.
• By using a format-specific file extension such as .json or .protobuf.

The mapping from request path should be specified in the route the API is using. For example:

[Route("api/[controller]")]
[ApiController]
[FormatFilter]
public class ProductsController : ControllerBase
{
    [HttpGet("{id}.{format?}")]
    public Product Get(int id)
    {

The preceding route allows the requested format to be specified as an optional file extension. The [FormatFilter] attribute checks for the existence of the format value in the RouteData and maps the response format to the appropriate formatter when the response is created.

Route	Formatter
/api/products/5	The default output formatter
/api/products/5.json	The JSON formatter (if configured)
/api/products/5.protobuf	The ProtoBuf formatter (if configured)

Contributing

To contribute, you will need to setup your local environment, see prerequisites. For the contribution and workflow guide, see package development lifecycle.

A detailed overview on how to contribute can be found in the contributing guide.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have installed all of the following prerequisites on your development machine:

• Git - Download & Install Git. OSX and Linux machines typically have this already installed.
• .NET (version 8.0 or higher) - Download & Install .NET Core.

General folders layout

src

• source code

tests

• unit-tests

Package development lifecycle

• Implement package logic in src
• Add or addapt unit-tests (prefer before and simultaneously with coding) in tests
• Add or change the documentation as needed
• Open pull request in the correct branch. Target the project's master branch

Maintainers

github.maintain@byndyusoft.com