Call gRPC Client in C#: Step-by-Step

1 year ago
Benjamin Taylor
2 minutes

To use a gRPC client to call a remote service in C#, you can follow these steps:

  1. Create a gRPC service definition file (.proto) to define the service and message types. For example, create a file named example.proto to define a service named ExampleService and some message types.
  2. Generate gRPC code for C# using the protoc tool. Execute the following command in the command line:
protoc --csharp_out=. --grpc_out=. --plugin=protoc-gen-grpc=/path/to/grpc_csharp_plugin example.proto

This command will create a file called example.cs, which will contain the generated gRPC code.

  1. Introduce gRPC-related NuGet packages into your C# project. Use Visual Studio or the command line to execute the following command to install the NuGet package:
dotnet add package Grpc
dotnet add package Grpc.Tools
  1. Communication channel for gRPC
using Grpc.Core;
using Grpc.Net.Client;
using Example;

class Program
{
    static async Task Main(string[] args)
    {
        var channel = GrpcChannel.ForAddress("https://localhost:5001");
        var client = new ExampleService.ExampleServiceClient(channel);

        var request = new ExampleRequest { Name = "John" };
        var response = await client.SayHelloAsync(request);

        Console.WriteLine(response.Message);
    }
}

In the above code, we create a gRPC channel with GrpcChannel and instantiate a client with ExampleServiceClient. Then, we call a method in the service (e.g. SayHelloAsync) and handle the returned result.

It is important to note that the address https://localhost:5001 provided here is just an example, and should be replaced with the actual address according to the specific situation.

These are the general steps for using a gRPC client to call a remote service in C#. Depending on the specific situation, you may also need to handle gRPC metadata, error handling, and other details.

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