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Thrift
An Introduction


Prof. David Bernstein
James Madison University

Computer Science Department
bernstdh@jmu.edu

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Purpose
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  • Cross-Language Communications:
    • Abstract away from the portions of different languages that require the most customization
  • Remote Procedure Calls:
    • Define data types
    • Define service interfaces
    • Generate necessary code (e.g., stubs, skeletons)
History
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  • Original Developer:
    • Facebook
  • Open Sourced:
    • April 2007
  • Now:
    • An Apache TPL
Types
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  • Base Types:
    • bool
    • byte
    • i16, i32, i64 (i.e., 16,32, and 64 bit signed integers)
    • double (i.e., 64 bit floating point)
    • string
    • void (for return type)
  • Heterogeneous Structures/Records:
    • struct
    • exception
  • Homogeneous Collections:
    • list (i.e., ordered)
    • set (i.e., unordered)
    • map (i.e., with unique keys)
Services
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  • Comparable To:
    • An interface in Java
    • A pure virtual method in C++
  • Syntax: 
    •         service <name>
        {
          <returntype> <name>([<arguments>]...)
          [throws(<exception>...)]
        }
  • Asynchronous Calls:
    • void functions can be declared async
Transport
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  • Philosophy:
    • Abstract away from a specific protocol
    • Uses TSocket, TBufferedTransport, TFileTransport
  • Operations:
    • close()
    • flush()
    • isOpen()
    • open()
    • read()
    • write()
Protocol
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  • Base Types:
    • read*() and write*() functions for all types
  • Structures, and Collections:
    • read*Begin() and read*End()
    • write*Begin() and write*End()
  • Messages:
    • writeMessageBegin(name, type, seq) and writeMessageEnd()
    • name, type, seq = readMessageBegin() and readMessageEnd()
Remote Procedure Calls
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  • TProcessor: 
    •         interface TProcessor 
        {
            bool process(TProtocol in, TProtocol out) throws TException
        }
  • On the Server Side:
    • Get TTransport from a TServerTransport
    • Use TTrasportFactory to "decorate" the TTransport
    • Create a protocol using TProtocolFactory
    • Call process() on the TProcessor
There's Always More to Learn
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