Thrift

Thrift
An Introduction

Prof. David Bernstein
James Madison University

Computer Science Department

bernstdh@jmu.edu

Purpose

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

Types

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

Syntax:

        service <name>
        {
          <returntype> <name>([<arguments>]...)
          [throws(<exception>...)]
        }

Transport

Philosophy:
- Abstract away from a specific protocol
- Uses TSocket, TBufferedTransport, TFileTransport
Operations:
- close()
- flush()
- isOpen()
- open()
- read()
- write()

Protocol

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

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