google.api.HttpRule

gRPC Transcoding

gRPC Transcoding is a feature for mapping between a gRPC method and one or more HTTP REST endpoints. It allows developers to build a single API service that supports both gRPC APIs and REST APIs. Many systems, including Google APIs, Cloud Endpoints, gRPC Gateway, and Envoy proxy support this feature and use it for large scale production services.

HttpRule defines the schema of the gRPC/REST mapping. The mapping specifies how different portions of the gRPC request message are mapped to the URL path, URL query parameters, and HTTP request body. It also controls how the gRPC response message is mapped to the HTTP response body. HttpRule is typically specified as an google.api.http annotation on the gRPC method.

Each mapping specifies a URL path template and an HTTP method. The path template may refer to one or more fields in the gRPC request message, as long as each field is a non-repeated field with a primitive (non-message) type. The path template controls how fields of the request message are mapped to the URL path.

Example:

service Messaging { rpc GetMessage(GetMessageRequest) returns (Message) { option (google.api.http) = { get: "/v1/{name=messages/*}" }; } } message GetMessageRequest { string name = 1; // Mapped to URL path. } message Message { string text = 1; // The resource content. }

This enables an HTTP REST to gRPC mapping as below:

HTTP	gRPC
GET /v1/messages/123456	GetMessage(name: "messages/123456")

Any fields in the request message which are not bound by the path template automatically become HTTP query parameters if there is no HTTP request body. For example:

service Messaging { rpc GetMessage(GetMessageRequest) returns (Message) { option (google.api.http) = { get:"/v1/messages/{message_id}" }; } } message GetMessageRequest { message SubMessage { string subfield = 1; } string message_id = 1; // Mapped to URL path. int64 revision = 2; // Mapped to URL query parameter revision. SubMessage sub = 3; // Mapped to URL query parameter sub.subfield. }

This enables a HTTP JSON to RPC mapping as below:

HTTP	gRPC
GET /v1/messages/123456?revision=2&sub.subfield=foo
`GetMessage(message_id: "123456" revision: 2 sub: SubMessage(subfield:
"foo"))`

Note that fields which are mapped to URL query parameters must have a primitive type or a repeated primitive type or a non-repeated message type. In the case of a repeated type, the parameter can be repeated in the URL as ...?param=A&param=B. In the case of a message type, each field of the message is mapped to a separate parameter, such as ...?foo.a=A&foo.b=B&foo.c=C.

For HTTP methods that allow a request body, the body field specifies the mapping. Consider a REST update method on the message resource collection:

service Messaging { rpc UpdateMessage(UpdateMessageRequest) returns (Message) { option (google.api.http) = { patch: "/v1/messages/{message_id}" body: "message" }; } } message UpdateMessageRequest { string message_id = 1; // mapped to the URL Message message = 2; // mapped to the body }

The following HTTP JSON to RPC mapping is enabled, where the representation of the JSON in the request body is determined by protos JSON encoding:

HTTP	gRPC
PATCH /v1/messages/123456 { "text": "Hi!" }	`UpdateMessage(message_id:
"123456" message { text: "Hi!" })`

The special name * can be used in the body mapping to define that every field not bound by the path template should be mapped to the request body. This enables the following alternative definition of the update method:

service Messaging { rpc UpdateMessage(Message) returns (Message) { option (google.api.http) = { patch: "/v1/messages/{message_id}" body: "*" }; } } message Message { string message_id = 1; string text = 2; }

The following HTTP JSON to RPC mapping is enabled:

HTTP	gRPC
PATCH /v1/messages/123456 { "text": "Hi!" }	`UpdateMessage(message_id:
"123456" text: "Hi!")`

Note that when using * in the body mapping, it is not possible to have HTTP parameters, as all fields not bound by the path end in the body. This makes this option more rarely used in practice when defining REST APIs. The common usage of * is in custom methods which don't use the URL at all for transferring data.

It is possible to define multiple HTTP methods for one RPC by using the additional_bindings option. Example:

service Messaging { rpc GetMessage(GetMessageRequest) returns (Message) { option (google.api.http) = { get: "/v1/messages/{message_id}" additional_bindings { get: "/v1/users/{user_id}/messages/{message_id}" } }; } } message GetMessageRequest { string message_id = 1; string user_id = 2; }

This enables the following two alternative HTTP JSON to RPC mappings:

HTTP	gRPC
GET /v1/messages/123456	GetMessage(message_id: "123456")
GET /v1/users/me/messages/123456	`GetMessage(user_id: "me" message_id:
"123456")`

Rules for HTTP mapping

1. Leaf request fields (recursive expansion nested messages in the request message) are classified into three categories:

• Fields referred by the path template. They are passed via the URL path.
• Fields referred by the [HttpRule.body][google.api.HttpRule.body]. They are passed via the HTTP request body.
• All other fields are passed via the URL query parameters, and the parameter name is the field path in the request message. A repeated field can be represented as multiple query parameters under the same name.

2. If [HttpRule.body][google.api.HttpRule.body] is "*", there is no URL query parameter, all fields are passed via URL path and HTTP request body.
3. If [HttpRule.body][google.api.HttpRule.body] is omitted, there is no HTTP request body, all fields are passed via URL path and URL query parameters.

Path template syntax

Template = "/" Segments [ Verb ] ; Segments = Segment { "/" Segment } ; Segment = "*" | "**" | LITERAL | Variable ; Variable = "{" FieldPath [ "=" Segments ] "}" ; FieldPath = IDENT { "." IDENT } ; Verb = ":" LITERAL ;

The syntax * matches a single URL path segment. The syntax ** matches zero or more URL path segments, which must be the last part of the URL path except the Verb.

The syntax Variable matches part of the URL path as specified by its template. A variable template must not contain other variables. If a variable matches a single path segment, its template may be omitted, e.g. {var} is equivalent to {var=*}.

The syntax LITERAL matches literal text in the URL path. If the LITERAL contains any reserved character, such characters should be percent-encoded before the matching.

If a variable contains exactly one path segment, such as "{var}" or "{var=*}", when such a variable is expanded into a URL path on the client side, all characters except [-_.~0-9a-zA-Z] are percent-encoded. The server side does the reverse decoding. Such variables show up in the Discovery Document as {var}.

If a variable contains multiple path segments, such as "{var=foo/*}" or "{var=**}", when such a variable is expanded into a URL path on the client side, all characters except [-_.~/0-9a-zA-Z] are percent-encoded. The server side does the reverse decoding, except "%2F" and "%2f" are left unchanged. Such variables show up in the Discovery Document as {+var}.

Using gRPC API Service Configuration

gRPC API Service Configuration (service config) is a configuration language for configuring a gRPC service to become a user-facing product. The service config is simply the YAML representation of the google.api.Service proto message.

As an alternative to annotating your proto file, you can configure gRPC transcoding in your service config YAML files. You do this by specifying a HttpRule that maps the gRPC method to a REST endpoint, achieving the same effect as the proto annotation. This can be particularly useful if you have a proto that is reused in multiple services. Note that any transcoding specified in the service config will override any matching transcoding configuration in the proto.

Example:

http: rules:

Selects a gRPC method and applies HttpRule to it.

• selector: example.v1.Messaging.GetMessage get: /v1/messages/{message_id}/{sub.subfield}

Special notes

When gRPC Transcoding is used to map a gRPC to JSON REST endpoints, the proto to JSON conversion must follow the proto3 specification.

While the single segment variable follows the semantics of RFC 6570 Section 3.2.2 Simple String Expansion, the multi segment variable does not follow RFC 6570 Section 3.2.3 Reserved Expansion. The reason is that the Reserved Expansion does not expand special characters like ? and #, which would lead to invalid URLs. As the result, gRPC Transcoding uses a custom encoding for multi segment variables.

The path variables must not refer to any repeated or mapped field, because client libraries are not capable of handling such variable expansion.

The path variables must not capture the leading "/" character. The reason is that the most common use case "{var}" does not capture the leading "/" character. For consistency, all path variables must share the same behavior.

Repeated message fields must not be mapped to URL query parameters, because no client library can support such complicated mapping.

If an API needs to use a JSON array for request or response body, it can map the request or response body to a repeated field. However, some gRPC Transcoding implementations may not support this feature.

Implements

• IHttpRule

Constructors

constructor

• new HttpRule(properties?): HttpRule

Constructs a new HttpRule.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
properties?	IHttpRule	Properties to set

Returns

HttpRule

Properties

additionalBindings

• additionalBindings: IHttpRule[]

Additional HTTP bindings for the selector. Nested bindings must not contain an additional_bindings field themselves (that is, the nesting may only be one level deep).

Implementation of

IHttpRule.additionalBindings

---

body

• body: string

The name of the request field whose value is mapped to the HTTP request body, or * for mapping all request fields not captured by the path pattern to the HTTP body, or omitted for not having any HTTP request body.

NOTE: the referred field must be present at the top-level of the request message type.

Implementation of

IHttpRule.body

---

custom

• Optional custom: null | ICustomHttpPattern

The custom pattern is used for specifying an HTTP method that is not included in the pattern field, such as HEAD, or "*" to leave the HTTP method unspecified for this rule. The wild-card rule is useful for services that provide content to Web (HTML) clients.

Implementation of

IHttpRule.custom

---

delete

• Optional delete: null | string

Maps to HTTP DELETE. Used for deleting a resource.

Implementation of

IHttpRule.delete

---

get

• Optional get: null | string

Maps to HTTP GET. Used for listing and getting information about resources.

Implementation of

IHttpRule.get

---

patch

• Optional patch: null | string

Maps to HTTP PATCH. Used for updating a resource.

Implementation of

IHttpRule.patch

---

pattern

• Optional pattern: "get" | "put" | "post" | "delete" | "patch" | "custom"

Determines the URL pattern is matched by this rules. This pattern can be used with any of the {get|put|post|delete|patch} methods. A custom method can be defined using the 'custom' field.

---

post

• Optional post: null | string

Maps to HTTP POST. Used for creating a resource or performing an action.

Implementation of

IHttpRule.post

---

put

• Optional put: null | string

Maps to HTTP PUT. Used for replacing a resource.

Implementation of

IHttpRule.put

---

responseBody

• responseBody: string

Optional. The name of the response field whose value is mapped to the HTTP response body. When omitted, the entire response message will be used as the HTTP response body.

NOTE: The referred field must be present at the top-level of the response message type.

Implementation of

IHttpRule.responseBody

---

selector

• selector: string

Selects a method to which this rule applies.

Refer to [selector][google.api.DocumentationRule.selector] for syntax details.

Implementation of

IHttpRule.selector

Methods

toJSON

▸ toJSON(): Object

Converts this HttpRule to JSON.

Returns

Object

JSON object

---

create

▸ create(properties?): HttpRule

Creates a new HttpRule instance using the specified properties.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
properties?	IHttpRule	Properties to set

Returns

HttpRule

HttpRule instance

---

decode

▸ decode(reader, length?): HttpRule

Decodes a HttpRule message from the specified reader or buffer.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
reader	Uint8Array | Reader	Reader or buffer to decode from
length?	number	Message length if known beforehand

Returns

HttpRule

HttpRule

Throws

If the payload is not a reader or valid buffer

Throws

If required fields are missing

---

decodeDelimited

▸ decodeDelimited(reader): HttpRule

Decodes a HttpRule message from the specified reader or buffer, length delimited.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
reader	Uint8Array | Reader	Reader or buffer to decode from

Returns

HttpRule

HttpRule

Throws

If the payload is not a reader or valid buffer

Throws

If required fields are missing

---

encode

▸ encode(message, writer?): Writer

Encodes the specified HttpRule message. Does not implicitly google.api.HttpRule.verify|verify messages.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
message	IHttpRule	HttpRule message or plain object to encode
writer?	Writer	Writer to encode to

Returns

Writer

Writer

---

encodeDelimited

▸ encodeDelimited(message, writer?): Writer

Encodes the specified HttpRule message, length delimited. Does not implicitly google.api.HttpRule.verify|verify messages.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
message	IHttpRule	HttpRule message or plain object to encode
writer?	Writer	Writer to encode to

Returns

Writer

Writer

---

fromObject

▸ fromObject(object): HttpRule

Creates a HttpRule message from a plain object. Also converts values to their respective internal types.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
object	Object	Plain object

Returns

HttpRule

HttpRule

---

getTypeUrl

▸ getTypeUrl(typeUrlPrefix?): string

Gets the default type url for HttpRule

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
typeUrlPrefix?	string	your custom typeUrlPrefix(default "type.googleapis.com")

Returns

string

The default type url

---

toObject

▸ toObject(message, options?): Object

Creates a plain object from a HttpRule message. Also converts values to other types if specified.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
message	HttpRule	HttpRule
options?	IConversionOptions	Conversion options

Returns

Object

Plain object