Tutorial

Basics

please check google's document at first.

https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/overview

building php-protocolbuffers

linux like system

git clone https://github.com/chobie/php-protocolbuffers.git
cd php-protocolbuffers
phpize
./configure
make
make install
# please add following line to your php.ini
# extension=protocolbuffers.so

windows

git clone https://github.com/chobie/php-protocolbuffers.git
cd php-protocolbuffers
phpize
configure --with-protocolbuffers
nmake
# copy Release_TS\php_protocolbuffers.dll into your php directory
# don't forget to add following line to your php.ini
# extension=protocolbuffers.so

building protoc-gen-php

You need build and install protoc-gen-php when generating message from .proto file.

cd contrib
mkdir build && cd build && cmake ..
cmake --build .
sudo cmake --build . --target install

create your first message

NOTE: please use improved-protoc-gen-php at this time.

puts below contents into person.proto.

package chobie;

message Person
{
  required int32 user_id = 1;
  optional string name = 2;
}

okay, let's generate php classes with protoc

$ mkdir php
$ protoc --plugin=protoc-gen-php --php_out=php person.proto

then you can see below files.

 /usr/local/bin/tree php
php
├── autoload.php     # example autoloader implementation
├── chobie
│   └── Person.php   # chobie\Person class
└── person.proto.php # `require` this file.

1 directory, 3 files

when you want to use chobie\Person class, you just do require person.proto.php or setup PSR-4 style autoloader.

<?php
require "path/to/person.proto.php";

$person = new chobie\Person();
$person->setUserId(1234);
$person->setName("chobie");

$raw = $person->serializeToString();
$person2 = chobie\Person::parseFromString($raw);

var_dump($person2);
printf("raw protocol buffers message size: %d\n", strlen($raw));
printf("php serialize message size: %d\n", strlen(serialize($raw)));

generated class (example)

<?php
namespace chobie;

// @@protoc_insertion_point(namespace:chobie.Person)

/**
 * Generated by the protocol buffer compiler.  DO NOT EDIT!
 * source: person.proto
 *
 * -*- magic methods -*-
 *
 * @method string getUserId()
 * @method void setUserId()
 * @method string getName()
 * @method void setName()
 *
 */
class Person extends \ProtocolBuffers\Message
{
  // @@protoc_insertion_point(traits:chobie.Person)

  /** @var string $user_id tag:1  required \ProtocolBuffers::TYPE_INT32 */
  protected $user_id;

  /** @var string $name tag:2  optional \ProtocolBuffers::TYPE_STRING */
  protected $name;

  // @@protoc_insertion_point(properties_scope:chobie.Person)

  // @@protoc_insertion_point(class_scope:chobie.Person)

  /**
   * get descriptor for protocol buffers
   * 
   * @return ProtocolBuffersDescriptor
   */
  public static function getDescriptor()
  {
    static $descriptor;

    if (!isset($descriptor)) {
      $desc = new \ProtocolBuffers\DescriptorBuilder();
      $desc->addField(1, new \ProtocolBuffers\FieldDescriptor(array(
        "type"     => \ProtocolBuffers::TYPE_INT32,
        "name"     => "user_id",
        "required" => true,
        "optional" => false,
        "repeated" => false,
        "packable" => false,
        "default"  => 0,
      )));
      $desc->addField(2, new \ProtocolBuffers\FieldDescriptor(array(
        "type"     => \ProtocolBuffers::TYPE_STRING,
        "name"     => "name",
        "required" => false,
        "optional" => true,
        "repeated" => false,
        "packable" => false,
        "default"  => "",
      )));
      // @@protoc_insertion_point(builder_scope:chobie.Person)

      $descriptor = $desc->build();
    }

    return $descriptor;
  }

}