gRPC Web Chat (Work in Progress)

A simple project demonstrating how both a Go and Java back end can power the same Vue.js front end using gRPC.

• The server consists either of a Java or Go Lang project.
  • The Java project uses the Spring Boot framework with Maven for dependency management.
  • TODO: Go Lang project...
• The client is written in TypeScript and uses the VueJS framework. It also uses Vuetify and the official gRPC-Web library.
• The Envoy Proxy is used to translate requests and responses between the browser and the gRPC server. Check out the state of gRPC in the browser.
  • TLS/SSL is used to allow HTTP2 connections between the browser and Envoy. This is to circumvent browser connection limitations. More on this here.

Overview

Project Branches

The root of the project contains the shared API and client code. Checkout the relevant server branch in your language of choice.

master  -> dev-stable [-> dev]  -> go-dev-stable    [-> go-dev]
                                -> java-dev-stable  [-> java-dev]

Installation for Development

Requirements

Docker

1. Install Docker on your local machine.

Protoc

1. Go to the releases page of Protobuf.
2. Select the latest release version.
3. Scroll down to Assets and download the applicable file (e.g., for Windows protoc-3.8.0-rc-1-win64.zip).
4. Extract the contents and add to your path (e.g., for Windows, simply add the protoc.exe to your path).

gRPC-Web Protoc Plugin

1. Go to the releases page of gRPC-Web.
2. Select the latest release version.
3. Scroll down to Assets and download the applicable file (e.g., for Windows protoc-gen-grpc-web-1.0.4-windows-x86_64.exe).
4. Extract the protoc-gen-grpc-web file a directory and it to your path (e.g., for Windows add the protoc-gen-grpc-web.exe file to your path).

Server

Java

1. Checkout the java-dev-stable branch.
2. Execute mvn clean install in the root directory to build and compile the project.
   • This will generate all the necessary Protocol Buffer files for the server and client.
   • This will execute the create-cert.sh script, generating all necessary keys and certificates for the Vue development server and the Envoy Proxy.
3. To securely serve the Vue files on the Spring Boot server for production, execute the create-cert-java.sh script.
4. Simply run the ChatApplication.java as a normal Java application. This will start the server. See the resources/application.properties file for server configuration details.

Go

1. Checkout the go-dev-stable branch.
2. TODO: Run gradle install/build script that builds files, generates protos, runs the create-cert.sh script, etc.
3. To serve the Vue files on the Go static file server for production, execute the create-cert-go.sh script.
4. TODO: Run the Go server somehow...

Envoy Proxy

1. From the root directory, run the create-ca-cert.sh script to generate the Certificate Authority.
2. In the same directory, run the create-cert.sh script. See the envoy/README.md file for more details.
   • Note: This step should be unnecessary for the Java project if the mvn clean install command was used.
3. Run docker-compose up from the root directory to start the Envoy proxy.
   • Note: Remember to remove the Docker image after generating new certificates!

Client Development Server

1. Run npm install and then npm run proto.
   • Note: This step is unnecessary after running the mvn clean install command for the Java server.
2. Run npm run serve to start the development server on https://localhost:443.

Installation for Production

Requirements

Docker

1. Install Docker on the Linux host machine. Follow the relevant instructions here:
   • CentOS
   • Debian
   • Fedora
   • Ubuntu
2. Install Docker Compose by running the following two commands (see more on Install Docker Compose):

   sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.24.1/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
   sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
   

Java

1. From within the project root directory, run the mvn clean install -U command to build the Java project.
2. Copy the generated .jar file to a directory on the host machine.
3. Run the Java Server with java -jar server-<version>.jar to start the server.

Go

1. TODO: Figure out how to run the Go server on production.

Envoy Proxy

1. Modify the envoy.yaml file for production. Change the following:
   • Change the domains value to the host machine IP address (or * to allow all domains).
   • Change the cors allow_origin to the correct domain (e.g., https://example.com). You can also use * to allow all origins.
   • Change the hosts socket address to the machine IP address.
2. Copy the envoy directory to a directory on the host machine.
3. Copy the docker-compose.yml file one level up from the envoy directory copied in the previous step.
4. Run docker-compose up to build and deploy the Docker image.
   • NOTE: Remember to remove the docker image before running the docker-compose command if any changes to Envoy or the certificates were made.

Client

1. If using a custom CA, add the relevant ca.crt file to the Trusted Root Certificate Authorities on your local machine.
2. The client should now be running on https://<host-machine-ip>.