Question

I am trying to fetch data from my .net project on my android device.

On the android I am using this code:

    DefaultHttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpGet request = new HttpGet("http://192.168.0.100/protobufnet/Default.aspx"); 

    HttpResponse response;
    response = client.execute(request);
    DataPacket.Data data = DataPacket.Data.parseFrom(response.getEntity().getContent());

The DataPacket.Data have been autogenerated from my .proto file that i wrote by hand and looks like this

message Data {
required int32 Status = 1;
message Building {
    required string Id = 1;
    optional string Name = 2;
    optional string Description = 3;
    message RentSpace {
        required string Id = 1;
        optional string Name = 2;
        optional string Description = 3;            
        message Year {
            required int32 Year = 1;
            message Item {
                required string Id = 1;
                optional string Name = 2;
                optional string Description = 3;        
                optional string FunctionDescription = 4;        
                required bool Marked = 5;
                required bool Remark = 6;
                required bool SelfLearning = 7;
                optional string Comment = 8;
                repeated bool ActiveMonths = 9 [packed=true];
            }
            repeated Item Items = 2;
        }
        repeated Year Years = 4;
    }
    repeated RentSpace RentSpaces = 4;
}
repeated Building Buildings = 4;

}

Now I dont know how to make my .net project validate against this .proto file, So I just coded what I assumed would be the same like this:

[ProtoContract]
public class DataPacket
{
    [ProtoMember(1)]
    public int Status { get; set; }
    [ProtoMember(2)]
    public List<Building> Buildings { get; set; }
}

[ProtoContract]
public class Building
{
    [ProtoMember(1)]
    public String Id {get;set;}
    [ProtoMember(2)]
    public String Name {get;set;}
    [ProtoMember(3)]
    public String Description {get;set;}
    [ProtoMember(4)]
    public List<RentSpace> RentSpaces { get; set; }
}

[ProtoContract]
public class RentSpace
{
    [ProtoMember(1)]
    public String Id {get;set;}
    [ProtoMember(2)]
    public String Name {get;set;}
    [ProtoMember(3)]
    public String Description {get;set;}
    [ProtoMember(4)]
    public List<YearList> Years {get;set;}
}

[ProtoContract]
public class YearList
{
    [ProtoMember(1)]
    public int Year;
    [ProtoMember(2)]
    public List<ListItem> Items {get;set;}
}

[ProtoContract]
public class ListItem
{
    [ProtoMember(1)]
    public String Id {get;set;}
    [ProtoMember(2)]
    public String Name {get;set;}
    [ProtoMember(3)]
    public String Description {get;set;}
    [ProtoMember(4)]
    public String FunctionDescription { get; set; } //how to do the control

    [ProtoMember(5)]
    public bool Marked { get; set; }
    [ProtoMember(6)]
    public bool Remark { get; set; }
    [ProtoMember(7)]
    public bool SelfLearning { get; set; }
    [ProtoMember(8)]
    public string Comment { get; set; }
    [ProtoMember(9)]
    public bool[] ActiveMonths { get; set; }

But it is not working. I either need to see the .proto the .net project uses or force it to validate against my .proto

Answer 1

The v1 zip of protobuf-net includes a tool “protogen” that is basically protobuf-net’s “protoc” (actually it uses protoc internally for some of the steps, hence the size). This tool is unchanged in v2, and is fine to use alongside the v2 library.

If you are usig Visual Studio there is also an IDE tool to do the same thing inside the tooling – i.e. you just add your .proto to a project, and it will generate the matching c# for you.

It is also fully possible to create the type-model manually – I would need to sit down and look very carefully to see the differences between your .proto and your c# (of course, being a bit more specific than “But it is not working” would help, too).

The other obvious thing to check, of course, is that you got the right byte in your (separate) transfer code.