Intro to gRPC in C# - How To Get Started,

There is a lot of buzz around gRPC right now. The biggest thing I hear is that it is confusing and people aren't sure when or how to use it. In this video, I am going to introduce gRPC in C#, show you how to set it up, and how to consume a gRPC service. We will also discuss when gRPC might be the right choice and when it probably isn't the right choice.
Source Code: leadmagnets.app/?Resource=Int...
Patreon (the $10 or more level gets you the gRPC Tips and Tricks handout): / iamtimcorey
Newsletter signup (with exclusive discounts, giveaways, and more): signup.iamtimcorey.com/
0:00 - Intro
2:31 - Creating Demo gRPC app
4:13 - RPC app template overview
17:48 - Creating gRPC Client console app
28:59 - Custom gRPC Service
45:23 - Updating gRPC Service: streaming multiple data sets to client
58:26 - When to use gRPC, summary and concluding remarks
Thanks to Ralfs HBK for the chapters breakdown

[@SurroundingDarkness7]

4 years later and still helpful... Thank you Tim, very much appreciated!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@ahmedm_seada]

Usually i don't watch long videos but after this i found that i'm missing a lot info in short videos. Thanks A lot 🌺🌺

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent!

[@mariacobretti]

try replay speed 1.25 :)

[@ritfloyd]

I remember 15 years ago WCF and SOAP was the next big thing and at some point around 2012 REST was considered "the way" to get around all the complexity (which in many ways it did) and now we are back to where we started with gRPC. This is nuts. Nice course though... I do learn a lot from your courses and appreciate the effort.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Well, REST is still a thing and gRPC won't replace it (I don't think) because of how simple it is. gRPC, though, will definitely be a major player for a while yet, since it is so fast and versatile. The biggest thing going for it, though, is the fact that it is an industry standard instead of a Microsoft-specific product.

[@whoiam6395]

Your skill to explain the theme is so good! Thank you! And I am not a native English speaker.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@maxr1112]

thx Corey, you really helped us out a lot in getting to understand gRPC since for students it's not the most ez task to fullfill. Hope you stay as amazing as you are, Greetings Max

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Thanks for watching and trusting Tim to help expand your skills

[@torrvic1156]

Thank you so much for your awesome explanations of a very complicated topic, Mr. Corey!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@azurtle]

Love the thorough and paced explanations! Very beginner friendly!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@phienle3411]

I don't how to get started with gRPC until I see this video. Highly appreciate your effort, sir.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I am glad it was so helpful.

[@ExLR8Reign]

Thanks Tim! It's very well structured and a great quick start tutorial :)

[@IAmTimCorey]

You're very welcome!

[@mukundhareddy3034]

Hi Tim, Wonderful way of explaining things and really worth content.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@emchammer1815]

Needed to learn GRPC for a project at work. Nice tutorial! Thanks.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@tommyoman5309]

Thanks Tim! This was really helpful, i now know what the other guys are talking about for the future of our application.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@ramakrishnapujari3758]

Very well explained. Easy to understand. Thanks

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome!

[@francoiscrespin1677]

Great work man, thanks for your tutorials!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@AzamKhanUsafZai]

Awesome tutorial, straight to code and good info along the way. Next thing would be find some good design patterns around gRPC that can help convert a large WCF service.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I will add it to the list. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@tagyourit3432]

You are awesome Tim, keep making videos. I love your work! Liked and Subscribed.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@imtiajahammad3586]

Great tutorial for beginning. thanks a lot. Specially appreciate the last part where you talk about when you should use GRPC, because I hear a lot from people to replace API with GRPC with no solid reason

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Thanks for trusting Tim

[@Linkario86]

I made another Tutorial before (where I had to read off the website) and it was a whole lot more complicated. It didn't really start from scratch anyways and never said anything about rebuilding. Instead there was a .bat file you had to run, which didn't really do the job. Anyway I braced myself and looked for a video tutorial. That usualy does it better for me anyways. Thinking it's gonna be complicated, and the Tutorial will take 1h raw video material, I was pretty surprised when I had a "Hello Linkario" coming back at me after about 28 Minutes. Thanks a lot, great tutorial and very well explained

[@IAmTimCorey]

I am glad it was helpful.

[@georgekerwood9100]

Great video, thanks, Tim! Any new C# related technology I'm exploring I now search your videos before even googling! I'm exploring gRPC for local IPC which I think is an exciting and appropriate application.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I am glad my content is so helpful.

[@Fasiibcs]

Again another good explanation for which I was looking for.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Great!

[@MintoIssac]

Wow, great video! I'm gonna share this with my team.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Great!

[@pasdilhan]

Great tutorial, Thanks Tim

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@RalfsBalodis]

0:00 - Intro 2:31 - Creating Demo gRPC app 4:13 - gRPC app template overview 17:48 - Creating gRPC Client console app 28:59 - Custom gRPC Service 45:23 - Updating gRPC Service: streaming multiple data sets to client 58:26 - When to use gRPC, summary and concluding remarks

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@i.paradox]

TIM Thanks once again for this beautiful explanation.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@jakubsuchybio]

Nice intro! I was on the verge of trying to port our WCF comm at work to gRPC, but after seeing your vid. I think it won't be that easy as I thought. We are using bi-directional channels for notifications and also file streaming with continuation (when communication drops and whole call timeouts, it can continues with the next call where it left off).

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'm glad it was valuable to you, even if it showed you that you have more work to do. There is a possible port of WCF to .NET Core in the works. That might be a better option (but it is a ways off from production-ready).

[@robbransby8339]

Thanks Tim this was really good.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@giovannasantosmoreira5551]

Really, you're the best teacher!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@MayankGupta303]

Thanks for this great introductory video... Appreciated

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@kamparsen]

GREAT Video .. Learned A LOT . Thank you sooo Much

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent!

[@FloetschMaster]

as always well explained well gone thru, i know now much more than before

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent!

[@user2kffs]

Thanks a lot, it saved my work today.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Awesome!

[@srieen100]

Great video. Good start. Keep rocking.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@r1ckhunt3r]

Thanks Tim. This was a great video!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@liorocker1]

I barely known about this new technology because of some .NET Conferences, but now it is more clear to me to understand what is it all about, thank you Tim.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent!

[@caioavidal]

Very useful explanation. Thanks

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@najemayadi9808]

Great video Tim, thank you so much. A question, what do you recommend to "wrap" existing REST API services to use gRPC?

[@IAmTimCorey]

I don't recommend doing that except in very specific circumstances. Otherwise you have the worst of both worlds.

[@lychanhdaric7933]

Amazing, Good Job Corey!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@ButchCassidyAndSundanceKid]

Fantastic video. I have learned alot.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Great!

[@hiteshKrawal]

Exactly what I was looking for

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent!

[@mahi-lapse]

Thanks, simple & nice explanation.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@PhuNguyen-bi7pi]

superb content. Thanks for the intro to Grpc.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@ntsikelelondleleni6335]

I subscribed immediately. Very clear and easy to follow.

[@Chris-xd7og]

Very interesting. Thanks Tim.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@DonovanBrown]

This was fantastic!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@balora]

Really interesting. Contract based and performant.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@sergeyltk]

Very good tutorial style.. Enjoyed it.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@cavalsilva]

Hello Tim, Great video! I will share with my squad. Thanks.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@cavalsilva]

@@IAmTimCorey Thanks!

[@imumamaheswaran]

Very insightful!! Subscribed!!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you.

[@asdasddas100]

Wow, I didn't even know this existed. Thanks

[@IAmTimCorey]

You’re welcome.

[@georgepagotelis]

Projects/people started using it, I went to an interview and I said I've heard of it. A gen Y, generously put a "1" next to my knowledge. I might get a 2+ now!

[@damiromrcen8251]

Very nice and clear tutorial.. thx..

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@sahawndada]

Your a legend Tim!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@sekharkatreddy8491]

Excellent stuff.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@RamblinggeekUk]

I watched this and built the sample along side you because the Anki Vector Robot uses gPRC and I wanted to get a better understanding. Thanks!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Great!

[@JohnEBoldt]

Hi Tim - great video! Does gRPC provide request authorization, such as OAuth2?

[@amalaljohari9358]

Great video, thank you so much

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are very welcome

[@ibrahimnada4702]

your videos are gold

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks

[@yairashkenazi5455]

Hi Tim, as usual great stuff. Just one question: I need to build a system where there are one or more servers which are connected to hardware devices which stream bytes to the server/s and that stream of bytes needs to be sent to the client to do some processing with the data. So, is gRPC a good choice for such a scenario? The data is sent in packets of 1KBytes at most to the server.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Probably. The client will need to implement the gRPC contract, but gRPC is designed to do streaming in two directions (if needed).

[@timur2887]

Thanks! Great, as always!)

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@OvRaf]

great explanation

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@doublef7728]

Here you are where HOW TO GET STARTED has it's meaning.. great thanks.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You're very welcome

[@jesusdelarua5995]

Great video!!!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@CodySchichtl]

Great stuff!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@NdamuleloNemakh]

In Tim Corey we trust!

[@IAmTimCorey]

God is a better to focus on and trust. I promise.

[@piriyaie]

Thank you sir for this gread video.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@RobReynolds]

Tim, at 16 minutes you explained the thing that's been battering my brain for 3 days. Talk about obtuse. Thanks for the video. Very helpful

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it helped!

[@abdouldia1605]

Thanks Tim!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@HadiJami]

Hi Tim, Thank you for great tutorial videos like this, I learned from you and thank you. I've question. Can you explain to me what's different between AJAX and RPC? I'm confused. Thank you so much.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I think this should help: stackoverflow.com/questions/13735602/is-gwts-rpc-different-from-ajax

[@blachshma]

We need a Thank You Tim Corey T-shirt.

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Fan produced merchandise! Love it. Where do I purchase?

[@pindi251210]

Great video as always. Just had a question. How do we build a client app if the server code isn't available. e.g. if server code was not written by us and we dont have the .proto file

[@kellysys]

Thank you for your video.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@mortenpedersen5603]

Hey Tim, thanks for a great video that really clears things up about how and when to use gRPC. I have a quick question though. I know you use copy+paste for the proto files and that obviously works fine, though there are drawbacks but have you found a way to connect to a gRPC server via a service reference? It seems like it should be doable but I just keep getting an error that iirc is about lacking metadata.

[@IAmTimCorey]

No, but you can point to the same proto file instead of making a copy of it.

[@mortenpedersen5603]

@@IAmTimCorey Thanks for the answer :)

[@LeeJeeShen]

Good stuff. Looking forward to see how grpc support dev documentation like openAPI

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Thank you. We appreciate you sharing.

[@shahrazkl]

Thanks great tutorial

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@alexanderspiegel6747]

Thanks Tim. As always it is clear and nice presentation. GRPC reminds me WCF somehow. I think it is nice for mircoservices architecture. Because the communication should be as fast as possible and probably closed for connections from outside of the solution. Another point is streaming. It reminds me a short time subscription. Let’s assume we have a client which should receive some messages from a server. So it should establish a connection to server 1st and then some notifications keep arriving till a client keeps connection open. I think it can be useful feature. Thanks again Tim.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yep, it has similar characteristics of WCF.

[@alexanderspiegel6747]

@@IAmTimCorey what do you think about notifications? Is it good idea to use gRPC to inform a client based on events happened on server side ?

[@RonCoKat]

enjoy Italy! great video

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks! Will do.

[@mastercompuk]

Hi Tim another superb tutorial. I have a question, I would like to connect few IoT with database and they should also interact depend of each other and wondering if grpc,mqtt or worker services are the right tool to use.

[@IAmTimCorey]

It all depends. You probably want to use gRPC for IoT devices.

[@darkmoon1392]

Hello Tim. Thanks for the great courses. Can you make a tutorial for SignalR? Sometimes it is really needed.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for the suggestion. Please add it to the list on the suggestion site so others can vote on it as well: suggestions.iamtimcorey.com/

[@nagarjuna1207]

Thanks Tim! This video is so helpful in understanding details about gRPC. I came to know from other sources that, we cannot host gRPC on Windows IIS. Is it true, if yes may I know what are possible ways we can host/deploy the gRPC service? Thanks.

[@youngjun5310]

I didn't try it. But the gRPC server will run with IIS. Because IIS use some port (mostly 80, or 8080 ). In this example the gRPC use port 5001. It means you can run hundreds server (Apache, IIS, gRPC, Database, FTP Server, Game Server , etc ... ) on your one desktop

[@haseebsiddiqui2498]

Hi Tim. Very informative video as always. How the concept of 'stream' can be achieved in Web Api?

[@IAmTimCorey]

API does not have the concept of streaming.

[@syedmaqsood7866]

Great Video Tim, I did a university project with COBRA and it is exactly similar to gRPC it has something known as IDL for Proto Bufs and the rest seems same for me. And also gRPC uses HTTP 2 and that runs over some GIOP(I dont know much about it). to me it feels like we already have this since ages just with some changes here and there, what do u think was there a need for this?

[@IAmTimCorey]

gRPC is an open standard that Google came up with. Instead of creating their own standard (like WCF), Microsoft decided to go with what everyone was using instead.

[@gagwithgaffer8385]

Hi Tim, thanks for the intro. I'm trying to visualize how this scales out in a microservice environment i.e if we have multiple instances of the same client and/or server app in a kubernetes orchestra, how does each client/server pair know which specific instance end points to communicate between? Is it something that kubernetes load balancer/routing interface would just handle automatically? thanks

[@IAmTimCorey]

It would be something that you set up and then K8s handles, yes.

[@uncommonbg]

Hello, Tim. Thank you very much for your clear explanation and detailed video. I've noticed that in Visual Studio you have an option to create a *.proto* file, which I don't see in my Visual Studio. What has to be installed in order to see *.proto* files?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Do you have a gRPC project open? Do you have the latest version of Visual Studio 2019?

[@uncommonbg]

@@IAmTimCorey I have the latest Visual Studio 2019, but I was doing gRPC with named pipes, so I wasn't using the official gRPC template of Visual Studio. Maybe that's why I am not seeing it now that I think about it. Thank you very much for your reply.

[@sathishpai4868]

Thanks Tim, Nice session. Is there any tool like Fiddle to check the request for GRPC ?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Not that I am aware of.

[@chillbro2275]

I haven't seen the word "Marshaller" since i was reading a COM+ book.

[@IAmTimCorey]

It isn’t something you use a lot, for sure.

[@freddycastelblancomacias6082]

Awesome video Tim, as usual, I have a question: Can I use a gRPC as service to be consumed by a frontend app ??? The scope of this kind of services is only for backend ??? Thanks in advance !

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yes you can.

[@parsagachkar3140]

ok from what I see the way you set it up looks like good old SOAP Web Services. although it's a lot more efficient than sending and receiving XML data I really like it. but I really got a question. from what I saw ". proto" files are simply plain text files and everyone can forge them and I don't see a signature or encryption. how do you protect these services from unauthorized or malicious access? do I implement my own authentication and authorization method (for instance maybe issuing, sending, and validating a JWT for the input of services?) or there is a standard way of implementing authentication and authorization in GRPC?

[@iandalrymple7255]

This was a great video as always. Anyone know of any gRPC tutorials specifically covering authentication techniques?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@azrinsani]

66K and going hard! GRPC... you killed my beloved WCF!!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Well, the move to .NET Core is what killed WCF (Microsoft didn't see the value in porting it). The good news is that Microsoft turned over the source code for WCF to the community so that it can be ported by those who still want to use it. Hopefully you gain back WCF at some point.

[@azrinsani]

@@IAmTimCorey Wow, a reply from Mr Tim himself. I am honored! But anyway, only WCF Client is open source. The WCF Server, Servicehost and even WCF Web is not. For guys who build their entire stack with WCF, it's not only a hard migration, but doesn't make sense from a business point of view too.

[@alski259]

Fantastic! I'm all in. Looking to see how this can be used on IOT (Beaglebone Black) devices.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Great!

[@youngjun5310]

It is an awesome lecture. Do you have the other video for client-server both communication? Like 1:1 chatting app.

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Nothing currently, but I added it to Tim's viewer suggestions list.

[@marcoantoniorodriguezsando8622]

I like your very good example of GRPC services, and sending lists also seems to me to be a very good video, but will you have an example where you can receive two lists in the service? Excuse my English which is not my native language, I will be very grateful if you could guide me.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I don't have an example of that. Look into the documentation at docs.microsoft.com for more information and examples.

[@niroshanmanoharan4295]

Thank you for the introduction video... Could you please explain how to connect with client UI with Asp.Net 5.0?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Think of gRPC like any other data access. What you have seen in this video can be replicated in a class library. Then you can connect that class library to any front-end, including ASP.NET Core 5.

[@StephenJWalter]

Great video as usual. One thing that interests me is using gRPC to serialise a list of POCOs to and from a file. I gather this is considered preferable to BinaryFormatter, which these days is considered insecure. Any chance of a video showing this, or else pointers to where I can find examples?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have added it to the list of possible future topics.

[@algorithm-artisan]

gRPC for microservices built in Node js works really well!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad you like it.

[@BenHayat]

Hi Tim; Thanks for this great course. I'd like to make a suggestion. You had made an offer to those who are Patreon (with >$10 Level) with the Tips & Tricks. The problem is that, the notion of Patreon has become overly used by so many developers and people that is hard to get involved with a Patreon with someone, just because you need a source code or a tip sheet and etc. Next thing you know, you're paying a bunch of money every month where you're not using anything. Because of this, I see less and less people get involved in Patreon unless, they're using the product on daily basis. My suggestion is create your tip sheet or source code or whatever you have and sell it in your store AS IS with one purchase, rather asking people to commit to monthly payment. Imagine you go buy a pair of shoes and store owner says, you have to pay $10 per month for one year. To consumer if feels they're getting locked down. But if he says, it's price is $120, it's much easier for that consumer to pay $120 and walk out being free. Give us a price for the Sheet/Tip sheet. If it sounds fair, we'll buy it. Hope this helps!

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'll take that suggestion and consider it. Thanks!

[@RaviBelkhindi]

very well explained, how we can deploy this service as worker service or Window Service

[@IAmTimCorey]

It would take more than just deploying it a certain way. You would need to create a worker service project type and integrate gRPC into it. I don't have an example of that, though.

[@user-rp5jn2jd3w]

You are amazing!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@DjoleAnt]

​@@IAmTimCorey You helped us with our project at university! Thank you!

[@Andaramis]

Thanks! (Dolar tax down here in Brazil are very high for us at this moment)

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@TPCWare]

Thanks also for explaining when to use gRPC Vs Web API. A year later, after GA of .NET 5 and a more robust implementation of gRPC on .NET 5 things are still the same or the field of application of gRPC has expanded?

[@IAmTimCorey]

gRPC has definitely expanded and become a great option in certain circumstances. It is still not a replacement for an API, but it definitely has a place of its own.

[@mohamaddjelouah9332]

thank you

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@asimgunduz2305]

Hello Tim, I have a simple question! simplified version of my protobuf message model is this message platformDto { string PF_NAME = 1} my problem is at runtime when I debug my code and inspect the platformDto model the property name seems like this : PFNAME any idea how I can fix this?