protobuf-to-dict

protobuf-to-dict is a small Python library for creating dicts from protocol buffers. It is intended to be used as an intermediate step before serialization (e.g. to JSON).

Installation

Use pip install protobuf-to-dict or python setup.py install.

Example

Given the google.protobuf.message.Message subclass MyMessage:

>>> from protobuf_to_dict import protobuf_to_dict
>>> my_message = MyMessage()
>>> # pb_my_message is a protobuf string
>>> my_message.ParseFromString(pb_my_message)
>>> protobuf_to_dict(my_message)
{'message': 'Hello'}

Caveats

This library grew out of the desire to serialize a protobuf-encoded message to JSON. As JSON has no built-in binary type (all strings in JSON are Unicode strings), any field whose type is FieldDescriptor.TYPE_BYTES is, by default, converted to a base64-encoded string.

If you want to override this behaviour, you may do so by passing protobuf_to_dict a dictionary of protobuf types to callables via the type_callable_map kwarg:

>>> from copy import copy
>>> from google.protobuf.descriptor import FieldDescriptor
>>> from protobuf_to_dict import protobuf_to_dict, TYPE_CALLABLE_MAP
>>>
>>> type_callable_map = copy(TYPE_CALLABLE_MAP)
>>> # convert TYPE_BYTES to a Python bytestring
>>> type_callable_map[FieldDescriptor.TYPE_BYTES] = str
>>>
>>> # my_message is a google.protobuf.message.Message instance
>>> protobuf_to_dict(my_message, type_callable_map=type_callable_map)

By default, the integer representation is used for enum values. To use their string labels instead, pass use_enum_labels=True into protobuf_to_dict:

>>> protobuf_to_dict(my_message, use_enum_labels=True)

Unit testing

Tests are under src/tests/.

$ python setup.py nosetests

To regenerate src/tests/sample_pb2.py:

$ protoc --python_out=src -Isrc src/tests/sample.proto 

Authors

protobuf-to-dict is written and maintained by Ben Hodgson, with significant contributions from Nino Walker, Jonathan Klaassen, and Tristram Gräbener.

(Un)license

This is free and unencumbered software released into the public domain.

Anyone is free to copy, modify, publish, use, compile, sell, or distribute this software, either in source code form or as a compiled binary, for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, and by any means.

In jurisdictions that recognize copyright laws, the author or authors of this software dedicate any and all copyright interest in the software to the public domain. We make this dedication for the benefit of the public at large and to the detriment of our heirs and successors. We intend this dedication to be an overt act of relinquishment in perpetuity of all present and future rights to this software under copyright law.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

For more information, please refer to http://unlicense.org/