grpc-node/examples/interceptors

Interceptor

Node gRPC provides simple APIs to implement and install interceptors on clients and servers. An interceptor intercepts the execution of each incoming/outgoing RPC call on the client or server where it is installed. Users can use interceptors to do logging, authentication/authorization, metrics collection, and many other functions that can be shared across RPCs.

Run the server

node server.js

Run the client

node client.js

Explanation

In Node gRPC, clients and servers each have their own types of interceptors.

Client

Node gRPC client interceptors are formally specified in gRFC L5. An interceptor is a function that can wrap a call object with an InterceptingCall, with intercepting functions for individual call operations. To illustrate, the following is a trivial interceptor with all interception methods:

const interceptor = function(options, nextCall) {
  const requester = {
    start: function(metadata, listener, next) {
      const listener = {
          onReceiveMetadata: function(metadata, next) {
            next(metadata);
          },
          onReceiveMessage: function(message, next) {
            next(message);
          },
          onReceiveStatus: function(status, next) {
            next(status);
          }
      };
      next(metadata, listener);
    },
    sendMessage: function(message, next) {
      next(messasge);
    },
    halfClose: function(next) {
      next();
    },
    cancel: function(message, next) {
      next();
    }
  };
  return new InterceptingCall(nextCall(options), requester);
};

The requester intercepts outgoing operations, and the listener intercepts incoming operations. Each intercepting method can read or modify the data for that operation before passing it along to the next callback.

The RequesterBuilder and ListenerBuilder utility classes provide an alternative way to construct requester and listener objects

Server

Node gRPC server interceptors are formally specified in gRFC L112. Similar to client interceptors, a server interceptor is a function that can wrap a call object with a ServerInterceptingCall, with intercepting functions for individual call operations. Server intercepting functions broadly mirror the client intercepting functions, with sending and receiving switched. To illustrate, the following is a trivial server interceptor with all interception methods:

const interceptor = function(methodDescriptor, call) {
  const responder = {
    start: function(next) {
      const listener = {
        onReceiveMetadata: function(metadata, next) {
          next(metadata);
        },
        onReceiveMessage: function(message, next) {
          next(message);
        },
        onReceiveHalfClose: function(next) {
          next();
        },
        onCancel: function() {
        }
      };
      next(listener);
    },
    sendMetadata: function(metadata, next) {
      next(metadata);
    },
    sendMessage: function(message, next) {
      next(message);
    },
    sendStatus: function(status, next) {
      next(status);
    }
  };
  return new ServerInterceptingCall(call, responder);
}

As with client interceptors, the responder intercepts outgoing operations and the listener intercepts incoming operations. Each intercepting method can read or modify the data for that operation before passing it along to the next callback.

The ResponderBuilder and ServerListenerBuilder utility classes provide an alternative way to build responder and server listener objects.