Serializing data is an important topic. The main goal is to convert some kind of data in another format compatible for some tasks, usually, to send them over the network. JSON is probably one of the most used serializer, but because of its simplicity, can be slow and can lead to other issues. Indeed, JSON is using a text-like format, and disallow usage of binary in any form - except if they are converted in base64 string for example. Furthermore, JSON does not optimize its payload and does not care by default of the data containing in it.
Today, we will talk a bit of Protocol Buffer or protobuf, a binary serializer format created by Google for their internal use. Instead of JSON, protobuf payload is using a binary format and its data format is specified. One can't add a new field in the payload without having created the specification for it.
Requirements
protoc is required. One can install it from the latest release on Github, or use one's package manager distribution. protoc is used to compile protocol buffer data structure definition in a specific language. In our case, we will need to install an external plugins to help protoc to generate Elixir modules.
$ mix escript.install hex protobuf 0.16.0
