pbf

A low-level, fast, ultra-lightweight (3KB gzipped) JavaScript library for decoding and encoding protocol buffers, a compact binary format for structured data serialization. Works both in Node and the browser. Supports lazy decoding and detailed customization of the reading/writing code.

Performance

This library is extremely fast — much faster than native JSON.parse/JSON.stringify and the protocol-buffers module. Here's a result from running a real-world benchmark on Node v6.5 (decoding and encoding a sample of 439 vector tiles, 22.6 MB total):

• pbf decode: 387ms, or 57 MB/s
• pbf encode: 396ms, or 56 MB/s
• protocol-buffers decode: 837ms, or 26 MB/s
• protocol-buffers encode: 4197ms, or 5 MB/s
• JSON.parse: 1540ms, or 125 MB/s (parsing an equivalent 77.5 MB JSON file)
• JSON.stringify: 607ms, or 49 MB/s

Examples

Using Compiled Code

Install pbf and compile a JavaScript module from a .proto file:

$ npm install -g pbf
$ pbf example.proto > example.js

Then read and write objects using the module like this:

var Pbf = require('pbf');
var Example = require('./example.js').Example;
 
// read
var pbf = new Pbf(buffer);
var obj = Example.read(pbf);
 
// write
var pbf = new Pbf();
Example.write(obj, pbf);
var buffer = pbf.finish();

Alternatively, you can compile a module directly in the code:

var compile = require('pbf/compile');
var schema = require('protocol-buffers-schema');
 
var proto = schema.parse(fs.readFileSync('example.proto'));
var Test = compile(proto).Test;

If you use webpack as your module bundler, you can use pbf-loader to load .proto files directly. It returns a compiled module ready to be used.

Given you already configured your webpack.config.js, the code above would look like:

var Pbf = require('pbf');
var proto = require('./example.proto');
 
var Test = proto.Test;

Custom Reading

var data = new Pbf(buffer).readFields(readData, {});
 
function readData(tag, data, pbf) {
    if (tag === 1) data.name = pbf.readString();
    else if (tag === 2) data.version = pbf.readVarint();
    else if (tag === 3) data.layer = pbf.readMessage(readLayer, {});
}
function readLayer(tag, layer, pbf) {
    if (tag === 1) layer.name = pbf.readString();
    else if (tag === 3) layer.size = pbf.readVarint();
}

Custom Writing

var pbf = new Pbf();
writeData(data, pbf);
var buffer = pbf.finish();
 
function writeData(data, pbf) {
    pbf.writeStringField(1, data.name);
    pbf.writeVarintField(2, data.version);
    pbf.writeMessage(3, writeLayer, data.layer);
}
function writeLayer(layer, pbf) {
    pbf.writeStringField(1, layer.name);
    pbf.writeVarintField(2, layer.size);
}

Install

Node and Browserify:

npm install pbf

Making a browser build:

npm install
npm run build-dev # dist/pbf-dev.js (development build) 
npm run build-min # dist/pbf.js (minified production build) 

CDN link: https://unpkg.com/pbf@3.0.5/dist/pbf.js

API

Create a Pbf object, optionally given a Buffer or Uint8Array as input data:

// parse a pbf file from disk in Node
var pbf = new Pbf(fs.readFileSync('data.pbf'));
 
// parse a pbf file in a browser after an ajax request with responseType="arraybuffer"
var pbf = new Pbf(new Uint8Array(xhr.response));

Pbf object properties:

pbf.length; // length of the underlying buffer
pbf.pos; // current offset for reading or writing

Reading

Read a sequence of fields:

pbf.readFields(function (tag) {
    if (tag === 1) pbf.readVarint();
    else if (tag === 2) pbf.readString();
    else ...
});

It optionally accepts an object that will be passed to the reading function for easier construction of decoded data, and also passes the Pbf object as a third argument:

var result = pbf.readFields(callback, {})
 
function callback(tag, result, pbf) {
    if (tag === 1) result.id = pbf.readVarint();
}

To read an embedded message, use pbf.readMessage(fn[, obj]) (in the same way as read).

Read values:

var value = pbf.readVarint();
var str = pbf.readString();
var numbers = pbf.readPackedVarint();

For lazy or partial decoding, simply save the position instead of reading a value, then later set it back to the saved value and read:

var fooPos = -1;
pbf.readFields(function (tag) {
    if (tag === 1) fooPos = pbf.pos;
});
...
pbf.pos = fooPos;
pbf.readMessage(readFoo);

Scalar reading methods:

• readVarint(isSigned) (pass true if you expect negative varints)
• readSVarint()
• readFixed32()
• readFixed64()
• readSFixed32()
• readSFixed64()
• readBoolean()
• readFloat()
• readDouble()
• readString()
• readBytes()
• skip(value)

Packed reading methods:

• readPackedVarint(arr, isSigned) (appends read items to arr)
• readPackedSVarint(arr)
• readPackedFixed32(arr)
• readPackedFixed64(arr)
• readPackedSFixed32(arr)
• readPackedSFixed64(arr)
• readPackedBoolean(arr)
• readPackedFloat(arr)
• readPackedDouble(arr)

Writing

Write values:

pbf.writeVarint(123);
pbf.writeString("Hello world");

Write an embedded message:

pbf.writeMessage(1, writeObj, obj);
 
function writeObj(obj, pbf) {
    pbf.writeStringField(obj.name);
    pbf.writeVarintField(obj.version);
}

Field writing methods:

• writeVarintField(tag, val)
• writeSVarintField(tag, val)
• writeFixed32Field(tag, val)
• writeFixed64Field(tag, val)
• writeSFixed32Field(tag, val)
• writeSFixed64Field(tag, val)
• writeBooleanField(tag, val)
• writeFloatField(tag, val)
• writeDoubleField(tag, val)
• writeStringField(tag, val)
• writeBytesField(tag, buffer)

Packed field writing methods:

• writePackedVarint(tag, val)
• writePackedSVarint(tag, val)
• writePackedSFixed32(tag, val)
• writePackedSFixed64(tag, val)
• writePackedBoolean(tag, val)
• writePackedFloat(tag, val)
• writePackedDouble(tag, val)

Scalar writing methods:

• writeVarint(val)
• writeSVarint(val)
• writeSFixed32(val)
• writeSFixed64(val)
• writeBoolean(val)
• writeFloat(val)
• writeDouble(val)
• writeString(val)
• writeBytes(buffer)

Message writing methods:

• writeMessage(tag, fn[, obj])
• writeRawMessage(fn[, obj])

Misc methods:

• realloc(minBytes) - pad the underlying buffer size to accommodate the given number of bytes; note that the size increases exponentially, so it won't necessarily equal the size of data written
• finish() - make the current buffer ready for reading and return the data as a buffer slice
• destroy() - dispose the buffer

For an example of a real-world usage of the library, see vector-tile-js.

Proto Schema to JavaScript

If installed globally, pbf provides a binary that compiles proto files into JavaScript modules. Usage:

$ pbf <proto_path> [--no-write] [--no-read] [--browser]

The --no-write and --no-read switches remove corresponding code in the output. The --browser switch makes the module work in browsers instead of Node.

The resulting module exports each message by name with the following methods:

• read(pbf) - decodes an object from the given Pbf instance
• write(obj, pbf) - encodes an object into the given Pbf instance (usually empty)

The resulting code is clean and simple, so feel free to customize it.

Changelog

3.2.1 (Oct 11, 2019)

• Significantly improved performance when decoding large strings in the browser.

3.2.0 (Mar 11, 2019)

• Improved decoding to be able to parse repeated fields even if they were specified as packed, and vise versa.
• Improved packed encoding to skip empty arrays (previously, it would write a tag).
• Fixed an off-by-one data corruption bug when writing a message larger than 0x10000000 bytes.

3.1.0 (Sep 27, 2017)

• Added support for Protocol Buffer 3 maps to proto compiler.

3.0.5 (Nov 30, 2016)

• Fixed an error appearing in some versions of IE11 and old Android browsers.

3.0.4 (Nov 14, 2016)

• Fixed compiling repeated packed enum fields.

3.0.3 (Nov 14, 2016)

• Fixed a regression that broke compiling repeated enum fields with defaults.

3.0.2 (Sep 30, 2016)

• Fixed a regression that broke decoding of packed fields with a tag that didn't fit into one byte.

3.0.1 (Sep 20, 2016)

• Fixed a regression that broke encoding of long strings.

3.0.0 (Aug 30, 2016)

This release include tons of compatibility/robustness fixes, and a more reliable Node implementation. Decoding performance is expected to get up to ~15% slower than v2.0 in Node (browsers are unaffected), but encoding got faster by ~15% in return.

Encoder/decoder

• Breaking: changed Node implementation to use Uint8Array instead of Buffer internally (and produce corresponding result on finish()), making it fully match the browser implementation for consistency and simplicity.
• Fixed writeVarint to write 0 when given NaN or other non-number to avoid producing a broken Protobuf message.
• Changed readPacked* methods signature to accept an optional arr argument to append the results to (to support messages with repeated fields that mix packed/non-packed encoding).
• Added an optional isSigned argument to readVarint that enables proper reading of negative varints.
• Deprecated readVarint64() (it still works, but it's recommended to be changed to readVarint(true)).
• Faster string encoding.

Proto compiler

• Breaking: Full support for defaults field values (both implicit and explicit); they're now included in the decoded JSON objects.
• Fixed reading of repeated fields with mixed packed/non-packed encoding for compatibility.
• Fixed proto3 compiler to use packed by default for repeated scalar fields.
• Fixed reading of negative varint types.
• Fixed packed fields to decode into [] if they're not present.
• Fixed nested message references handling.
• Fixed packed=false being interpreted as packed.
• Added a comment to generated code with pbf version number.

2.0.1 (May 28, 2016)

• Fixed a regression with writeVarint that affected certain numbers.

2.0.0 (May 28, 2016)

• Significantly improved the proto compiler, which now produces a much safer reading/writing code.
• Added the ability to compile a read/write module from a protobuf schema directly in the code.
• Proto compiler: fixed name resolutions and collisions in schemas with nested messages.
• Proto compiler: fixed broken top-level enums.

1.3.7 (May 28, 2016)

• Fixed a regression with writeVarint that affected certain numbers.

1.3.6 (May 27, 2016)

• Improved read and write performance (both ~15% faster).
• Improved generated code for default values.

1.3.5 (Oct 5, 2015)

• Added support for syntax keyword proto files (by updating resolve-protobuf-schema dependency).

1.3.4 (Jul 31, 2015)

• Added writeRawMessage method for writing a message without a tag, useful for creating pbfs with multiple top-level messages.

1.3.2 (Mar 5, 2015)

• Added readVarint64 method for proper decoding of negative int64-encoded values.

1.3.1 (Feb 20, 2015)

• Fixed pbf proto compile tool generating broken writing code.

1.3.0 (Feb 5, 2015)

• Added pbf binary that compiles .proto files into Pbf-based JavaScript modules.

1.2.0 (Jan 5, 2015)

Breaking API changes

• Changed writeMessage signature to (tag, fn, obj) (see example in the docs) for a huge encoding performance improvement.
• Replaced readPacked and writePacked methods that accept type as a string with readPackedVarint, etc. for each type (better performance and simpler API).

Improvements

• 5x faster encoding in Node (vector tile benchmark).
• 40x faster encoding and 3x faster decoding in the browser (vector tile benchmark).

1.1.4 (Jan 2, 2015)

• Significantly improved readPacked and writePacked performance (the tile reading benchmark is now 70% faster).

1.1.3 (Dec 26, 2014)

Brings tons of improvements and fixes over the previous version (0.0.2). Basically makes the library complete.

Improvements

• Improved performance of both reading and writing.
• Made the browser build 3 times smaller.
• Added convenience readFields and readMessage methods for a much easier reading API.
• Added reading methods: readFloat, readBoolean, readSFixed32, readSFixed64.
• Added writing methods: writeUInt64, writeSFixed32, writeSFixed64.
• Improved readDouble and readString to use native Buffer methods under Node.
• Improved readString and writeString to use HTML5 TextEncoder and TextDecoder where available.
• Made Pbf buffer argument optional.
• Added extensive docs and examples in the readme.
• Added an extensive test suite that brings test coverage up to 100%.

Breaking API changes

• Renamed readBuffer/writeBuffer to readBytes/writeBytes.
• Renamed readUInt32/writeUInt32 to readFixed32/writeFixed32, etc.
• Renamed writeTaggedVarint to writeVarintField, etc.
• Changed writePacked signature from (type, tag, items) to (tag, type, items).

Bugfixes

• Fixed readVarint to handle varints bigger than 6 bytes.
• Fixed readSVarint to handle number bigger than 2^30.
• Fixed writeVarint failing on some integers.
• Fixed writeVarint not throwing an error on numbers that are too big.
• Fixed readUInt64 always failing.
• Fixed writing to an empty buffer always failing.