Thrift: Is it possible to do only serialization with C++ Thrift library?

Question

With C++ Apache Thrift library, is it possible to use only Serialization/Deserialization and not use RPC services?

As I understand from this page, it is possible to do with Java library. However, I could not find the similar classes for C++ library.

Answer 1

Yes it is possible. Thrift lacks documentation about this subject. Well, about anything really.

Here i found this:

http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/thrift-user/201010.mbox/%[email protected]%3E

i personally use boost::serialization if there is no need to transfer data over network. Much clear syntax and supports JSON, XML and binary output/input.

Answer 2

If you simply want to serialize into bytes (without having to write to a file), you can use TMemoryBuffer.

boost::shared_ptr<TMemoryBuffer> buffer(new TMemoryBuffer());
boost::shared_ptr<TBinaryProtocol> binaryProtcol(new TBinaryProtocol(buffer));

obj->write(binaryProtcol.get());
obj->read((binaryProtcol.get()));