Google Protocol Buffers (protobuf): JavaScript parsing library

Google Protocol Buffers (AKA protobuf) is a popular data serialization scheme used for communication protocols, data storage, etc. There are implementations are available for almost every popular language. The focus points of this scheme are brevity (data is encoded in a very size-efficient manner) and extensibility (one can add keys to the structure, while keeping it readable in previous version of software).

Protobuf uses semi-self-describing encoding scheme for its messages. It means that it is possible to parse overall structure of the message (skipping over fields one can't understand), but to fully understand the message, one needs a protocol definition file (.proto). To be specific:

  • "Keys" in key-value pairs provided in the message are identified only with an integer "field tag". .proto file provides info on which symbolic field names these field tags map to.
  • "Keys" also provide something called "wire type". It's not a data type in its common sense (i.e. you can't, for example, distinguish sint32 vs uint32 vs some enum, or string from bytes), but it's enough information to determine how many bytes to parse. Interpretation of the value should be done according to the type specified in .proto file.
  • There's no direct information on which fields are optional / required, which fields may be repeated or constitute a map, what restrictions are placed on fields usage in a single message, what are the fields' default values, etc, etc.

KS implementation details

License: MIT
Minimal Kaitai Struct required: 0.7

References

This page hosts a formal specification of Google Protocol Buffers (protobuf) using Kaitai Struct. This specification can be automatically translated into a variety of programming languages to get a parsing library.

Usage

Runtime library

All parsing code for JavaScript generated by Kaitai Struct depends on the JavaScript runtime library. You have to install it before you can parse data.

The JavaScript runtime library is available at npm:

npm install kaitai-struct

Code

See the usage examples in the JavaScript notes.

Parse structure from an ArrayBuffer:

var arrayBuffer = ...;
var data = new GoogleProtobuf(new KaitaiStream(arrayBuffer));

After that, one can get various attributes from the structure by accessing fields or properties like:

data.pairs // => Key-value pairs which constitute a message

JavaScript source code to parse Google Protocol Buffers (protobuf)

GoogleProtobuf.js

// This is a generated file! Please edit source .ksy file and use kaitai-struct-compiler to rebuild

(function (root, factory) {
  if (typeof define === 'function' && define.amd) {
    define(['kaitai-struct/KaitaiStream', './VlqBase128Le'], factory);
  } else if (typeof module === 'object' && module.exports) {
    module.exports = factory(require('kaitai-struct/KaitaiStream'), require('./VlqBase128Le'));
  } else {
    root.GoogleProtobuf = factory(root.KaitaiStream, root.VlqBase128Le);
  }
}(typeof self !== 'undefined' ? self : this, function (KaitaiStream, VlqBase128Le) {
/**
 * Google Protocol Buffers (AKA protobuf) is a popular data
 * serialization scheme used for communication protocols, data storage,
 * etc. There are implementations are available for almost every
 * popular language. The focus points of this scheme are brevity (data
 * is encoded in a very size-efficient manner) and extensibility (one
 * can add keys to the structure, while keeping it readable in previous
 * version of software).
 * 
 * Protobuf uses semi-self-describing encoding scheme for its
 * messages. It means that it is possible to parse overall structure of
 * the message (skipping over fields one can't understand), but to
 * fully understand the message, one needs a protocol definition file
 * (`.proto`). To be specific:
 * 
 * * "Keys" in key-value pairs provided in the message are identified
 *   only with an integer "field tag". `.proto` file provides info on
 *   which symbolic field names these field tags map to.
 * * "Keys" also provide something called "wire type". It's not a data
 *   type in its common sense (i.e. you can't, for example, distinguish
 *   `sint32` vs `uint32` vs some enum, or `string` from `bytes`), but
 *   it's enough information to determine how many bytes to
 *   parse. Interpretation of the value should be done according to the
 *   type specified in `.proto` file.
 * * There's no direct information on which fields are optional /
 *   required, which fields may be repeated or constitute a map, what
 *   restrictions are placed on fields usage in a single message, what
 *   are the fields' default values, etc, etc.
 * @see {@link https://protobuf.dev/programming-guides/encoding/|Source}
 */

var GoogleProtobuf = (function() {
  function GoogleProtobuf(_io, _parent, _root) {
    this._io = _io;
    this._parent = _parent;
    this._root = _root || this;

    this._read();
  }
  GoogleProtobuf.prototype._read = function() {
    this.pairs = [];
    var i = 0;
    while (!this._io.isEof()) {
      this.pairs.push(new Pair(this._io, this, this._root));
      i++;
    }
  }

  /**
   * Key-value pair
   */

  var Pair = GoogleProtobuf.Pair = (function() {
    Pair.WireTypes = Object.freeze({
      VARINT: 0,
      BIT_64: 1,
      LEN_DELIMITED: 2,
      GROUP_START: 3,
      GROUP_END: 4,
      BIT_32: 5,

      0: "VARINT",
      1: "BIT_64",
      2: "LEN_DELIMITED",
      3: "GROUP_START",
      4: "GROUP_END",
      5: "BIT_32",
    });

    function Pair(_io, _parent, _root) {
      this._io = _io;
      this._parent = _parent;
      this._root = _root || this;

      this._read();
    }
    Pair.prototype._read = function() {
      this.key = new VlqBase128Le(this._io, this, null);
      switch (this.wireType) {
      case GoogleProtobuf.Pair.WireTypes.VARINT:
        this.value = new VlqBase128Le(this._io, this, null);
        break;
      case GoogleProtobuf.Pair.WireTypes.LEN_DELIMITED:
        this.value = new DelimitedBytes(this._io, this, this._root);
        break;
      case GoogleProtobuf.Pair.WireTypes.BIT_64:
        this.value = this._io.readU8le();
        break;
      case GoogleProtobuf.Pair.WireTypes.BIT_32:
        this.value = this._io.readU4le();
        break;
      }
    }

    /**
     * "Wire type" is a part of the "key" that carries enough
     * information to parse value from the wire, i.e. read correct
     * amount of bytes, but there's not enough informaton to
     * interprete in unambiguously. For example, one can't clearly
     * distinguish 64-bit fixed-sized integers from 64-bit floats,
     * signed zigzag-encoded varints from regular unsigned varints,
     * arbitrary bytes from UTF-8 encoded strings, etc.
     */
    Object.defineProperty(Pair.prototype, 'wireType', {
      get: function() {
        if (this._m_wireType !== undefined)
          return this._m_wireType;
        this._m_wireType = (this.key.value & 7);
        return this._m_wireType;
      }
    });

    /**
     * Identifies a field of protocol. One can look up symbolic
     * field name in a `.proto` file by this field tag.
     */
    Object.defineProperty(Pair.prototype, 'fieldTag', {
      get: function() {
        if (this._m_fieldTag !== undefined)
          return this._m_fieldTag;
        this._m_fieldTag = (this.key.value >>> 3);
        return this._m_fieldTag;
      }
    });

    /**
     * Key is a bit-mapped variable-length integer: lower 3 bits
     * are used for "wire type", and everything higher designates
     * an integer "field tag".
     */

    /**
     * Value that corresponds to field identified by
     * `field_tag`. Type is determined approximately: there is
     * enough information to parse it unambiguously from a stream,
     * but further infromation from `.proto` file is required to
     * interprete it properly.
     */

    return Pair;
  })();

  var DelimitedBytes = GoogleProtobuf.DelimitedBytes = (function() {
    function DelimitedBytes(_io, _parent, _root) {
      this._io = _io;
      this._parent = _parent;
      this._root = _root || this;

      this._read();
    }
    DelimitedBytes.prototype._read = function() {
      this.len = new VlqBase128Le(this._io, this, null);
      this.body = this._io.readBytes(this.len.value);
    }

    return DelimitedBytes;
  })();

  /**
   * Key-value pairs which constitute a message
   */

  return GoogleProtobuf;
})();
return GoogleProtobuf;
}));