总览

先来看一下 FlatBuffers 项目已经为我们提供了什么，而我们在将 FlatBuffers 用到我们的项目中时又需要做什么的整体流程。如下图：

在使用 FlatBuffers 时，我们需要以特殊的格式定义我们的结构化数据，保存为 .fbs 文件。FlatBuffers 项目为我们提供了编译器，可用于将 .fbs 文件编译为Java文件，C++文件等，以用于我们的项目。FlatBuffers 编译器在我们的开发机，比如Ubuntu，Mac上运行。这些源代码文件是基于 FlatBuffers 提供的Java库生成的，同时我们也需要利用这个Java库的一些接口来序列化或解析数据。

我们将 FlatBuffers 编译器生成的Java文件及 FlatBuffers 的Java库导入我们的项目，就可以用 FlatBuffers 来对我们的结构化数据执行序列化和反序列化了。尽管每次手动执行 FlatBuffers 编译器生成Java文件非常麻烦，但不像 Protocol Buffers 那样，当前还没有Google官方提供的gradle插件可用。不过，我们这边开发了一个简单的 FlatBuffers gradle插件，后面会简单介绍一下，欢迎大家使用。

接下来我们更详细地看一下上面流程中的各个部分。

下载、编译 FlatBuffers 编译器

我们可以在如下位置：

https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/releases

获取官方发布的打包好的版本。针对Windows平台有编译好的可执行安装文件，对其它平台还是打包的源文件。我们也可以指向clone repo的代码，进行手动编译。这里我们从GitHub上clone代码并手动编译编译器：

$ git clone https://github.com/google/flatbuffers.gitCloning into 'flatbuffers'...remote: Counting objects: 7340, done.remote: Compressing objects: 100% (46/46), done.remote: Total 7340 (delta 16), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 7290Receiving objects: 100% (7340/7340), 3.64 MiB | 115.00 KiB/s, done.Resolving deltas: 100% (4692/4692), done.Checking connectivity... done.

下载代码之后，我们需要用cmake工具来为flatbuffers生成Makefile文件并编译：

$ cd flatbuffers/$ cmake CMakeLists.txt -- The C compiler identification is AppleClang 7.3.0.7030031-- The CXX compiler identification is AppleClang 7.3.0.7030031-- Check for working C compiler: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/cc-- Check for working C compiler: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/cc -- works-- Detecting C compiler ABI info-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done-- Detecting C compile features-- Detecting C compile features - done-- Check for working CXX compiler: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/c++-- Check for working CXX compiler: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/c++ -- works-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done-- Detecting CXX compile features-- Detecting CXX compile features - done-- Configuring done-- Generating done-- Build files have been written to: /Users/netease/Projects/OpenSource/flatbuffers$ make && make install

安装之后执行如下命令以确认已经装好：

$ flatc --versionflatc version 1.4.0 (Dec  7 2016)

flatc没有为我们提供 --help 选项，不过加了错误的参数时这个工具会为我们展示详细的用法：

$ flatc --helpflatc: unknown commandline argument: --helpusage: flatc [OPTION]... FILE... [-- FILE...] --binary -b Generate wire format binaries for any data definitions. --json -t Generate text output for any data definitions. --cpp -c Generate C++ headers for tables/structs. --go -g Generate Go files for tables/structs. --java -j Generate Java classes for tables/structs. --js -s Generate JavaScript code for tables/structs. --csharp -n Generate C# classes for tables/structs. --python -p Generate Python files for tables/structs. --php Generate PHP files for tables/structs. -o PATH Prefix PATH to all generated files. -I PATH Search for includes in the specified path. -M Print make rules for generated files. --version Print the version number of flatc and exit. --strict-json Strict JSON: field names must be / will be quoted, no trailing commas in tables/vectors. --allow-non-utf8 Pass non-UTF-8 input through parser and emit nonstandard \x escapes in JSON. (Default is to raise parse error on non-UTF-8 input.) --defaults-json Output fields whose value is the default when writing JSON --unknown-json Allow fields in JSON that are not defined in the schema. These fields will be discared when generating binaries. --no-prefix Don't prefix enum values with the enum type in C++. --scoped-enums Use C++11 style scoped and strongly typed enums. also implies --no-prefix. --gen-includes (deprecated), this is the default behavior. If the original behavior is required (no include statements) use --no-includes. --no-includes Don't generate include statements for included schemas the generated file depends on (C++). --gen-mutable Generate accessors that can mutate buffers in-place. --gen-onefile Generate single output file for C#. --gen-name-strings Generate type name functions for C++. --escape-proto-ids Disable appending '_' in namespaces names. --gen-object-api Generate an additional object-based API. --cpp-ptr-type T Set object API pointer type (default std::unique_ptr) --raw-binary Allow binaries without file_indentifier to be read. This may crash flatc given a mismatched schema. --proto Input is a .proto, translate to .fbs. --schema Serialize schemas instead of JSON (use with -b) --conform FILE Specify a schema the following schemas should be an evolution of. Gives errors if not. --conform-includes Include path for the schema given with --conform PATH FILEs may be schemas, or JSON files (conforming to preceding schema)FILEs after the -- must be binary flatbuffer format files.Output files are named using the base file name of the input,and written to the current directory or the path given by -o.example: flatc -c -b schema1.fbs schema2.fbs data.json

创建 .fbs 文件

flatc支持将为 Protocol Buffers 编写的 .proto 文件转换为 .fbs 文件，如：

$ lsaddressbook.proto$ flatc --proto addressbook.proto $ ls -ltotal 16-rw-r--r--  1 netease  staff  431 12  7 17:21 addressbook.fbs-rw-r--r--@ 1 netease  staff  486 12  1 15:18 addressbook.proto

Protocol Buffers 消息文件中的一些写法，FlatBuffers 编译器还不能很好的支持，如option java_package，option java_outer_classname，和嵌套类。这里我们基于 FlatBuffers 编译器转换的 .proto 文件来获得我们的 .fbs 文件：

// Generated from addressbook.protonamespace com.example.tutorial;enum PhoneType : int {  MOBILE = 0,  HOME = 1,  WORK = 2,}namespace com.example.tutorial;table Person {  name:string (required);  id:int;  email:string;  phone:[com.example.tutorial._Person.PhoneNumber];}namespace com.example.tutorial._Person;table PhoneNumber {  number:string (required);  type:int;}namespace com.example.tutorial;table AddressBook {  person:[com.example.tutorial.Person];}root_type AddressBook;

可以参考来了解 .fbs 文件的详细的写法。

编译 .fbs 文件

可以通过如下命令编译 .fbs 文件：

$ flatc --java -o out addressbook.fbs

--java用于指定编译的目标编程语言。-o 参数则用于指定输出文件的路径，如过没有提供则将当前目录用作输出目录。FlatBuffers 编译器按照为不同的数据结构声明的namespace生成目录结构。对于上面的例子，会生成如下的这些文件：

$ find outp.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Menlo}span.s1 {font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures}$ find out/out/out//comout//com/exampleout//com/example/tutorialout//com/example/tutorial/_Personout//com/example/tutorial/_Person/PhoneNumber.javaout//com/example/tutorial/AddressBook.javaout//com/example/tutorial/Person.javaout//com/example/tutorial/PhoneType.java

在Android项目中使用 FlatBuffers

我们将前面由 .fbs 文件生成的Java文件拷贝到我们的项目中。我们前面提到的，FlatBuffers 的Java库比较薄，当前官方并没有发布到jcenter这样的maven仓库中，因而我们需要将这部分代码也拷贝到我们的额项目中。FlatBuffers 的Java库在其repo仓库的 java 目录下。我们有将这部分代码打包，放在公司的maven仓库中，引用的方法为，修改应用程序的 build.gradle：

repositories {    maven {        url "http://mvn.hz.netease.com/artifactory/libs-releases/"    }    maven {        url "http://mvn.hz.netease.com/artifactory/libs-snapshots/"    }}dependencies {    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])    compile project(':netlib')    testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'    compile 'com.netease.hearttouch:ht-flatbuffers:0.0.1-SNAPSHOT'}

添加访问 FlatBuffers 的类：

package com.netease.volleydemo;import com.example.tutorial.AddressBook;import com.example.tutorial.Person;import com.example.tutorial._Person.PhoneNumber;import com.google.flatbuffers.FlatBufferBuilder;import java.nio.ByteBuffer;/** * Created by hanpfei0306 on 16-12-5. */public class AddressBookFlatBuffers {    public static byte[] encodeTest(String[] names) {        FlatBufferBuilder builder = new FlatBufferBuilder(0);        int[] personOffsets = new int[names.length];        for (int i = 0; i < names.length; ++ i) {            int name = builder.createString(names[i]);            int email = builder.createString("zhangsan@gmail.com");            int number1 = builder.createString("0157-23443276");            int type1 = 1;            int phoneNumber1 = PhoneNumber.createPhoneNumber(builder, number1, type1);            int number2 = builder.createString("136183667387");            int type2 = 0;            int phoneNumber2 = PhoneNumber.createPhoneNumber(builder, number2, type2);            int[] phoneNubers = new int[2];            phoneNubers[0] = phoneNumber1;            phoneNubers[1] = phoneNumber2;            int phoneNumbersPos = Person.createPhoneVector(builder, phoneNubers);            int person = Person.createPerson(builder, name, 13958235, email, phoneNumbersPos);            personOffsets[i] = person;        }        int persons = AddressBook.createPersonVector(builder, personOffsets);        AddressBook.startAddressBook(builder);        AddressBook.addPerson(builder, persons);        int eab = AddressBook.endAddressBook(builder);        builder.finish(eab);        byte[] data = builder.sizedByteArray();        return data;    }    public static byte[] encodeTest(String[] names, int times) {        for (int i = 0; i < times - 1; ++ i) {            encodeTest(names);        }        return encodeTest(names);    }    public static AddressBook decodeTest(byte[] data) {        AddressBook addressBook = null;        ByteBuffer byteBuffer = ByteBuffer.wrap(data);        addressBook = AddressBook.getRootAsAddressBook(byteBuffer);        return addressBook;    }    public static AddressBook decodeTest(byte[] data, int times) {        AddressBook addressBook = null;        for (int i = 0; i < times; ++ i) {            addressBook = decodeTest(data);        }        return addressBook;    }}

使用 flatbuf-gradle-plugin

我们有开发一个 FlatBuffers 的gradle插件，以方便开发，。这个插件的设计有参考Google的protobuf-gradle-plugin，功能及用法也与protobuf-gradle-plugin类似。

应用flatbuf-gradle-plugin

修改应用程序的 build.gradle 以应用flatbuf-gradle-plugin。

为buildscript添加对flatbuf-gradle-plugin的依赖：

buildscript { repositories {     maven {         url "http://mvn.hz.netease.com/artifactory/libs-releases/"     }     maven {         url "http://mvn.hz.netease.com/artifactory/libs-snapshots/"     } } dependencies {     classpath 'com.netease.hearttouch:ht-flatbuf-gradle-plugin:0.0.1-SNAPSHOT' }}

在apply plugin: 'com.android.application'后面应用flatbuf的plugin：

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'apply plugin: 'com.netease.flatbuf'

添加flatbuf块，对flatbuf-gradle-plugin的执行做配置：
```
flatbuf { flatc {     path = '/usr/local/bin/flatc' } generateFlatTasks {     all().each { task ->         task.builtins {             remove java         }         task.builtins {             java { }         }     } }}
```
flatc块用于配置 FlatBuffers 编译器，这里我们指定用我们之前手动编译的编译器。 task.builtins的块必不可少，这个块用于指定我们要为那些编程语言生成代码，这里我们为Java生成代码。

指定 .fbs 文件的路径

sourceSets {     main {         flat {             srcDir 'src/main/flat'         }     } }

我们将 FlatBuffers 的IDL文件放在src/main/flat目录下。

这样我们就不用再那么麻烦每次手动执行flatc了。