diff --git a/docs/grpc/python.md b/docs/grpc/python.md index a3faaa917c..58b6d7f6a3 100644 --- a/docs/grpc/python.md +++ b/docs/grpc/python.md @@ -1,10 +1,12 @@ # How to write a Python gRPC client for the Lightning Network Daemon # -This section enumerates what you need to do to write a client that communicates with lnd in Python. +This section enumerates what you need to do to write a client that communicates +with lnd in Python. -Lnd uses the gRPC protocol for communication with clients like lncli. gRPC is based on protocol buffers -and as such, you will need to compile the lnd proto file in Python before you can use it to communicate with -lnd. The following are the steps to take. +Lnd uses the gRPC protocol for communication with clients like lncli. gRPC is +based on protocol buffers and as such, you will need to compile the lnd proto +file in Python before you can use it to communicate with lnd. The following are +the steps to take. * Create a virtual environment for your project ``` @@ -14,15 +16,18 @@ $ virtualenv lnd ``` $ source lnd/bin/activate ``` -* Install dependencies (googleapis-common-protos is required due to the use of google/api/annotations.proto) +* Install dependencies (googleapis-common-protos is required due to the use of + google/api/annotations.proto) ``` (lnd)$ pip install grpcio grpcio-tools googleapis-common-protos ``` -* Clone the google api's repository (required due to the use of google/api/annotations.proto) +* Clone the google api's repository (required due to the use of + google/api/annotations.proto) ``` (lnd)$ git clone https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis.git ``` -* Copy the lnd rpc.proto file (you'll find this in lnrpc/rpc.proto) or just download it +* Copy the lnd rpc.proto file (you'll find this in lnrpc/rpc.proto) or just + download it ``` (lnd)$ curl -o rpc.proto -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/master/lnrpc/rpc.proto ``` @@ -31,10 +36,11 @@ $ source lnd/bin/activate (lnd)$ python -m grpc_tools.protoc --proto_path=googleapis:. --python_out=. --grpc_python_out=. rpc.proto ``` -After following these steps, two files `rpc_pb2.py` and `rpc_pb2_grpc.py` will be generated. These files will be -imported in your project while writing your clients. Here's an example of a simple client that was built using these. +After following these steps, two files `rpc_pb2.py` and `rpc_pb2_grpc.py` will +be generated. These files will be imported in your project while writing your +clients. Here's an example of a simple client that was built using these. -``` +```python # python-based lnd client to retrieve and display wallet balance import grpc @@ -48,3 +54,12 @@ stub = lnrpc.LightningStub(channel) response = stub.WalletBalance(ln.WalletBalanceRequest(witness_only=True)) print(response.balance) ``` + +With the above, you should have all the `lnd` related `gRPC` dependencies +installed locally into your virtual environment. In order to get up to speed +with `protofbuf` usage from Python, see [this official `protobuf` tutorial for +Python](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/pythontutorial). +Additionally, [this official gRPC +resource](http://www.grpc.io/docs/tutorials/basic/python.html) details how to +drive `gRPC` from Python including the basics of making RPC calls, streaming +RPC's (bi-directional and uni-directional), etc.