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doc/website/blog/2021-06-28-gprc-ready-for-use.md

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+---
+title: Ent + gRPC is Ready for Usage
+author: Rotem Tamir
+authorURL: "https://github.com/rotemtam"
+authorImageURL: "https://s.gravatar.com/avatar/36b3739951a27d2e37251867b7d44b1a?s=80"
+authorTwitter: _rtam
+---
+A few months ago, we announced the experimental support for 
+[generating gRPC services from Ent Schema definitions](https://entgo.io/blog/2021/03/18/generating-a-grpc-server-with-ent). The 
+implementation was not complete yet but we wanted to get it out the door for the community to experiment with and provide
+us with feedback.
+
+Today, after much feedback from the community, we are happy to announce that the [Ent](https://entgo.io) +
+[gRPC](https://grpc.io) integration is "Ready for Usage", this means all of the basic features are complete
+and we anticipate that most Ent applications can utilize this integration.
+
+What have we added since our initial announcement?
+- [Support for "Optional Fields"](https://entgo.io/docs/grpc-optional-fields) - A common issue with Protobufs 
+  is that the way that nil values are represented: a zero-valued primitive field isn't encoded into the binary
+  representation. This means that applications cannot distinguish between zero and not-set for primitive fields.
+  To support this, the Protobuf project supports some 
+  "[Well-Known-Types](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/reference/google.protobuf)" 
+  called "wrapper types" that wrap the primitive value with a struct. This wasn't previously supported 
+  but now when `entproto` generates a Protobuf message definition, it uses these wrapper types to represent
+  "Optional" ent fields:
+  ```protobuf {15}
+  // Code generated by entproto. DO NOT EDIT.
+  syntax = "proto3";
+  
+  package entpb;
+  
+  import "google/protobuf/wrappers.proto";
+  
+  message User {
+    int32 id = 1;
+  
+    string name = 2;
+  
+    string email_address = 3;
+  
+    google.protobuf.StringValue alias = 4;
+  }
+  ```
+
+- [Multi-edge support](https://entgo.io/docs/grpc-edges) - when we released the initial version of  
+  `protoc-gen-entgrpc`, we only supported generating gRPC service implementations for "Unique" edges
+  (i.e reference at most one entity). Since a [recent version](https://github.com/ent/contrib/commit/bf9430fbba45a808bc054144f9711833c76bf05c),
+  the plugin supports the generation of gRPC methods to read and write entities with O2M and M2M relationships.
+- [Partial responses](https://entgo.io/docs/grpc-edges#retrieving-edge-ids-for-entities) - By default, edge information
+  is not returned by the `Get` method of the service. This is done deliberately because the amount of entities related 
+  to an entity is unbound.
+
+  To allow the caller of to specify whether or not to return the edge information or not, the generated service adheres
+  to [Google AIP-157](https://google.aip.dev/157) (Partial Responses). In short, the `Get<T>Request` message 
+  includes an enum named View, this enum allows the caller to control whether or not this information should be retrieved from the database or not.
+  
+  ```protobuf {6-12}
+  message GetUserRequest {
+    int32 id = 1;
+  
+    View view = 2;
+  
+    enum View {
+      VIEW_UNSPECIFIED = 0;
+  
+      BASIC = 1;
+  
+      WITH_EDGE_IDS = 2;
+    }
+  }
+  ```
+
+### Getting Started
+
+- To help everyone get started with the Ent + gRPC integration, we have published an official [Ent + gRPC Tutorial](https://entgo.io/docs/grpc-intro) (and a complimentary [GitHub repo](https://github.com/rotemtam/ent-grpc-example)).
+- Do you need help getting started with the integration or have some other question? [Join us on Slack](https://entgo.io/docs/slack) or our [Discord server](https://discord.gg/qZmPgTE6RX).
+
+:::note For more Ent news and updates:
+
+- Subscribe to our [Newsletter](https://entgo.substack.com/)
+- Follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/entgo_io)
+- Join us on #ent on the [Gophers Slack](https://entgo.io/docs/slack)
+- Join us on the [Ent Discord Server](https://discord.gg/qZmPgTE6RX)
+
+:::