Build a Node.js Microservice with Apache Dubbo3: Full Triple‑Protocol Example

Overview

Apache Dubbo is a high‑performance web and RPC framework that provides service discovery, traffic governance, observability, authentication, and other enterprise‑grade capabilities. Dubbo 3 adds multi‑language support (Java, Go, JavaScript/Node.js, Rust) and introduces the Triple protocol.

Triple Protocol and Node.js SDK

The Triple protocol allows RPC services to run over both HTTP/1 and HTTP/2 and be compatible with browsers, mobile clients, and gRPC. The Dubbo‑js SDK (TypeScript) lets developers define services via Protocol Buffers (IDL) or code‑first and offers a lightweight API for publishing and invoking services.

Prerequisites

Install the protobuf code‑generation tools required for the Dubbo plugins:

npm install @bufbuild/protoc-gen-es @bufbuild/protobuf @apachedubbo/protoc-gen-apache-dubbo-es @apachedubbo/dubbo

Define the Service

Create a proto directory and an example.proto file with the following definition:

syntax = "proto3";
package apache.dubbo.demo.example.v1;

message SayRequest {
  string sentence = 1;
}

message SayResponse {
  string sentence = 1;
}

service ExampleService {
  rpc Say(SayRequest) returns (SayResponse) {}
}

This declares ExampleService with a single RPC method Say.

Generate TypeScript Stubs

Create a gen directory for generated files and run protoc with the Dubbo plugins:

PATH=$PATH:$(pwd)/node_modules/.bin \
  protoc -I proto \
  --es_out gen \
  --es_opt target=ts \
  --apache-dubbo-es_out gen \
  --apache-dubbo-es_opt target=ts \
  example.proto

The command produces:

├── gen
│   ├── example_dubbo.ts
│   └── example_pb.ts
├── proto
│   └── example.proto

Implement the Service

Create dubbo.ts and register the implementation with a DubboRouter:

import { DubboRouter } from "@apachedubbo/dubbo";
import { ExampleService } from "./gen/example_dubbo";

export default (router: DubboRouter) =>
  router.service(ExampleService, {
    async say(req) {
      return { sentence: `You said: ${req.sentence}` };
    },
  }, { serviceGroup: 'dubbo', serviceVersion: '1.0.0' });

Start a Fastify Server

Install Fastify and the Dubbo Fastify plugin, then create server.ts:

npm install fastify @apachedubbo/dubbo-fastify

import { fastify } from "fastify";
import { fastifyDubboPlugin } from "@apachedubbo/dubbo-fastify";
import routes from "./dubbo";

async function main() {
  const server = fastify();
  await server.register(fastifyDubboPlugin, { routes });
  server.get("/", (_, reply) => {
    reply.type("text/plain");
    reply.send("Hello World!");
  });
  await server.listen({ host: "localhost", port: 8080 });
  console.log("server is listening at", server.addresses());
}

void main();

Run the server:

npx tsx server.ts

Invoke the Service via HTTP

Send a JSON POST request to the RPC endpoint:

curl \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'TRI-Service-Version: 1.0.0' \
  --header 'TRI-Service-group: dubbo' \
  --data '{"sentence": "Hello World"}' \
  http://localhost:8080/apache.dubbo.demo.example.v1.ExampleService/Say

Invoke the Service with a Dubbo Client

Create client.ts that uses the generated stubs and a Dubbo transport:

import { createPromiseClient } from "@apachedubbo/dubbo";
import { ExampleService } from "./gen/example_dubbo";
import { createDubboTransport } from "@apachedubbo/dubbo-node";

const transport = createDubboTransport({
  baseUrl: "http://localhost:8080",
  httpVersion: "1.1",
});

async function main() {
  const client = createPromiseClient(ExampleService, transport, {
    serviceVersion: '1.0.0',
    serviceGroup: 'dubbo',
  });
  const res = await client.say({ sentence: "Hello World" });
  console.log(res);
}

void main();

Run the client:

npx tsx client.ts

Future Work

The current Node.js release fully supports the Triple protocol. Upcoming releases will add address discovery, load balancing, and other service‑governance features.

References

https://github.com/apache/dubbo

https://github.com/apache/dubbo-go

https://github.com/apache/dubbo-js

https://github.com/apache/dubbo-rust