Integrating Dubbo with SpringBoot Using gRPC: Project Structure, Maven Configuration, and Code Samples

Preface – Dubbo 2.7.5+ supports native gRPC, making it suitable for HTTP/2 communication and service governance; this guide shows how to set up a SpringBoot project with Dubbo‑gRPC.

Project Structure

The multi‑module Maven project consists of a parent pom, an api module for protobuf definitions, and a service module for business logic.

Code Example

Three main steps are required:

Add gRPC and Dubbo BOMs to the parent pom.xml.

In the api module, add gRPC dependencies, the protobuf plugin, and the .proto file.

In the service module, add Dubbo and SpringBoot dependencies and implement the service.

Parent pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>com.demo</groupId>
    <artifactId>nava</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>pom</packaging>
    <properties>
        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
        <dubbo.version>3.1.7</dubbo.version>
        <grpc.version>1.44.1</grpc.version>
        <spring-boot.version>2.6.11</spring-boot.version>
    </properties>
    <modules>
        <module>nava-api</module>
        <module>nava-service</module>
    </modules>
    <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>io.grpc</groupId>
                <artifactId>grpc-bom</artifactId>
                <version>${grpc.version}</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.apache.dubbo</groupId>
                <artifactId>dubbo-bom</artifactId>
                <version>${dubbo.version}</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-dependencies</artifactId>
                <version>${spring-boot.version}</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.8.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.8</source>
                    <target>1.8</target>
                    <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

API module pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <parent>
        <groupId>com.demo</groupId>
        <artifactId>nava</artifactId>
        <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
        <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
    </parent>
    <artifactId>nava-api</artifactId>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.grpc</groupId>
            <artifactId>grpc-netty</artifactId>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>io.netty</groupId>
                    <artifactId>netty-codec-http2</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>io.netty</groupId>
                    <artifactId>netty-handler-proxy</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.grpc</groupId>
            <artifactId>grpc-netty-shaded</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.grpc</groupId>
            <artifactId>grpc-protobuf</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.grpc</groupId>
            <artifactId>grpc-stub</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.dubbo</groupId>
            <artifactId>dubbo-common</artifactId>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>kr.motd.maven</groupId>
                <artifactId>os-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.7.1</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>os-maven-plugin</id>
                        <phase>initialize</phase>
                        <goals><goal>detect</goal></goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.xolstice.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>protobuf-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>0.6.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <protocArtifact>com.google.protobuf:protoc:3.7.1:exe:${os.detected.classifier}</protocArtifact>
                    <pluginId>grpc-java</pluginId>
                    <pluginArtifact>io.grpc:protoc-gen-grpc-java:${grpc.version}:exe:${os.detected.classifier}</pluginArtifact>
                    <protocPlugins>
                        <protocPlugin>
                            <id>dubbo-grpc</id>
                            <groupId>org.apache.dubbo</groupId>
                            <artifactId>dubbo-compiler</artifactId>
                            <version>0.0.1</version>
                            <mainClass>org.apache.dubbo.gen.grpc.DubboGrpcGenerator</mainClass>
                        </protocPlugin>
                    </protocPlugins>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>protobuf-maven-plugin</id>
                        <goals><goal>compile</goal><goal>compile-custom</goal></goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Proto Definition (DemoService.proto)

syntax = "proto3";

option java_multiple_files = true;
option java_package = "com.demo.nava";
option java_outer_classname = "DemoServiceProto";
option objc_class_prefix = "DSP";

service DemoService {
  rpc service (RequestData) returns (ResponseData) {}
}

message RequestData {
  string name = 1;
}

message ResponseData {
  string message = 1;
}

Service Implementation (DemoServiceImpl.java)

package com.demo.nava.service;

import com.demo.nava.DubboDemoServiceGrpc;
import com.demo.nava.RequestData;
import com.demo.nava.ResponseData;
import io.grpc.stub.StreamObserver;
import org.apache.dubbo.config.annotation.DubboService;

@DubboService
public class DemoServiceImpl extends DubboDemoServiceGrpc.DemoServiceImplBase implements DubboDemoServiceGrpc.IDemoService {
    @Override
    public void service(RequestData request, StreamObserver<ResponseData> responseObserver) {
        ResponseData reply = ResponseData.newBuilder()
                .setMessage("Hello " + request.getName())
                .build();
        responseObserver.onNext(reply);
        responseObserver.onCompleted();
    }
}

Configuration

Add the following to application.properties to enable Dubbo gRPC transport and Nacos registry:

# Set Dubbo transport protocol
dubbo.protocol.name=grpc
dubbo.protocol.port=-1
# Dubbo Nacos registry (see Dubbo docs for details)
dubbo.registry.address=nacos://nacos:nacos@${nacos.address:127.0.0.1}:8848

Annotate the SpringBoot main class with @EnableDubbo to activate Dubbo.

Notes

After configuring the project, run maven install to generate protobuf classes, then maven reload (or re‑import the modules) so that the generated API code becomes visible to the service module. Finally, start the application.

Differences Between Dubbo‑Enabled gRPC and Native gRPC

The Maven plugin adds a Dubbo‑specific plugin that generates extra code for Dubbo integration.

Service implementation extends Dubbo‑generated base classes, differing from pure gRPC stubs.

RPC calls follow Dubbo’s interface‑based style while still using gRPC under the hood.

Following these steps yields a functional SpringBoot application that uses Dubbo to provide gRPC services with full service‑governance capabilities.