path: root/csharp/README.md

This directory contains the C# Protocol Buffers runtime library.

Usage
=====

The easiest way how to use C# protobufs is via the `Google.Protobuf`
NuGet package. Just add the NuGet package to your VS project.

You will also want to install the `Google.Protobuf.Tools` NuGet package, which
contains precompiled version of `protoc.exe` and a copy of well known `.proto`
files under the package's `tools` directory.

To generate C# files from your `.proto` files, invoke `protoc` with the 
`--csharp_out` option.

Supported platforms
===================

The runtime library is built as a portable class library, supporting:

- .NET 4.5
- Windows 8
- Windows Phone Silverlight 8
- Windows Phone 8.1
- .NET Core

You should be able to use Protocol Buffers in Visual Studio 2012 and
all later versions. This includes all code generated by `protoc`,
which only uses features from C# 3 and earlier.

Building
========

Open the `src/Google.Protobuf.sln` solution in Visual Studio 2015 or
later. You should be able to run the NUnit test from Test Explorer
(you might need to install NUnit Visual Studio add-in).

Although *users* of this project are only expected to have Visual
Studio 2012 or later, *developers* of the library are required to
have Visual Studio 2015 or later, as the library uses C# 6 features
in its implementation. These features have no impact when using the
compiled code - they're only relevant when building the
`Google.Protobuf` assembly.

History of C# protobufs
=======================

This subtree was originally imported from https://github.com/jskeet/protobuf-csharp-port
and represents the latest development version of C# protobufs, that will now be developed
and maintained by Google. All the development will be done in open, under this repository
(https://github.com/google/protobuf).

The previous project differs from this project in a number of ways:

- The old code only supported proto2; the new code only supports
proto3 (so no unknown fields, no required/optional distinction, no
extensions)
- The old code was based on immutable message types and builders for
them
- The old code did not support maps or `oneof`
- The old code had its own JSON representation, whereas the new code
uses the standard protobuf JSON representation
- The old code had no notion of the "well-known types" which have
special support in the new code
- The old project supported some older platforms (such as older
versions of Silverlight) which are not currently supported in the
new project