I'm developing a local-first application and am considering a plugin system. Given my experience with gRPC, I thought about allowing users to deploy gRPC-based microservices according to a specific specification for integration into the app. This would offer great flexibility and autonomy for users since I'd only need to manage connections to these servers. However, I sometimes wonder if there are reasons people haven't commonly pursued this approach before. Anyone else have insights on this?
1 Answer
Using gRPC can be a solid choice if you need process isolation, and it also allows for plugins in multiple programming languages. I maintain a gRPC backend with a JavaFX app, and I've found the serialization overhead to be manageable as long as you keep message sizes in check. Just think about whether each plugin will be its own service or if they'll connect to a main server for handling - both options can work well!
Great point! I can see how my app can accommodate either setup since it can serve data for the plugins or use gRPC to process data in other workflows. Definitely something to consider!