Protocol Buffers 是谷歌开源的序列化与反序列化框架。它与语言无关、平台无关、具有可扩展的机制。用于序列化结构化数据，此工具对标 XML ，支持自动编码，解码。比 XML 性能好，且数据易于解析。更多有关工具的介绍可参考官网。
Protocol Buffers官网：https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers 1
Protocol Buffers 为跨平台设计，以 Python 为例，使用者配置 .proto 文件，利用 Protocol Buffers 工具即可生成 Python 代码，此代码就是使用者想要的数据结构。
如果编程语言换成了 Java ，使用者可使用相同的 .proto 文件，利用 Protocol Buffers 工具生成 Java 代码，此代码可被 Java 进行解析。
这么做的好处是可以跨语言交流，试想 Java 与 Python 间的数据通信，只需要利用 .proto 确定格式，就可随心编程，这个过程惬意无比。基于 Protocol Buffers 的测试也无比舒服。
你可选择自己的语言进行测试，比如 Python 。由于数据格式基于 .proto 配置文件，获取到这个文件即可生成数据类，比如下述 .proto 内容通过 protoc --python_out=./ ./addressbook.proto 命令即可生成 addressbook_pb2.py 文件：
syntax = "proto2"; package tutorial; message Person { optional string name = 1; optional int32 id = 2; optional string email = 3; enum PhoneType { MOBILE = 0; HOME = 1; WORK = 2; } message PhoneNumber { optional string number = 1; optional PhoneType type = 2 [default = HOME]; } repeated PhoneNumber phones = 4; } message AddressBook { repeated Person people = 1; }
测试人员的代码只需导入 addressbook_pb2 ，对其初始化后即可使用，比如对 Person 的字段加入一些测试值：
import addressbook_pb2 person = addressbook_pb2.Person() person.id = 1234 person.name = "John Doe" person.email = "jdoe@example.com" phone = person.phones.add() phone.number = "555-4321" phone.type = addressbook_pb2.Person.HOME
最后，将 person 序列化后即可传输到被测对象。如果你的业务采用文件进行数据传输，可参考官方写文件的例子（采用 python2 ）：
#! /usr/bin/python import addressbook_pb2 import sys # This function fills in a Person message based on user input. def PromptForAddress(person): person.id = int(raw_input("Enter person ID number: ")) person.name = raw_input("Enter name: ") email = raw_input("Enter email address (blank for none): ") if email != "": person.email = email while True: number = raw_input("Enter a phone number (or leave blank to finish): ") if number == "": break phone_number = person.phones.add() phone_number.number = number type = raw_input("Is this a mobile, home, or work phone? ") if type == "mobile": phone_number.type = addressbook_pb2.Person.PhoneType.MOBILE elif type == "home": phone_number.type = addressbook_pb2.Person.PhoneType.HOME elif type == "work": phone_number.type = addressbook_pb2.Person.PhoneType.WORK else: print "Unknown phone type; leaving as default value." # Main procedure: Reads the entire address book from a file, # adds one person based on user input, then writes it back out to the same # file. if len(sys.argv) != 2: print "Usage:", sys.argv[0], "ADDRESS_BOOK_FILE" sys.exit(-1) address_book = addressbook_pb2.AddressBook() # Read the existing address book. try: f = open(sys.argv[1], "rb") address_book.ParseFromString(f.read()) f.close() except IOError: print sys.argv[1] + ": Could not open file. Creating a new one." # Add an address. PromptForAddress(address_book.people.add()) # Write the new address book back to disk. f = open(sys.argv[1], "wb") f.write(address_book.SerializeToString()) f.close()
也可从被测对象传来的文件中读数据：
#! /usr/bin/python import addressbook_pb2 import sys # Iterates though all people in the AddressBook and prints info about them. def ListPeople(address_book): for person in address_book.people: print "Person ID:", person.id print " Name:", person.name if person.HasField('email'): print " E-mail address:", person.email for phone_number in person.phones: if phone_number.type == addressbook_pb2.Person.PhoneType.MOBILE: print " Mobile phone #: ", elif phone_number.type == addressbook_pb2.Person.PhoneType.HOME: print " Home phone #: ", elif phone_number.type == addressbook_pb2.Person.PhoneType.WORK: print " Work phone #: ", print phone_number.number # Main procedure: Reads the entire address book from a file and prints all # the information inside. if len(sys.argv) != 2: print "Usage:", sys.argv[0], "ADDRESS_BOOK_FILE" sys.exit(-1) address_book = addressbook_pb2.AddressBook() # Read the existing address book. f = open(sys.argv[1], "rb") address_book.ParseFromString(f.read()) f.close() ListPeople(address_book)
如果数据通过 https 传输，可采用 requests ，其它传输方式同理，请自行查阅数据传输工具。如果测试人员代码与被测对象建立了联系，即可收发测试数据，测试人员对接收到的数据编写测试用例即可。
