Overview of APIs and Client Libraries

Data Catalog offers several programmatic interfaces for interaction, and we recommend using them in the following order:

  • Google Cloud Client Libraries: Data Catalog client libraries are available in multiple languages and are built on gRPC. These client libraries provide a layer of abstraction on top of gRPC and handle the details of operation polling and retries. For more information, see Data Catalog client libraries.

  • gRPC: If your preferred programming language lacks a dedicated client library, you can still generate gRPC client libraries for Data Catalog using any gRPC-supported language. This requires the protocol buffers service definition, which is available in the GitHub repository.

    To generate and use your client, refer to the instructions on grpc.io for your chosen language.

  • REST API: if you're unable to use Data Catalog's client libraries or the gRPC API, use the REST API.

For more information, see the following: