kafka-avro

kafka-avro

Node.js bindings for librdkafka with Avro schema serialization.

The kafka-avro library is a wrapper that combines the node-rdkafka and avsc libraries to allow for Production and Consumption of messages on kafka validated and serialized by Avro.

Install

Install the module using NPM:

npm install kafka-avro --save

Documentation

The kafka-avro library operates in the following steps:

1. You provide your Kafka Brokers and Schema Registry (SR) Url to a new instance of kafka-avro.
2. You initialize kafka-avro, that will tell the library to query the SR for all registered schemas, evaluate and store them in runtime memory.
3. kafka-avro will then expose the getConsumer() and getProducer() methods, which both return instances of the corresponding Constructors from the node-rdkafka library.

The instances of "node-rdkafka" that are returned by kafka-avro are hacked so as to intercept produced and consumed messages and run them by the Avro de/serializer along with Confluent's Schema Registry Magic Byte and Schema Id.

You are highly encouraged to read the "node-rdkafka" documentation, as it explains how you can use the Producer and Consumer instances as well as check out the available configuration options of node-rdkafka.

node-rdkafka CODES

The Kafka.CODES enumeration of constant values provided by the "node-rdkafka" library is also available as a static var at:

var KafkaAvro = require('kafka-avro');

console.log(KafkaAvro.CODES);

Initialize kafka-avro

var KafkaAvro = require('kafka-avro');

var kafkaAvro = new KafkaAvro({
    kafkaBroker: 'localhost:9092',
    schemaRegistry: 'localhost:8081',
});

// Query the Schema Registry for all topic-schema's
// fetch them and evaluate them.
kafkaAvro.init()
    .then(function() {
        console.log('Ready to use');
    });

Kafka-avro options

When instantiating kafka-avro you may pass the following options:

• kafkaBroker String REQUIRED The url or comma delimited strings pointing to your kafka brokers.
• schemaRegistry String REQUIRED The url to the Schema Registry.

Producer

NOTICE: You need to initialize kafka-avro before you can produce or consume messages.

By invoking the kafkaAvro.getProducer() method, kafka-avro will instantiate a Producer, make it connect and wait for it to be ready before the promise is resolved.

kafkaAvro.getProducer({
  // Options listed bellow
})
    // "getProducer()" returns a Bluebird Promise.
    .then(function(producer) {
        var topicName = 'test';

        producer.on('disconnected', function(arg) {
          console.log('producer disconnected. ' + JSON.stringify(arg));
        });

        //Create a Topic object with any options our Producer
        //should use when producing to that topic.
        var topic = producer.Topic(topicName, {
        // Make the Kafka broker acknowledge our message (optional)
        'request.required.acks': 1
        });

        var value = new Buffer('value-' +i);
        var key = 'key';

        // if partition is set to -1, librdkafka will use the default partitioner
        var partition = -1;
        producer.produce(topic, partition, value, key);
    })

What kafka-avro basically does is wrap around node-rdkafka and intercept the produce method to validate and serialize the message.

• node-rdkafka Producer Tutorial
• Full list of Producer's options

Consumer

NOTICE: You need to initialize kafka-avro before you can produce or consume messages.

By inoking the kafkaAvro.getConsumer() method, kafka-avro will instantiate a Consumer, make it connect and wait for it to be ready before the promise is resolved.

Consumer using events to consume

kafkaAvro.getConsumer({
  'group.id': 'librd-test',
  'socket.keepalive.enable': true,
  'enable.auto.commit': true,
})
  // the "getConsumer()" method will return a bluebird promise.
  .then(function(consumer) {
    var topicName = 'test';
    this.consumer.subscribe([topicName]);
    this.consumer.consume();
    this.consumer.on('data', function(rawData) {
      console.log('data:', rawData);
    });
  });

Consumer using streams to consume

kafkaAvro.getConsumer({
  'group.id': 'librd-test',
  'socket.keepalive.enable': true,
  'enable.auto.commit': true,
})
    // the "getConsumer()" method will return a bluebird promise.
    .then(function(consumer) {
        // Topic Name can be a string, or an array of strings
        var topicName = 'test';

        var stream = consumer.getReadStream(topicName, {
          waitInterval: 0
        });

        stream.on('error', function() {
          process.exit(1);
        });

        consumer.on('error', function(err) {
          console.log(err);
          process.exit(1);
        });

        stream.on('data', function(message) {
            console.log('Received message:', message);
        });
    });

Same deal here, thin wrapper around node-rdkafka and deserialize incoming messages before they reach your consuming method.

• node-rdkafka Consumer Tutorial
• Full list of Consumer's options

Consumer Data Object

kafka-avro intercepts all incoming messages and augments the object with one more property named parsed which contained the avro deserialized object. Here is a breakdown of the properties included in the message object you receive when consuming messages:

• value Buffer The raw message buffer from Kafka.
• size Number The size of the message.
• key String|Number Partioning key used.
• topic String The topic this message comes from.
• offset Number The Kafka offset.
• partition Number The kafka partion used.
• parsed Object The avro deserialized message as a JS Object ltieral.

The KafkaAvro instance also provides the following methods:

Logging

The Kafka Avro library logs messages using the Bunyan logger.

KafkaAvro.getLogger()

WARNING The logger will not emit any messages as it was expected, there is an open issue on Bunyan's repository pending a solution on this. So no logging for now.

NOTICE This is a static method on the KafkaAvro constructor, not the instance. Therefore there is a single logger instance for the whole runtime.

Returns {Bunyan.Logger} Bunyan logger instance.

var KafkaAvro = require('kafka-avro');
var fmt = require('bunyan-format');

var kafkaLog  = KafkaAvro.getLogger();

kafkaLog.addStream({
    type: 'stream',
    stream: fmt({
        outputMode: 'short',
        levelInString: true,
    }),
    level: 'info',
});

Read more about the bunyan-format package.

Helper Methods

kafkaAvro.serialize(type, schemaId, value)

Serialize the provided value with Avro, including the magic Byte and schema id provided.

Returns {Buffer} Serialized buffer message.

• type {avsc.Type} The avro type instance.
• schemaId {number} The Schema Id in the SR.
• value {*} Any value to serialize.

kafkaAvro.deserialize(type, message)

Deserialize the provided message, expects a message that includes Magic Byte and schema id.

Returns {*} Deserialized message.

• type {avsc.Type} The avro type instance.
• message {Buffer} Message in byte code.

Testing

Use the kafka-avro-stub library to avoid requiring Kafka and Schema Registry to run on your local for testing your service.

Releasing

1. Update the changelog bellow.
2. Ensure you are on master.
3. Type: grunt release
   • grunt release:minor for minor number jump.
   • grunt release:major for major number jump.

Release History

• v0.5.0, 15 Feb 2017
  • Upgrade to node-rdkafka 0.7.0-ALPHA.3 which changes the consumer API by decoupling subscribing from consuming.
• v0.4.3, 15 Feb 2017
  • Locked this version to 0.7.0-ALPHA.2 of node-rdkafka which broke BC in 0.7.0-ALPHA.3.
• v0.4.2, 15 Feb 2017
  • Fixed connect() invocation for consumers and producers.
• v0.4.1, 10 Feb 2017
  • Fixed relaying Kafka consumer logs.
• v0.4.0, 03 Feb 2017
  • Refactored all logging to use a central Bunyan logger that is now provided through the static method KafkaAvro.getLogger().
  • Allowed for an Array of strings as topic argument for Consumer's getReadStream() method.
• v0.3.0, 01 Feb 2017
  • Now force uses Magic Byte in any occasion when de/serializing.
  • Exposed serialize() and deserialize() methods.
  • Fixed de/serializing of topics not found in the Schema Registry.
  • Tweaked log namespaces, still more work required to eventize them.
• v0.2.0, 30 Jan 2017
  • Added Confluent's Magic Byte support when encoding and decoding messages.
• v0.1.2, 27 Jan 2017
  • Suppress schema parsing errors.
• v0.1.1, 27 Jan 2017
  • Fix signature of getConsumer() method.
• v0.1.1, 27 Jan 2017
  • Expose CODES enum from node-rdkafka.
  • Write more docs, add the event based consuming method.
• v0.1.0, 26 Jan 2017
  • First fully working release.
• v0.0.1, 25 Jan 2017
  • Big Bang

License

Copyright Waldo, Inc. Licensed under the MIT.