Convert the Serialization Format of a Topic

This guide shows how to use Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink®️ to transform a topic serialized in Avro Schema Registry format to a topic serialized in JSON Schema Registry format. The Apache Flink® type system is used to map the datatypes between the these two different wire formats.

This topic shows the following steps:

Prerequisites

You need the following prerequisites to use Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink.

  • Access to Confluent Cloud.

  • The organization ID, environment ID, and compute pool ID for your organization.

  • The OrganizationAdmin, EnvironmentAdmin, or FlinkAdmin role for creating compute pools, or the FlinkDeveloper role if you already have a compute pool. If you don’t have the appropriate role, reach out to your OrganizationAdmin or EnvironmentAdmin.

  • The Confluent CLI. To use the Flink SQL shell, update to the latest version of the Confluent CLI by running the following command:

    confluent update --yes

    If you used homebrew to install the Confluent CLI, update the CLI by using the brew upgrade command, instead of confluent update.

    For more information, see Confluent CLI.

Step 1: Create a streaming data source using Avro

The streaming data for this topic is produced by a Datagen Source Connector that’s configured with the Gaming player activity template. It produces mock data to an Apache Kafka® topic named gaming_player_activity_source. The connector produces player score records that are randomly generated from the gaming_player_activity.avro file.

  1. Log in to the Confluent Cloud Console and navigate to the environment that hosts Flink SQL.

  2. In the navigation menu, select Connectors.

    The Connectors page opens.

  3. Click Add Connector

    The Connector Plugins page opens.

  4. In the Search connectors box, enter “datagen”.

    Screenshot that shows search results for the datagen connector

  5. From the search results, click the Sample Data connector. If the Launch Sample Data dialog opens, click Advanced settings.

  6. In the Add Datagen Source Connector page, complete the following steps.

  1. Click Add new topic, and in the Topic name field, enter “gaming_player_activity_source”.

  2. Click Create with defaults. Confluent Cloud creates the Kafka topic that the connector produces records to.

    Note

    When you’re in a Confluent Cloud environment that has Flink SQL, a SQL table is created automatically when you create a Kafka topic.

  3. In the Topics list, select gaming_player_activity_source and click Continue.

Step 2: Inspect the source data

  1. In Cloud Console, navigate to your environment’s Flink workspace, or using the Confluent CLI, open a SQL shell from the Confluent CLI.

    If you use the workspace in Cloud Console, set the Use catalog and Use database controls to your environment and Kafka cluster.

    If you use the Flink SQL shell, run the following statements to set the current environment and Kafka cluster.

    USE CATALOG <your-environment-name>;
USE DATABASE <your-cluster-name>;

  2. Run the following statement to see the data flowing into the gaming_player_activity_source table.

    SELECT * FROM gaming_player_activity_source;

    Your output should resemble:

    key         player_id game_room_id points coordinates
x'31303833' 1083      4634         85     [30,39]
x'31303731' 1071      3406         432    [91,61]
x'31303239' 1029      3078         359    [63,04]
x'31303736' 1076      4501         256    [73,12]
x'31303437' 1047      3644         375    [24,55]
...

  3. If you add $rowtime to the SELECT statement, you can see the Kafka timestamp for each record.

    SELECT $rowtime, * FROM gaming_player_activity_source;

    Your output should resemble:

    $rowtime                key         player_id game_room_id points coordinates
2023-11-08 14:27:27.647 x'31303838' 1088      4198         22     [02,86]
2023-11-08 14:27:27.695 x'31303638' 1068      1446         132    [80,86]
2023-11-08 14:27:27.729 x'31303536' 1056      4839         125    [35,74]
2023-11-08 14:27:27.732 x'31303530' 1050      4517         221    [11,69]
2023-11-08 14:27:27.746 x'31303438' 1048      3337         339    [91,10]
...

Step 3: Convert the serialization format to JSON

  1. Run the following statement to confirm that the current format of this table is Avro Schema Registry.

    SHOW CREATE TABLE gaming_player_activity_source;

    Your output should resemble:

    +-------------------------------------------------------------+
|                      SHOW CREATE TABLE                      |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| CREATE TABLE `env`.`clus`.`gaming_player_activity_source` ( |
|   `key` VARBINARY(2147483647),                              |
|   `player_id` INT NOT NULL,                                 |
|   `game_room_id` INT NOT NULL,                              |
|   `points` INT NOT NULL,                                    |
|   `coordinates` VARCHAR(2147483647) NOT NULL,               |
| ) DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(`key`) INTO 6 BUCKETS                 |
| WITH (                                                      |
|   'changelog.mode' = 'append',                              |
|   'connector' = 'confluent',                                |
|   'kafka.cleanup-policy' = 'delete',                        |
|   'kafka.max-message-size' = '2097164 bytes',               |
|   'kafka.partitions' = '6',                                 |
|   'kafka.retention.size' = '0 bytes',                       |
|   'kafka.retention.time' = '604800000 ms',                  |
|   'key.format' = 'raw',                                     |
|   'scan.bounded.mode' = 'unbounded',                        |
|   'scan.startup.mode' = 'earliest-offset',                  |
|   'value.format' = 'avro-registry'                          |
| )                                                           |
|                                                             |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

  2. Run the following statement to create a second table that has the same schema but is configured with the value format set to JSON with Schema Registry. The key format is unchanged.

    CREATE TABLE gaming_player_activity_source_json (
  `key` VARBINARY(2147483647),
  `player_id` INT NOT NULL,
  `game_room_id` INT NOT NULL,
  `points` INT NOT NULL,
  `coordinates` VARCHAR(2147483647) NOT NULL
) DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(`key`) INTO 6 BUCKETS
WITH (
  'value.format' = 'json-registry',
  'key.format' = 'raw'
);

    This statement creates a corresponding Kafka topic and Schema Registry subject named gaming_player_activity_source_json-value for the value.

  3. Run the following SQL to create a long-running statement that continuously transforms gaming_player_activity_source records into gaming_player_activity_source_json records.

    INSERT INTO gaming_player_activity_source_json
SELECT
  *
FROM gaming_player_activity_source;

  4. Run the following statement to confirm that records are continously appended to the target table:

    SELECT * FROM gaming_player_activity_source_json;

    Your output should resemble:

    key         player_id game_room_id points coordinates
x'31303834' 1084      3583         211    [51,93]
x'31303037' 1007      2268         55     [98,72]
x'31303230' 1020      1625         431    [01,08]
x'31303934' 1094      4760         43     [80,71]
x'31303539' 1059      2822         390    [33,74]
...

    Tip

    Run the SHOW JOBS; statement to see the phase of statements that you’ve started in your workspace or Flink SQL shell.

  5. Run the following statement to confirm that the format of the gaming_player_activity_source_json table is JSON.

    SHOW CREATE TABLE gaming_player_activity_source_json;

    Your output should resemble:

    +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                  SHOW CREATE TABLE                                   |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| CREATE TABLE `jim-flink-test-env`.`cluster_0`.`gaming_player_activity_source_json` ( |
|   `key` VARBINARY(2147483647),                                                       |
|   `player_id` INT NOT NULL,                                                          |
|   `game_room_id` INT NOT NULL,                                                       |
|   `points` INT NOT NULL,                                                             |
|   `coordinates` VARCHAR(2147483647) NOT NULL                                         |
| ) DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(`key`) INTO 6 BUCKETS                                          |
| WITH (                                                                               |
|   'changelog.mode' = 'append',                                                       |
|   'connector' = 'confluent',                                                         |
|   'kafka.cleanup-policy' = 'delete',                                                 |
|   'kafka.max-message-size' = '2097164 bytes',                                        |
|   'kafka.partitions' = '6',                                                          |
|   'kafka.retention.size' = '0 bytes',                                                |
|   'kafka.retention.time' = '604800000 ms',                                           |
|   'key.format' = 'raw',                                                              |
|   'scan.bounded.mode' = 'unbounded',                                                 |
|   'scan.startup.mode' = 'earliest-offset',                                           |
|   'value.format' = 'json-registry'                                                   |
| )                                                                                    |
|                                                                                      |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Step 4: Delete the long-running statement

Your INSERT INTO statement is converting records in the Avro format to the JSON format continuously. When you’re done with this guide, free resources in your compute pool by deleting the long-running statement.

  1. In Cloud Console, navigate to the Flink page in your environment and click Flink statements.
  2. In the statements list, find the statement that has a status of Running.
  3. In the Actions column, click … and select Delete statement.
  4. In the Confirm statement deletion dialog, copy and paste the statment name and click Confirm.

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