Important

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Avro and Schema Registry

KSQL can read and write messages in Avro format by integrating with Confluent Schema Registry. KSQL automatically retrieves (read) and registers (write) Avro schemas as needed and thus saves you from both having to manually define columns and data types in KSQL and from manual interaction with Schema Registry.

Supported functionality

KSQL currently supports Avro data in the Apache Kafka® message values.

The following functionality is not supported yet:

  • Message keys in Avro format are not supported. Message keys in KSQL are always interpreted as STRING format, which means KSQL will ignore Avro schemas that have been registered for message keys and the key will be read using StringDeserializer.
  • Avro schemas with nested fields are not supported yet. This is because KSQL does not yet support nested columns. This functionality is coming soon.

Configuring KSQL for Avro

You must configure the REST endpoint of Schema Registry by setting ksql.schema.registry.url (default: http://localhost:8081) in the KSQL server configuration file (<path-to-confluent>/etc/ksql/ksql-server.properties). For more information, see Installation Instructions.

Important

Do not use the SET statement in the KSQL CLI to configure the registry endpoint.

Using Avro in KSQL

Before using Avro in KSQL, make sure that Schema Registry is up and running and that ksql.schema.registry.url is set correctly in the KSQL properties file (defaults to http://localhost:8081). Schema Registry is included by default with Confluent Platform.

Here’s what you can do with Avro in KSQL:

  • Declare streams and tables on Kafka topics with Avro-formatted data by using CREATE STREAM and CREATE TABLE statements.
  • Read from and write into Avro-formatted data by using CREATE STREAM AS SELECT and CREATE TABLE AS SELECT statements.
  • Create derived streams and tables from existing streams and tables with CREATE STREAM AS SELECT and CREATE TABLE AS SELECT statements.
  • Convert data to different formats with CREATE STREAM AS SELECT and CREATE TABLE AS SELECT statements. For example, you can convert a stream from Avro to JSON.

Example KSQL Statements with Avro

Create a New Stream by Reading Avro-formatted Data

The following statement shows how to create a new pageviews stream by reading from a Kafka topic that has Avro-formatted messages.

CREATE STREAM pageviews
  WITH (KAFKA_TOPIC='pageviews-avro-topic',
        VALUE_FORMAT='AVRO');

Create a New Table by Reading Avro-formatted Data

The following statement shows how to create a new users table by reading from a Kafka topic that has Avro-formatted messages.

CREATE TABLE users
  WITH (KAFKA_TOPIC='users-avro-topic',
        VALUE_FORMAT='AVRO',
        KEY='userid');

In this example, you don’t need to define any columns or data types in the CREATE statement. KSQL infers this information automatically from the latest registered Avro schema for the pageviews-avro-topic topic. KSQL uses the most recent schema at the time the statement is first executed.

Create a New Stream with Selected Fields of Avro-formatted Data

If you want to create a STREAM or TABLE with only a subset of all the available fields in the Avro schema, you must explicitly define the columns and data types.

The following statement shows how to create a new pageviews_reduced stream, which is similar to the previous example, but with only a few of the available fields in the Avro data. In this example, only the viewtime and pageid columns are picked.

CREATE STREAM pageviews_reduced (viewtime BIGINT, pageid VARCHAR)
  WITH (KAFKA_TOPIC='pageviews-avro-topic',
        VALUE_FORMAT='AVRO');

Convert a JSON Stream to an Avro Stream

KSQL allows you to work with streams and tables regardless of their underlying data format. This means that you can easily mix and match streams and tables with different data formats and also convert between data formats. For example, you can join a stream backed by Avro data with a table backed by JSON data.

In this example, only the VALUE_FORMAT is required for Avro to achieve the data conversion. KSQL automatically generates an appropriate Avro schema for the new pageviews_avro stream, and it registers the schema with Schema Registry.

CREATE STREAM pageviews_json (viewtime BIGINT, userid VARCHAR, pageid VARCHAR)
  WITH (KAFKA_TOPIC='pageviews-json-topic', VALUE_FORMAT='JSON');

CREATE STREAM pageviews_avro
  WITH (VALUE_FORMAT = 'AVRO') AS
  SELECT * FROM pageviews_json;

For more information, see Changing Data Serialization Format from JSON to Avro in the Stream Processing Cookbook.