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This issue has been flagged by many people over the past period in forums.

Further details and a more detailed case for headers can be seen here : A Case for Kafka Headers

Public Interfaces

This KIP has the following public interface changes:

1. Add a new headers value (byte[]) to the message format.

2. Add a headers (Map<String, String>Map<Integer, byte[]>) field to ProducerRecord and ConsumerRecord. A producer/interceptors will be able to set headers on a ProducerRecord. A consumer/interceptors will see the message headers when it sees the messages.

3. Add accessor methods on the Producer/ConsumerRecord void setHeader(Stringint, Stringbyte[]) and a String byte[] getHeader(Stringint)
4. Add ProduceRequest/ProduceResponse V3 which uses the new message format.
5. Add FetchRequest/FetchResponse V3 which uses the new message format.
6. Add a configurable headers serializer Serializer<Map<String, String> to ProducerRecord
7. Add a configurable headers deserializer Deserializer<Map<String, String> HeadersDeserializer to ConsumerRecordThe serialization of the [

For more detail information of the above changes, please refer to the Proposed Changes section.

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