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Status

Current state: Voting in progress

Discussion thread: here

JIRA: here

Please keep the discussion on the mailing list rather than commenting on the wiki (wiki discussions get unwieldy fast).

Motivation

KIP-478, the new strongly-typed Processor API, brings the option to reconsider the abstractions around custom processing in the Kafka Streams DSL.

Currently, multiple Transformers and a final Processor operation are the options available to implement custom processing with access to the Record context; including record metadata (e.g. topic, partition, offset), timestamp and headers; and reference to state stores.

There have been discussions on how to refactor these APIs:

Transformers are currently limited to the old ProcessorContext, and there have been multiple extensions to support value processing without repartitioning, and one-to-many record processing. With the addition of the new Processor API, KStream can be extended to access the new, chainable API and effectively replace most of the operations *Transforms offer at the moment, with more open control to forward records.

This KIP could be considered as a step towards deprecating Transforms, though that should be discussed in a follow-up KIP.

Public Interfaces

Modified methods

  • KStream<KOut,VOut> KStream#process(ProcessorSupplier<K, V, KOut, VOut> processorSupplier, String... stateStoreNames)
    • from void KStream#process(ProcessorSupplier<K, V, Void, Void> processorSupplier, ...)
  • KStream<KOut,VOut> KStream#process(ProcessorSupplier<K, V, KOut, VOut> processorSupplier, Named named, String... stateStoreNames)
    • from void KStream#process(ProcessorSupplier<K, V, Void, Void> processorSupplier, ...)

New methods

Processors without forcing repartitioning:

  • KStream<K,VOut> KStream#processValues(FixedKeyProcessorSupplier<K, V, K, VOut> processorSupplier, String... stateStoreNames)
  • KStream<K,VOut> KStream#processValues(FixedKeyProcessorSupplier<K, V, K, VOut> processorSupplier, Named named, String... stateStoreNames)

Internal changes

  • Infrastructure for Fixed Key Records:
    • FixedKeyRecord:
      • Not a Record sub/superclass to casting to Record.
      • Private constructor to avoid reconstructing record and change key.
    • FixedKeyProcessor(Supplier) and FixedKeyProcessorContext interfaces for FixedKeyRecord.
      • FixedKeyContextualProcessor abstract class, similar to ContextualProcessor.

Deprecated methods

  • KStream#transform
  • KStream#flatTransform
  • KStream#transformValues
  • KStream#flatTransformValues

Proposed Changes

KStream#process and KStream#processValues to replacing most Transformers

With the ability to manage forward calls as part of the Processor itself, transform, valueTransform, flatTransform, and flatValueTransform can be replaced by a process/processValues:

  Topology topology() {
    final var builder = new StreamsBuilder();
    builder.stream("words", Consumed.with(Serdes.String(), Serdes.String()));
        .processValues(() -> new FixedKeyContextualProcessor<String, String, String>() {
            @Override
            public void process(FixedKeyRecord<String, String> record) {
                for (final var word : record.value().split(",")) {
                    context().forward(record.withValue("Hello " + word));
                }
            }}, Named.as("process-values-without-repartitioning"))
        .process(() -> new ContextualProcessor<String, String, String, String>() {
            @Override
            public void process(Record<String, String> record) {
                for (final var word : record.value().split(",")) {
                    context().forward(record.withKey(word).withValue("Hello " + word));
                }
            }}, Named.as("process-with-partitioning"))

        .to("output", Produced.with(Serdes.String(), Serdes.String()));
    return builder.build();
  }


Compatibility, Deprecation, and Migration Plan

KStreams#process Return type change

Changing return type from void to KStream<KOut, VOut> is source-compatible, but not binary-compatible. It will require users to recompile the application to use the latest version of the library.

Though users will not require to change their code as the current returned value is void, and the input processor supplier types will include Void  that is the current type for output key and value.

KStream#*transform* deprecations

This KIP is including the deprecation of the transform operations on KStream to propose using the latest Processor API operations.

Transform API is not marked as deprecated yet, as it requires additional considerations:

  • Transform API is broadly adopted for custom processing. Even though most functionality is possible to implement with new Processor, this migration is not straightforward.
  • KTable#transformValues is an interesting use-case for ValueTransformerWithKey as the internal value is Change<V> — an internal type to handle record changes on KTable — not exposed as public API. An approach would be to deprecate this method in favor of .toStream().processValues().toTable().

A new KIP should be proposed to continue the deprecation of Transformer  APIs.

Rejected Alternatives

Migrate Transform APIs to the latest ProcessContext

This would involve extending KStream/KTable APIs even more with specific Transform variants. If a new Processor can support most Transform in the long-term becoming the adopted option to transform values, flat transform, etc.; then we should start getting the new Processor properly adopted in the DSL and let the usage drive the next steps.

Runtime key validation on KStream#processValues and changing key output type to Void

On one hand, with Void type for key output, we force the users to cast to Void and change the key to null, though this can be documented on the API, so the users are aware of the peculiarity of forwarding within processValues. 

On the other hand, keeping the key type as output doesn't require to do any change of keys, but this could lead to key-checking runtime exceptions when changing keys.

This KIP proposes adding a new Record type for Fixed Keys, to remove the need for runtime checked and reduce as much as possible the ability to change the key when implementing the processor.

References

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