Your producer and consumer often live on different systems, but how can we ensure that the producer sends data that the consumer can understand and how can we ensure that our consumer will still understand the data, even if we change the data that sends into our topic?
What is a schema and how can it be used with Apache Kafka?
A schema informs your Apache Kafka clients about how the data should be formatted, which fields should be included in a hash map, and how these fields should appear (e.g. whether they should be strings or numbers).
The easiest solution is to send the schema along with the message, but this would result in an increase of data sent.
Another option is to store the schema in a file that is shared between the producer and the consumer; however, this can cause problems when the system grows.
How does Schema Registry works?
Schema Registry is just what it sounds like, a registry for your schemas, you register a new schema under a subject name and you get back an ID that you embed in your message, the consumer reads the message, pulls out the ID and downloads the schema from Schema Registry.
This is the main use of Schema Registry, but Schema Registry has other use cases that will help you manage your schemas and evolve them while still maintaining compatibility.
Using Schema Registry with CloudKarafka
Schema Registry is available for all our customers without any setup.
We strongly suggest using Schema Registry in cases where producers and consumers from different systems need to be able to effectively communicate with each other. Our documentation provides step by step guidance and coding examples to help you get started.
Schema Registry Documentation and Get StartedCloudKarafka offers support 24/7
If you have any queries or problems, our support team are on hand 24/7 to help you. Just send an email to support@cloudkarafka.com.
All the best!
