serialization - Send Custom Java Objects to Kafka Topic

Question

I have my custom Java Object and wish to leverage JVM's in built serialization to send it to a Kafka topic, but serialization fails with below error

org.apache.kafka.common.errors.SerializationException: Can't convert value of class com.spring.kafka.Payload to class org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.ByteArraySerializer specified in value.serializer

Payload.java

public class Payload implements Serializable {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 123L;

    private String name="vinod";

    private int anInt = 5;

    private Double aDouble = new Double("5.0");

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public int getAnInt() {
        return anInt;
    }

    public void setAnInt(int anInt) {
        this.anInt = anInt;
    }

    public Double getaDouble() {
        return aDouble;
    }

    public void setaDouble(Double aDouble) {
        this.aDouble = aDouble;
    }

}

During my creation of producer, I have the following properties set

<entry key="key.serializer"
                       value="org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.ByteArraySerializer" />
                <entry key="value.serializer"
                       value="org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.ByteArraySerializer" />

My send invoke is as below

kafkaProducer.send(new ProducerRecord<String, Payload>("test", new Payload()));

What is correct way to send a custom java object through a producer to a kafka topic ?

Answer 1

We have 2 Options as listed below

1) If we intend to send custom java objects to producer, We need to create a serializer which implements org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.Serializer and pass that Serializer class during creation of your producer

Code Reference below

public class PayloadSerializer implements org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.Serializer {

    public void configure(Map map, boolean b) {

    }

    public byte[] serialize(String s, Object o) {

       try {
            ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
            ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(baos);
            oos.writeObject(o);
            oos.close();
            byte[] b = baos.toByteArray();
            return b;
        } catch (IOException e) {
            return new byte[0];
        }
    }

    public void close() {

    }
}

And set the value serializer accordingly

<entry key="value.serializer"
                       value="com.spring.kafka.PayloadSerializer" />

2) No need to create custom serializer class. Use the existing ByteArraySerializer, but during send follow the process

Java Object -> String (Preferrably JSON represenation instead of toString)->byteArray