Ah, I see this in rejected alternatives now. Sorry :) I actually prefer the idea of a separate project for framework + connectors over having the framework be part of Apache Kafka.
Looking at nearby examples: Hadoop has created a wide ecosystem of projects, with Sqoop and Flume supplying connectors. Spark on the other hand keeps its subprojects as part of Apache Spark. When I look at both projects, I see that Flume and Sqoop created active communities (that was especially true a few years back when we were rapidly growing), with many companies contributing. Spark OTOH (and with all respect to my friends at Spark), has tons of contributors to its core, but much less activity on its sub-projects (for example, SparkStreaming). I strongly believe that SparkStreaming is under-served by being a part of Spark, especially when compared to Storm which is an independent project with its own community. The way I see it, connector frameworks are significantly simpler than distributed data stores (although they are pretty large in terms of code base, especially with copycat having its own distributed processing framework). Which means that the barrier to contribution to connector frameworks is lower, both for contributing to the framework and for contributing connectors. Separate communities can also have different rules regarding dependencies and committership. Committership is the big one, and IMO what prevents SparkStreaming from growing - I can give someone commit bit on Sqoop without giving them any power over Hadoop. Not true for Spark and SparkStreaming. This means that a CopyCat community (with its own sexy cat logo) will be able to attract more volunteers and grow at a faster pace than core Kafka, making it more useful to the community. The other part is that just like Kafka will be more useful with a connector framework, a connector framework tends to work better when there are lots of connectors. So if we decide to partition the Kafka / Connector framework / Connectors triad, I'm not sure which partitioning makes more sense. Giving CopyCat (I love the name. You can say things like "get the data into MySQL and CC Kafka") its own community will allow the CopyCat community to accept connector contributions, which is good for CopyCat and for Kafka adoption. Oracle and Netezza contributed connectors to Sqoop, they probably couldn't contribute it at all if Sqoop was inside Hadoop, and they can't really opensource their own stuff through Github, so it was a win for our community. This doesn't negate the possibility to create connectors for CopyCat and not contribute them to the community (like the popular Teradata connector for Sqoop). Regarding ease of use and adoption: Right now, a lot of people adopt Kafka as stand-alone piece, while Hadoop usually shows up through a distribution. I expect that soon people will start adopting Kafka through distributions, so the framework and a collection of connectors will be part of every distribution. In the same way that no one thinks of Sqoop or Flume as stand alone projects. With a bunch of Kafka distributions out there, people will get Kafka + Framework + Connectors, with a core connection portion being common to multiple distributions - this will allow even easier adoption, while allowing the Kafka community to focus on core Kafka. The point about documentation that Ewen has made in the KIP is a good one. We definitely want to point people to the right place for export / import tools. However, it sounds solvable with few links. Sorry for the lengthy essay - I'm a bit passionate about connectors and want to see CopyCat off to a great start in life :) (BTW. I think Apache is a great place for CopyCat. I'll be happy to help with the process of incubating it) On Fri, Jun 19, 2015 at 2:47 PM, Jay Kreps <j...@confluent.io> wrote: > I think we want the connectors to be federated just because trying to > maintain all the connectors centrally would be really painful. I think if > we really do this well we would want to have >100 of these connectors so it > really won't make sense to maintain them with the project. I think the > thought was just to include the framework and maybe one simple connector as > an example. > > Thoughts? > > -Jay > > On Fri, Jun 19, 2015 at 2:38 PM, Gwen Shapira <gshap...@cloudera.com> wrote: > >> I think BikeShed will be a great name. >> >> Can you clarify the scope? The KIP discusses a framework and also few >> examples for connectors. Does the addition include just the framework >> (and perhaps an example or two), or do we plan to start accepting >> connectors to Apache Kafka project? >> >> Gwen >> >> On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 3:09 PM, Jay Kreps <j...@confluent.io> wrote: >> > I think the only problem we came up with was that Kafka KopyKat >> abbreviates >> > as KKK which is not ideal in the US. Copykat would still be googlable >> > without that issue. :-) >> > >> > -Jay >> > >> > On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 1:20 PM, Otis Gospodnetic < >> > otis.gospodne...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > >> >> Just a comment on the name. KopyKat? More unique, easy to write, >> >> pronounce, remember... >> >> >> >> Otis >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > On Jun 18, 2015, at 13:36, Jay Kreps <j...@confluent.io> wrote: >> >> > >> >> > 1. We were calling the plugins connectors (which is kind of a generic >> way >> >> > to say either source or sink) and the framework copycat. The pro of >> >> copycat >> >> > is it is kind of fun. The con is that it doesn't really say what it >> does. >> >> > The Kafka Connector Framework would be a duller but more intuitive >> name, >> >> > but I suspect people would then just shorten it to KCF which again >> has no >> >> > intuitive meaning. >> >> > >> >> > 2. Potentially. One alternative we had thought of wrt the consumer >> was to >> >> > have the protocol just handle the group management part and have the >> >> > partition assignment be purely driven by the client. At the time >> copycat >> >> > wasn't even a twinkle in our eyes so we weren't really thinking about >> >> that. >> >> > There were pros and cons to this and we decided it was better to do >> >> > partition assignment on the broker side. We could revisit this, it >> might >> >> > not be a massive change in the consumer, but it would definitely add >> work >> >> > there. I do agree that if we have learned one thing it is to keep >> clients >> >> > away from zk. This zk usage is more limited though, in that there is >> no >> >> > intention of having copycat in different languages as the clients are. >> >> > >> >> > 4. I think the idea is to include the structural schema information >> you >> >> > have available so it can be taken advantage of. Obviously the easiest >> >> > approach would just be to have a static schema for the messages like >> >> > timestamp + string/byte[]. However this means that i the source has >> >> schema >> >> > information there is no real official way to propagate that. Having a >> >> real >> >> > built-in schema mechanism gives you a little more power to make the >> data >> >> > usable. So if you were publishing apache logs the low-touch generic >> way >> >> > would just be to have the schema be "string" since that is what apache >> >> log >> >> > entries are. However if you had the actual format string used for the >> log >> >> > you could use that to have a richer schema and parse out the >> individual >> >> > fields, which is significantly more usable. The advantage of this is >> that >> >> > systems like databases, Hadoop, and so on that have some notion of >> >> schemas >> >> > can take advantage of this information that is captured with the >> source >> >> > data. So, e.g. the JDBC plugin can map the individual fields to >> columns >> >> > automatically, and you can support features like projecting out >> >> particular >> >> > fields and renaming fields easily without having to write custom >> >> > source-specific code. >> >> > >> >> > -Jay >> >> > >> >> >> On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 5:00 PM, Joe Stein <joe.st...@stealth.ly> >> >> wrote: >> >> >> >> >> >> Hey Ewen, very interesting! >> >> >> >> >> >> I like the idea of the connector and making one side always being >> Kafka >> >> for >> >> >> all the reasons you mentioned. It makes having to build consumers >> (over >> >> and >> >> >> over and over (and over)) again for these type of tasks much more >> >> >> consistent for everyone. >> >> >> >> >> >> Some initial comments (will read a few more times and think more >> through >> >> >> it). >> >> >> >> >> >> 1) Copycat, it might be weird/hard to talk about producers, >> consumers, >> >> >> brokers and copycat for what and how "kafka" runs. I think the other >> >> naming >> >> >> makes sense but maybe we can call it something else? "Sinks" or >> whatever >> >> >> (don't really care just bringing up it might be something to >> consider). >> >> We >> >> >> could also just call it "connectors"...dunno.... producers, >> consumers, >> >> >> brokers and connectors... >> >> >> >> >> >> 2) Can we do copycat-workers without having to rely on Zookeeper? So >> >> much >> >> >> work has been done to remove this dependency if we can do something >> >> without >> >> >> ZK lets try (or at least abstract it so it is easier later to make it >> >> >> pluggable). >> >> >> >> >> >> 3) Even though connectors being managed in project has already been >> >> >> rejected... maybe we want to have a few (or one) that are in the >> project >> >> >> and maintained. This makes out of the box really out of the box (if >> only >> >> >> file or hdfs or something). >> >> >> >> >> >> 4) "all records include schemas which describe the format of their >> >> data" I >> >> >> don't totally get this... a lot of data doesn't have the schema with >> >> it, we >> >> >> have to plug that in... so would the plugin you are talking about for >> >> >> serializer would inject the schema to use with the record when it >> sees >> >> the >> >> >> data? >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> ~ Joe Stein >> >> >> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >> >> >> >> >> >> http://www.stealth.ly >> >> >> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >> >> >> >> >> >> On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 4:33 PM, Ewen Cheslack-Postava < >> >> e...@confluent.io> >> >> >> wrote: >> >> >> >> >> >>> Oops, linked the wrong thing. Here's the correct one: >> >> >> >> >> >> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=58851767 >> >> >>> >> >> >>> -Ewen >> >> >>> >> >> >>> On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 4:32 PM, Ewen Cheslack-Postava < >> >> >> e...@confluent.io> >> >> >>> wrote: >> >> >>> >> >> >>>> Hi all, >> >> >>>> >> >> >>>> I just posted KIP-26 - Add Copycat, a connector framework for data >> >> >>>> import/export here: >> >> >> >> >> >> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/Kafka+Improvement+Proposals >> >> >>>> >> >> >>>> This is a large KIP compared to what we've had so far, and is a bit >> >> >>>> different from most. We're proposing the addition of a fairly big >> new >> >> >>>> component to Kafka because we think including it as part of Kafka >> >> >> rather >> >> >>>> than as an external project is in the best interest of both Copycat >> >> and >> >> >>>> Kafka itself. >> >> >>>> >> >> >>>> The goal with this KIP is to decide whether such a tool would make >> >> >> sense >> >> >>>> in Kafka, give a high level sense of what it would entail, and >> scope >> >> >> what >> >> >>>> would be included vs what would be left to third-parties. I'm >> hoping >> >> to >> >> >>>> leave discussion of specific design and implementation details, as >> >> well >> >> >>>> logistics like how best to include it in the Kafka repository & >> >> >> project, >> >> >>> to >> >> >>>> the subsequent JIRAs or follow up KIPs. >> >> >>>> >> >> >>>> Looking forward to your feedback! >> >> >>>> >> >> >>>> -Ewen >> >> >>>> >> >> >>>> P.S. Preemptive relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/927/ >> >> >>> >> >> >>> >> >> >>> -- >> >> >>> Thanks, >> >> >>> Ewen >> >> >> >> >> >>
