Schema Registry

Kafka guarantees the delivery of events sent from producers, but it does not attempt to guarantee quality. Kafka assumes that your applications can coordinate quality data between consumers and producers. On the surface, this seems reasonable and easy to accomplish. The reality is that even in ideal situations, this type of assumed coordination is unrealistic. This type of problem is common among data producers and consumers; the solution is to enforce a data contract.

The general rule of thumb is, garbage in, garbage out. Confluent Schema Registry is an attempt at building contracts for your data schema in Kafka. Confluent Schema Registry is a layer that sits in front of Kafka and stands as the gatekeeper to Kafka. Events can’t be produced for a topic unless Confluent Schema Registry first gives its blessing. Consumers can know exactly what they will get by checking the Confluent Schema Registry first.

This process happens behind the scenes, and the Confluent...