Quick note: I wrote a new data format backend for Jackson JSON processor: https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-dataformat-avro
so that Jackson can be used to process Avro encoded data (in addition to JSON, CSV, XML, BSON, YAML and Smile; all with similar backend modules). README pages shows sample usage. Version 2.1 requires use of Avro Schema from standard package, but 2.2 will add ability to generate Avro Schema objects from POJOs, so that manual writing of Schemas will not be required (and/or you can generate Schemas starting with POJOs). The main benefit of this extension is the ability to use standard POJOs, instead of either generic Avro (tree) model or code generation. It may make most sense in environments where multiple data formats are needed, and especially if JSON output is needed. Module does currently use default Avro package (1.7.2) for some of its operation, so encoding and decoding should be fully compatible. It is also possible to combine this module with Jackson Afterburner (https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-module-afterburner) for improved performance. Performance is close to that of standard Avro library, although there is bit of additional overhead (within 30% or so). -+ Tatu +-
