Hi Kant, Glad to know that you liked the explanation, thanks :)
By reading discussion in this thread, I assume what you'd like to do with NiFi is, get messages from a system amd do some routing/filtering on NiFi, then send it to another system, using a custom protocol. If so, you can write two custom NiFi processors, typically named as GetXXXX and PutXXXX (XXXX is a name of the protocol). Based on this architecture, NiFi as a routing layer, if you need to store received data into another datastore to extend the use of data further, then NiFi will be really useful, because it already support variety of data source and protocol integrations. Also, if data schema changed at different rate between these systems, then NiFi can be a schema migration point. Data ingested into NiFi called FlowFiles, which has opaque binary Content, and string key/value pairs called Attributes, very generic data format. Once the data is converted to a FlowFile, there's no big difference where the FlowFile came from via what protocol. So, If NiFi can act as a server for different protocols, then your NiFi data flow can support broader type of clients. There's many existing processors, act as server for certain protocol, such as ListenTCP, ListenSyslog, ListenHTTP/HandleHTTPRequest ... etc. Once you created PutXXXX for your custom protocol, then you can use NiFi to support TCP, HTTP, WebSocket ... protocols to receive data to integrate with the destination using XXXX protocol, e.g. ListenHTTP -> some data processing on NiFi -> PutXXXX. Also, MiNiFi can be helpful to bring data integration to the edge. Should an application/micro service worry about how it talk with NiFi? My answer would be no. The service should focus and use the best protocol or technology for its purpose. But knowing what NiFi can help extending use cases around the service, would help you to focus more on the app/service itself. Thanks, Koji On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 6:52 PM, kant kodali <[email protected]> wrote: > I am also confused a little bit since I am new to Nifi. I wonder why Nifi > would act as a server? isn't Nifi a routing layer between systems? because > this brings in another question about Nifi in general. > > When I write my applications/microservices do I need to worry about how my > service would talk to Nifi or do I have the freedom of just focusing on my > application and using whatever protocol I want and In the end just plugin to > Nifi which would take care? other words is Nifi a tight integration with > applications such that I always have to import a Nifi Library within my > application/microservice ? other words do I need to worry about Nifi at > programming/development time of an Application/Microservice or at deployment > time? > > Sorry if these are naive questions. But answers to those will help greatly > and prevent me from asking more questions! > > Thanks much! > kant > > > > > On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 1:23 AM, kant kodali <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Hi Koji, >> >> That is an awesome explanation! I expected processors for HTTP2 at very >> least since it is widely used ( the entire GRPC stack runs on that). I am >> not sure how easy or hard it is to build one? >> >> Thanks! >> >> On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 1:08 AM, Koji Kawamura <[email protected]> >> wrote: >>> >>> Hi Kant, >>> >>> Although I'm not aware of existing processor for HTTP2 or NSQ, NiFi >>> has a set of processors for WebSocket since 1.1.0. >>> It enables NiFi to act as a WebSocket client to communicate with a >>> remote WebSocket server, or makes NiFi a WebSocket server so that >>> remote clients access to it via WebSocket protocol. >>> >>> I've written a blog post about how to use it, I hope it will be useful >>> for your use case: >>> http://ijokarumawak.github.io/nifi/2016/11/04/nifi-websocket/ >>> >>> Thanks, >>> Koji >>> >>> >>> >>> On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 3:23 PM, kant kodali <[email protected]> wrote: >>> > Thanks a ton guys! Didn't expect Nifi community to be so good! (Another >>> > convincing reason!) >>> > >>> > Coming back to the problem, We use NSQ a lot (although not my favorite) >>> > and >>> > want to be able integrate Nifi with NSQ to other systems such as Kafka, >>> > Spark, Cassandra, ElasticSearch, some micro services that uses HTTP2 >>> > and >>> > some micro service that uses Websockets >>> > >>> > (which brings in other question if Nifi has HTTP2 and Websocket >>> > processors?) >>> > >>> > Also below is NSQ protocol spec. They have Java client library as well. >>> > >>> > http://nsq.io/clients/tcp_protocol_spec.html >>> > >>> > >>> > On Tue, Dec 6, 2016 at 5:14 PM, Oleg Zhurakousky >>> > <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >> >>> >> Hi Kant >>> >> >>> >> What you’re trying to accomplish is definitely possible, however more >>> >> information may be needed from you. >>> >> For example, the way I understand your statement about “integration >>> >> with >>> >> many systems” is something like JMS, Kafka, TCP, FTP etc…. If that is >>> >> the >>> >> case such integration is definitely possible with your “custom system” >>> >> by >>> >> developing custom Processor and/or ControllerService. >>> >> Processors and ControllerServices are the two main integration points >>> >> within NiFi >>> >> You can definitely find may examples by looking at some of the >>> >> processors >>> >> (i.e., PublishKafka or ConsumeKafka, PublishJMS or ConsumeJMS etc.) >>> >> >>> >> Let us know if you need more help to guide you through the process. >>> >> >>> >> Cheers >>> >> Oleg >>> >> >>> >> > On Dec 6, 2016, at 7:46 PM, kant kodali <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >> > >>> >> > HI All, >>> >> > >>> >> > I understand that Apache Nifi has integration with many systems but >>> >> > what >>> >> > If I have an application that talks a custom protocol ? How do I >>> >> > integrate >>> >> > Apache Nifi with the custom protocol? >>> >> > >>> >> > Thanks, >>> >> > kant >>> >> >>> > >> >> >
