Skip to content

Expose a Kafka Stream as a Managed WebSocket API

The Streaming Integrator (SI) component in WSO2 API Manager (WSO2 API-M) can consume events from a third-party streaming provider topic (e.g., Kafka topic) and publish those events to a Streaming Backend (e.g., WebSocket Streaming Backend) in a streaming manner. When a stream of events are received by the third-party streaming provider source (e.g., Kafka source), they are published to the Streaming Backend simultaneously.

Streaming integrator is one of the WSO2 API-M components that has the capability to connect with multiple external sources/sinks. Streaming Integration Tooling is another component that provides developer friendly tools. In this tutorial, Streaming integrator is used as the integration point with Kafka. Then the events received from Kafka (SweetProductionStream) are exposed via a WebSocket server using a sink in Streaming integrator.

Once you have the relevant sinks defined you can use the AsyncAPI generation functionality in Steaming Integration Tooling to generate the relevant AsyncAPI definition and then finally deploy it as a service in WSO2 API Manager service catalog. You will be able to create an API from the service and you can invoke it as a managed API. Finally, the messages coming to the Kafka topics can be received via the Streaming API.

Follow the instructions below to expose a third-party Service Provider stream as a managed API:

Prerequisites

1. Configure the Streaming Integrator

Follow the steps below to configure the Streaming Integrator to consume the stream from Kafka:

  1. Download the Kafka broker, which is available on the Apache site and extract it.

    Let's refer to this directory as <KAFKA_HOME>.

  2. Install relevant kafka client libraries in SI using extension installer. For instructions to download and install a Siddhi extension, see Downloading and Installing Siddhi Extensions.

  3. Configure the basic details needed to publish siddhi application with AsyncAPI definition to the services in API Manager.

    1. Open the <SI_HOME>/conf/server/deployment.yaml file.

    2. Update the service.catalog.configs: section as follows:

      service.catalog.configs:
          enabled: true
          hostname: localhost
          port: 9448
          username: admin
          password: admin
      
      In the above configuration -

      - You are enabling the AsyncAPI generation functionality by setting the `enabled` parameter to `true`.
      
      - You are specifying `9448` as the port because you configured a port offset of 5 in the previous step. The default port of the API Manager is `9443`.
  4. Configure authentication between API-M and SI.

    Copy the keyStore and client trustStore related keys from WSO2 API-M to WSO2 SI.

    1. Copy the following flies.

      • <API-M_HOME>/repository/resources/security/client-truststore.jks

      • <API-M_HOME>/repository/resources/security/wso2carbon.jks

    2. Add the copied files in to the <SI_HOME>/resources/security/ directory.

2. Configure the API Manager port

You have to define the port to which the Streaming Integrator publishes the AsyncAPI definition.

  1. Open the <API-M_HOME>/repository/conf/deployment.toml file.

  2. Uncomment offset in the [server] section and set it to 5 as shown below.

    [server]
    offset=5
    
3. Start Kafka
  1. Navigate to the <KAFKA_HOME> directory and start a Zookeeper node.

    sh bin/zookeeper-server-start.sh config/zookeeper.properties
    
  2. Navigate to the <KAFKA_HOME> directory and start the Kafka server node.

    sh bin/kafka-server-start.sh config/server.properties
    
4. Install Apache Ant

Download and install Apache Ant.

Step 1 - Start the API Manager

  1. Navigate to the <APIM_HOME>/bin directory

  2. Start the API_Manager.

    The following log appears on the API Manager console when the server is started successfully.

    [2021-04-20 15:51:00,036]  INFO - StartupFinalizerServiceComponent Server           :  WSO2 API Manager-4.0.0
    [2021-04-20 15:51:00,038]  INFO - StartupFinalizerServiceComponent WSO2 Carbon started in 77 sec
    

Step 2 - Start the Streaming Integrator

  1. Navigate to the <SI_HOME>/bin directory

  2. Start the Streaming Integrator.

    The following log appears on the SI console when the server is started successfully.

    INFO {org.wso2.carbon.kernel.internal.CarbonStartupHandler} - WSO2 Streaming Integrator started in 4.240 sec
    

Step 3 - Start and Create a Streaming Backend in Streaming Integrator Tooling

The default Streaming Integrator component is powered by Siddhi. Therefore, you need to create a Siddhi application as the Streaming Backend.

Let's create a basic Siddhi application that can consume messages from a Kafka topic and publish it to the WebSocket-based event sink in XML format.

Follow the instructions below to create a Streaming Backend server:

  1. Start Streaming Integrator Tooling.

  2. Click New to open a new file.

  3. Define your Siddhi application.

        @App:name("KafkaToWebSocketSample")
        @App:description("Description of the plan")
    
        @source(type='kafka',
                topic.list='kafka_sample_topic',
                partition.no.list='0',
                threading.option='single.thread',
                group.id='group',
                bootstrap.servers='localhost:9092',
        @map(type='xml'))
        define stream SweetProductionStream(name string, amount double);
    
        @sink(type='websocket-server', host='localhost',port='8025',
        @map(type='xml'))
        define stream TotalCountStream (totalCount long);
    
        @info(name='query1')
        from SweetProductionStream
        select count() as totalCount
        insert into TotalCountStream;
    
  4. Save the file.

    If there is no syntax error in the Siddhi application, the following message appears in the console:

    Siddhi App KafkaToWebSocketSample.siddhi successfully deployed. 
    

Step 4 - Generate an AsyncAPI Definition

Follow the instructions below to generate an AsyncAPI Definition via the Streaming Integrator Tooling Component:

  1. Click Async API View.

    The AsyncAPI Generation form appears.

    Async API View button

  2. Enter the WebSocket Streaming API related details.

    The AsyncAPI generation form appears because you did not provide any Streaming API related content for the @App:asyncAPI annotation when defining the Siddhi application.

    Let's add the following Streaming API information to create a WebSocket API based AsyncAPI definition.

    Field Value
    Title SweetProdApp
    Version 1.0.0
    Description Consumes events of sweets production
    Select Source or Sink type to Generate Async API Select websocket-server
    Sources Select TotalCountStream

    Design View of Async API

  3. Click Generate Async API to generate the AsyncAPI definition.

    Generate Async API button

    After the Async API is generated as described above, the Async API specifications will be visible in the Async API View.

    Async API view

  4. Add the generated AsynAPI definition to the Streaming backend.

    Click Add Async API to add the generated AsyncAPI definition to the Siddhi application.

    Add Async API

  5. Click Code View to view the Siddhi application with the AsyncAPI definition that was generated and save it so that it can be deployed on SI server.

Step 5 - Publish the AsyncAPI definition

You need to deploy your Streaming backend, which contains the AsyncAPI definition, to the Streaming Integrator server in order to export the AsyncAPI definition that you generated to the services in WSO2 API Manager.

Follow the instructions below to publish the AsyncAPI definition to the service catalog:

  1. Click Deploy, and then click Deploy to Server in Streaming Integrator Tooling.

    Deploy To Server

    This opens the Deploy Siddhi Apps to Server dialog box.

  2. Add the SI server host and port(default 9443) and select the relevant check box for your Siddhi application, which contains the AsyncAPI definition, and for the server in which you want to deploy it.

  3. Click Deploy.

    Deploy Button

    After the Siddhi application is successfully deployed, the following log messages appear in the Streaming Integrator and API Manager server logs to indicate that the AsyncAPI definition is successfully published in the Service Catalog.

    Siddhi App KafkaToWebSocketSample deployed successfully
    Async API: SweetProdApp-1.0.0 uploaded to the service catalog
    
    CommonUtil Creation of folder is successful. Directory Name : SweetProdApp-1.0.0
    

Step 6 - View the service catalog entry in WSO2 API-M

Follow the instructions below to view the service catalog entry in WSO2 API Manager:

  1. Sign in to the Publisher.

    https://<hostname>:9448/publisher

    For testing purposes, you can use https://localhost:9448/publisher and admin as the username and password.

    Open Service Catalog

  2. Click Services.

    The services, which include the SweetProdApp service, appear.

  3. Click on the respective service (SweetProdApp) to view details of the managed service.

Step 7 - Create an API

Follow the instructions below to create an API from the deployed managed service via the WSO2 API Manager Publisher.

  1. Click Create API in the Service Catalog page, which is in the Publisher.

  2. Enter all the Streaming API details.

    Field Value
    Name SweetProdApp
    Context /SweetProdApp
    Version 1.0.0
  3. Click Create API.

    Create API from Service

    The API overview page appears.

Step 8 - Publish the API

Follow the instructions below to publish the API via the WSO2 API Manager Publisher.

  1. Click Lifecycle to navigate to the API lifecycle.

  2. Click Publish to publish the API to the API Developer Portal.

    If the API is published successfully, the lifecycle state will shift to PUBLISHED.

    Publish API

Step 9 - Invoke the published API

  1. View the published API.

    Navigate to the Developer Portal.

    https://<hostname>:9448/devportal

    For testing purposes, you can use https://localhost:9448/devportal and admin as the username and password.

    The API that you published is visible in the API listing page.

  2. Subscribe to the API.

  3. Click Subscriptions and thereafter click SUBSCRIPTION & KEY GENERATION WIZARD.

    1. Navigate through the SUBSCRIPTION & KEY GENERATION WIZARD.

      This wizard takes you through the steps of creating a new application, subscribing, generating keys, and generating an access token to invoke the API.

      Subscription & Key Generation Wizard

    2. Copy the authorization token that appears in here.

      Authorization token

  4. Try out the operations.

    1. Install wscat client.

      npm install -g wscat
      
    2. Invoke the API by using an authorization header by executing the following command.

      wscat -c ws://localhost:9104/sweetProdApp/1.0.0 -H "Authorization: Bearer [accesstoken]" 
      
      wscat -n -c wss://localhost:8104/sweetProdApp/1.0.0 -H "Authorization: Bearer [accesstoken]"
      

      Note

      There are clients (especially browsers) that do not allow to add headers. In such cases, you can send the access token for the API invocation as a query parameter named access_token by using the command below:

      wscat -c "ws://localhost:9104/sweetProdApp/1.0.0?access_token=[accesstoken]" 
      
      wscat -n -c "wss://localhost:8104/sweetProdApp/1.0.0?access_token=[accesstoken]"
      

Step 10 - Pass the streaming event to the broker

Let's execute the following Kafka client producer sample to pass the streaming event to Kafka.

  1. If needed please copy org.wso2.carbon.si.metrics.core_ jar from <SI_HOME>/wso2/lib/plugins to <SI_HOME>/samples/sample-clients/lib/ before running the kafka-producer client.

  2. Open a terminal and navigate to <SI_HOME>/samples/sample-clients/kafka-producer file.

  3. Receive XML events via Kafka.

    Execute the following Apache Ant command.

    ant -Dtype=xml -DtopicName=kafka_sample_topic
    

    Info

    In addition, you can also limit the number of events as follows:

    ant -Dtype=xml -DnoOfEventsToSend=5 -DtopicName=kafka_sample_topic
    

Step 11 - Results evaluation

As SI server is already running as explained in above steps, when the Kafka client sends the events they will be consumed by the source in the SI server and pushed to the WebSocket server. As the WS client command listens to these events, the following types of events will be printed in the terminal that the WS client was run.

Results

Now, you have successfully created and published the API that corresponds to the WebSocket service in the Services. In addition, you have subscribed to it, obtained an access token for testing, and tested the API with the access token generated with the Kafka client which sends streaming events.