This chapter covers
- Introducing the book’s use case
- Creating a topic with the
kafka-topics.shcommand - Producing messages with the
kafka-console -producer.shcommand - Consuming messages with the
kafka-console -consumer.shcommand
In this chapter, we’ll delve into the realm of Apache Kafka, gaining our initial insights into its functionality. Our journey begins with the creation of a primary topic, followed by the production of messages directed to this topic. Ultimately, we’ll complete the loop by consuming these messages once more, providing a comprehensive exploration of Kafka’s fundamental operations. We assume that Kafka is already installed. We’ve described the exact installation instructions to create a Kafka cluster with three brokers in appendix B.
2.1 Introducing our use case
Throughout this book, we’ll use a consistent use case to illustrate how Kafka can be effectively used in real-world scenarios. Our chosen use case revolves around an e-commerce platform, as shown in figure 2.1, which serves as a practical example to demonstrate Kafka’s capabilities.
Figure 2.1 The high-level IT architecture for our online shopping platform
