An event records something that happens, such as a purchase, link click, or sensor transmission. People or machines generate events, and their continuing sequence forms an event stream. section 1.2
Represent an event through three core components:
- Key — identifies the event and supports routing or grouping, such as a customer ID. section 1.2
- Value — carries the event payload, such as a sensor trigger or purchased item. section 1.2
- Timestamp — records when the event occurred. section 1.2
Treat events as business-critical records rather than disposable machine-to-machine messages. Kafka brokers store event key-value data durably, supporting later use and preservation. section 1.4.1
A shipment event stream
A flux capacitor purchase produces events as the package leaves the warehouse, changes custody, reaches an airport and distribution center, loads for delivery, and arrives at the customer. Each scan records an operational milestone; together, the events trace one purchase through fulfillment. section 1.3
Table 1.1 Definitions
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Event
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Something that occurs and attributes about it recorded
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Event Stream
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A series of events captured in real-time from sources such as mobile or IoT devices
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Event Streaming Platform
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Software to handle event streams—capable of producing, consuming, processing, and storage of event streams
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Apache Kafka
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The premier event streaming platform—provides all the components of an event streaming platform in one battle-tested solution
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Kafka Streams
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The native event stream processing library for Kafka
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Use the definitions table to distinguish events, event streams, event-streaming platforms, Apache Kafka, and Kafka Streams. section 1.2
