What happens if we want to use Kafka in an environment that is not yet supported? Think in terms of something such as JavaScript, PHP, and so on.
For this and other programming challenges, the Kafka REST Proxy provides a RESTful interface to a Kafka cluster.
From a REST interface, one can produce and consume messages, view the state of the cluster, and perform administrative actions without using the native Kafka protocol or clients.
The example use cases are:
- Sending data to Kafka from a frontend app built in a non-supported language (yes, think of the JavaScript and PHP fronts, for example).
- The need to communicate with Kafka from an environment that doesn't support Kafka (think in terms of mainframes and legacy systems).
- Scripting administrative actions. Think of a DevOps team in charge of a Kafka system and a sysadmin who doesn't know the supported languages (Java, Scala, Python, Go, or C/C++).