Schema management

What you'll learn

The data formats that Lenses supports. How to access and manage Schema Registry Schemas through the API, CLI and UI

Once configured, Lenses provides an interface to manage the schemas based on the appropriate permissions. See how to connect Lenses to a Schema Registry.

Formats 

Lenses schema registry integration supports these data formats:

  • AVRO
  • PROTOBUF

JSON and XML formats are also supported, but without a backing schema registry.

  1. From the Header Bar Menu, go to the Dashboard panel.
  2. On the side navigation, select Schema Registry under the Data section.
Schemas list

Create a schema 

  1. Click the New Schema button.
  2. Fill in the unique Name and choose between Avro and Protobuf schema.
  3. Fill in the Schema of your choice. Be aware, that when you change Schema Format, the Schema will reset.
Schema Creation

View a schema 

Navigate to a specific schema by clicking the Name of the schema from the list. Each schema represents either the Key or the Value.

Schema detail

Select version 

Schemas allow evolution based on the compatibility rule set. You can navigate to the different versions of each schema. Specific compatibility can be set for each schema.

Schemas Compatibility

Edit a schema 

Based on the compatibility mode of the schema, schemas can be evolved to a new version.

  1. Click on the Edit button to enable the editor and update the schema.
  2. Click the Edit Schema button to save the new version.

Delete a schema 

Deleting a schema has can be performed either by:

  1. Deleting a specific version.
  2. Deleting a current version.

To delete a schema navigate to the actions options menu or from the History Tab.

Schema Menu

Reset types 

Resetting the topic Types in Lenses will set the Key and Value type to BYTES. This action will remove the existing Lenses schemas for this topic and re-initiate the detection of types and schemas in few seconds.

Schemas in Schema Registry are not affected by this action.

Schema history 

Compare versions of the same schema by navigating to the History from the actions options menu:

Schema History

Schemas references 

Since version 4.1 or later, Lenses provides experimental support for schema references, a feature introduced in Confluent Platform 5.0.

Please be aware of the following limitations:

  • support for this feature is currently implemented for the AVRO format only.
  • references are not supported in SQL processors or Kafka connectors