Apache Kafka client with selector?

Question

I am investigating Apache Kafka, and my use-case requires that the client be able to filter messages, and that the filtering happens on the broker, rather than the client. This requirement is identical to using a JMS Selector.

It is my understanding, though I maybe incorrect, that Kafka does not have a selector, and that filtering is done on the client. So all messages are sent to client, and client is responsible for filter.

Is there anyway to achieve a JMS Selector approach, where filtering happens on the broker?

Answer 1

No, you can't do anything like that. The best you can do is filter on the client side. Apache Kafka API supports only fetching of kind "give me at most 1 megabyte of messages for topic N partition M starting from offset X".

You can refer to Wire Protocol reference to see possible options for a fetch request, but it does not contain anything you are looking for.

Actually, Kafka is that fast because every fetch is just a sequential read, so I don't think this will be implemented in future releases (but I'll be glad if I'm wrong :)).