Json String to Java Object Avro

Question

I am trying to convert a Json string into a generic Java Object, with an Avro Schema.

Below is my code.

String json = "{\"foo\": 30.1, \"bar\": 60.2}";
String schemaLines = "{\"type\":\"record\",\"name\":\"FooBar\",\"namespace\":\"com.foo.bar\",\"fields\":[{\"name\":\"foo\",\"type\":[\"null\",\"double\"],\"default\":null},{\"name\":\"bar\",\"type\":[\"null\",\"double\"],\"default\":null}]}";

InputStream input = new ByteArrayInputStream(json.getBytes());
DataInputStream din = new DataInputStream(input);

Schema schema = Schema.parse(schemaLines);

Decoder decoder = DecoderFactory.get().jsonDecoder(schema, din);

DatumReader<Object> reader = new GenericDatumReader<Object>(schema);
Object datum = reader.read(null, decoder);

I get "org.apache.avro.AvroTypeException: Expected start-union. Got VALUE_NUMBER_FLOAT" Exception.

The same code works, if I don't have unions in the schema. Can someone please explain and give me a solution.

Answer 1

For anyone who uses Avro - 1.8.2, JsonDecoder is not directly instantiable outside the package org.apache.avro.io now. You can use DecoderFactory for it as shown in the following code:

String schemaStr = "<some json schema>";
String genericRecordStr = "<some json record>";
Schema.Parser schemaParser = new Schema.Parser();
Schema schema = schemaParser.parse(schemaStr);
DecoderFactory decoderFactory = new DecoderFactory();
Decoder decoder = decoderFactory.jsonDecoder(schema, genericRecordStr);
DatumReader<GenericData.Record> reader =
            new GenericDatumReader<>(schema);
GenericRecord genericRecord = reader.read(null, decoder);

Answer 2

Thanks to Reza. I found this webpage. It introduces how to convert a Json string into an avro object.

http://rezarahim.blogspot.com/2013/06/import-org_26.html

The key of his code is:

static byte[] fromJsonToAvro(String json, String schemastr) throws Exception {
  InputStream input = new ByteArrayInputStream(json.getBytes());
  DataInputStream din = new DataInputStream(input);

  Schema schema = Schema.parse(schemastr);

  Decoder decoder = DecoderFactory.get().jsonDecoder(schema, din);

  DatumReader<Object> reader = new GenericDatumReader<Object>(schema);
  Object datum = reader.read(null, decoder);

  GenericDatumWriter<Object>  w = new GenericDatumWriter<Object>(schema);
  ByteArrayOutputStream outputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

  Encoder e = EncoderFactory.get().binaryEncoder(outputStream, null);

  w.write(datum, e);
  e.flush();

  return outputStream.toByteArray();
}

String json = "{\"username\":\"miguno\",\"tweet\":\"Rock: Nerf paper, scissors is fine.\",\"timestamp\": 1366150681 }";

String schemastr ="{ \"type\" : \"record\", \"name\" : \"twitter_schema\", \"namespace\" : \"com.miguno.avro\", \"fields\" : [ { \"name\" : \"username\", \"type\" : \"string\", \"doc\"  : \"Name of the user account on Twitter.com\" }, { \"name\" : \"tweet\", \"type\" : \"string\", \"doc\"  : \"The content of the user's Twitter message\" }, { \"name\" : \"timestamp\", \"type\" : \"long\", \"doc\"  : \"Unix epoch time in seconds\" } ], \"doc:\" : \"A basic schema for storing Twitter messages\" }";

byte[] avroByteArray = fromJsonToAvro(json,schemastr);

Schema schema = Schema.parse(schemastr);
DatumReader<Genericrecord> reader1 = new GenericDatumReader<Genericrecord>(schema);

Decoder decoder1 = DecoderFactory.get().binaryDecoder(avroByteArray, null);
GenericRecord result = reader1.read(null, decoder1);

Answer 3

With Avro 1.4.1, this works:

private static GenericData.Record parseJson(String json, String schema)
    throws IOException {
  Schema parsedSchema = Schema.parse(schema);
  Decoder decoder = new JsonDecoder(parsedSchema, json);

  DatumReader<GenericData.Record> reader =
      new GenericDatumReader<>(parsedSchema);
  return reader.read(null, decoder);
}

Might need some tweaks for later Avro versions.