spring kafka No type information in headers and no default type provided

Question

I've got a spring boot app that defines:

• a REST Controller that writes to a kafka topic, STREAM_TOPIC_IN_QQQ
• a KafkaListener that reads from STREAM_TOPIC_IN_QQQ (groupId="bar") and logs
• a KStream that peeks the topic and logs it, converts it to another type, then writes it to STREAM_TOPIC_OUT_QQQ
• another KafkaListener that reads from STREAM_TOPIC_OUT_QQQ.

(I've been changing the suffix to avoid any possible confusion, and creating the topics by hand, because otherwise I was getting a warning, STREAM_TOPIC_IN_xxx=LEADER_NOT_AVAILABLE and the stream would not run for a minute or so.)

The first listener and the stream seem to be working, but when the listener on the STREAM_OUT_TOPIC tries to deserialize the message, I get the exception below. I am providing the serde in the stream with Produced.with. What do I need to do so that the listener knows the type to deserialize to?

Log

11 Mar 2019 14:34:00,194   DEBUG    [KafkaMessageController [] http-nio-8080-exec-1]   Sending a Kafka Message
11 Mar 2019 14:34:00,236   INFO     [KafkaConfig [] kafka9000-v0.1-b0a60795-0258-48d9-8c87-30fa9a97d7b8-StreamThread-1]   -------------- STREAM_IN_TOPIC peek: Got a greeting in the stream: Hello, World!
11 Mar 2019 14:34:00,241   INFO     [KafkaConfig [] org.springframework.kafka.KafkaListenerEndpointContainer#1-0-C-1]   STREAM_IN_TOPIC Listener: ConsumerRecord: {}ConsumerRecord(topic = STREAM_TOPIC_IN_QQQ, partition = 0, offset = 0, CreateTime = 1552332840188, serialized key size = 1, serialized value size = 34, headers = RecordHeaders(headers = [], isReadOnly = false), key = 1, value = com.teramedica.kafakaex001web.model.Greeting@7b6c8fcc)
11 Mar 2019 14:34:00,243   INFO     [Metadata [] kafka-producer-network-thread | kafka9000-v0.1-b0a60795-0258-48d9-8c87-30fa9a97d7b8-StreamThread-1-producer]   Cluster ID: y48IEZaGQWKcWDVGf4mD6g
11 Mar 2019 14:34:00,367   ERROR    [LoggingErrorHandler [] org.springframework.kafka.KafkaListenerEndpointContainer#0-0-C-1]   Error while processing: ConsumerRecord(topic = STREAM_TOPIC_OUT_QQQ, partition = 0, offset = 0, CreateTime = 1552332840188, serialized key size = 1, serialized value size = 48, headers = RecordHeaders(headers = [RecordHeader(key = springDeserializerExceptionValue, value = [ REDACTED ])], isReadOnly = false), key = 1, value = null)
org.springframework.kafka.support.serializer.DeserializationException: failed to deserialize; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: No type information in headers and no default type provided
    at org.springframework.kafka.support.serializer.ErrorHandlingDeserializer2.deserializationException(ErrorHandlingDeserializer2.java:204) ~[spring-kafka-2.2.4.RELEASE.jar:2.2.4.RELEASE]

Here's the configuration:

REST (spring mvc):

@RequestMapping("/greeting")
public Greeting greeting(@RequestParam(value = "name", defaultValue = "World") String name) {
    Greeting gr = new Greeting(counter.incrementAndGet(), String.format(msgTemplate, name));
    this.kafkaTemplate.send(K9000Consts.STREAM_TOPIC_IN, "1", gr);
    logger.debug("Sending a Kafka Message");
    return gr;
}

Kafka Config (spring-kafka):

@Bean
public KStream<String, Greeting> kStream(StreamsBuilder kStreamBuilder) {
    KStream<String, Greeting> stream = kStreamBuilder.stream(K9000Consts.STREAM_TOPIC_IN);
    stream.peek((k, greeting) -> {
        logger.info("-------------- STREAM_IN_TOPIC peek: Got a greeting in the stream: {}", greeting.getContent());
    })
          .map((k, v) -> new KeyValue<>(k, new GreetingResponse(v)))
          .to(K9000Consts.STREAM_TOPIC_OUT, Produced.with(stringSerde, new JsonSerde<>(GreetingResponse.class)));
    return stream;
}

@KafkaListener(topics = K9000Consts.STREAM_TOPIC_OUT, groupId="oofda", errorHandler = "myTopicErrorHandler")
public void listenForGreetingResponse(ConsumerRecord<String, GreetingResponse> cr) throws Exception {
    logger.info("STREAM_OUT_TOPIC Listener : {}" + cr.toString());
}

@KafkaListener(topics = K9000Consts.STREAM_TOPIC_IN, groupId = "bar")
public void listenForGreetingResponses(ConsumerRecord<String, Greeting> cr) throws Exception {
    logger.info("STREAM_IN_TOPIC Listener: ConsumerRecord: {}" + cr.toString());
}

application.yml

spring:
kafka:
  bootstrap-servers:  localhost:9092
  consumer:
    group-id: foo
    auto-offset-reset: latest
    key-deserializer: org.springframework.kafka.support.serializer.ErrorHandlingDeserializer2
    value-deserializer: org.springframework.kafka.support.serializer.ErrorHandlingDeserializer2
    properties:
      spring.json.trusted.packages: com.teramedica.kafakaex001web.model
      spring.deserializer.key.delegate.class: org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringDeserializer
      spring.deserializer.value.delegate.class: org.springframework.kafka.support.serializer.JsonDeserializer
  producer:
    key-serializer: org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringSerializer
    value-serializer: org.springframework.kafka.support.serializer.JsonSerializer
  streams:
    application-id: kafka9000-v0.1
    properties: # properties not explicitly handled by KafkaProperties.streams
      default.key.serde: org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.Serdes$StringSerde
      default.value.serde: org.springframework.kafka.support.serializer.JsonSerde
      spring.json.trusted.packages: com.teramedica.kafakaex001web.model

Answer 1

See the documentation.

Specifically...

JsonDeserializer.VALUE_DEFAULT_TYPE: Fallback type for deserialization of values if no header information is present.

It's spring.json.value.default.type

You can also set spring.json.use.type.headers (default true) to prevent even looking for headers.

The deserializer automatically trusts the package of the default type so it's not necessary to add it there.

EDIT

However, also see Spring Messaging Message Conversion.

Use a BytesDeserializer and BytesJsonMessageConverter and the framework will pass the method parameter type as the target for conversion.

Answer 2

"Answering" my own question largely to consolidate the info in the comments to and from @GaryRussell, but basically, he provided the best answer. In short I did the following:

• Set consumer deserializer to a StringDeserializer
• Add a messageConverter bean as a StringJsonMessageConverter
• In the KafkaListener annotated methods, Just use the expected type for the Payload
• If using a ConsumerRecord in the KafaListener annotated method, do NOT expect it to be of the Payload type. It will now be String (since the message converter, not the deserializer is doing this).

One other thing: By default, simply adding the messageConverter also adds it to the automatically configured kafkaTemplate when using the spring boot autoconfigure. This doesn't seem to be an issue when calling kafkaTemplate.send(K9000Consts.STREAM_TOPIC_IN, "1", greeting), though I think it may be if using send(Message).

Below is a working config, in that I get the messages as expected with minimal configuration

application.yml:

  spring:
    kafka:
      bootstrap-servers:  localhost:9092
      consumer:
        group-id: foo
        auto-offset-reset: latest
        key-deserializer: org.springframework.kafka.support.serializer.ErrorHandlingDeserializer2
        value-deserializer: org.springframework.kafka.support.serializer.ErrorHandlingDeserializer2
        properties:
          spring.json.trusted.packages: com.teramedica.kafakaex001web.model
          spring.deserializer.key.delegate.class: org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringDeserializer
          spring.deserializer.value.delegate.class: org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringDeserializer
      producer:
        key-serializer: org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringSerializer
        value-serializer: org.springframework.kafka.support.serializer.JsonSerializer
      streams:
        application-id: kafka9000-v0.1
        properties: # properties not explicitly handled by KafkaProperties.streams
          default.key.serde: org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.Serdes$StringSerde
          default.value.serde: org.springframework.kafka.support.serializer.JsonSerde
          spring.json.trusted.packages: com.teramedica.kafakaex001web.model

KafkaConfig:

        @Bean RecordMessageConverter messageConverter() {  return new StringJsonMessageConverter();  }

...
    @Bean
    public KStream<String, Greeting> kStream(StreamsBuilder kStreamBuilder) {
        KStream<String, Greeting> stream = kStreamBuilder.stream(K9000Consts.STREAM_TOPIC_IN);
        stream.peek((k, greeting) -> {
            logger.info("-------------- STREAM_IN_TOPIC peek: Got a greeting in the stream: {}", greeting.getContent());
        })
              .map((k, v) -> new KeyValue<>(k, new GreetingResponse(v)))
              .to(K9000Consts.STREAM_TOPIC_OUT, Produced.with(stringSerde, new JsonSerde<>(GreetingResponse.class)));
        return stream;
    }

    @KafkaListener(topics = K9000Consts.STREAM_TOPIC_OUT, groupId="oofda", errorHandler = "myTopicErrorHandler")
    public void listenForGreetingResponse(GreetingResponse gr) throws Exception {
    //    logger.info("STREAM_OUT_TOPIC Listener : {}" + cr.toString());
        logger.info("STREAM_OUT_TOPIC Listener : GreetingResponse is {}" + gr);
    }

    @KafkaListener(topics = K9000Consts.STREAM_TOPIC_IN, groupId = "bar")
    public void listenForGreetingResponses(@Payload Greeting gr,
            ConsumerRecord<String, String> record, // <--- NOTE: String, NOT Greeting
            @Header(KafkaHeaders.RECEIVED_MESSAGE_KEY) String key,
            @Header(KafkaHeaders.RECEIVED_PARTITION_ID) int partition,
            @Header(KafkaHeaders.RECEIVED_TOPIC) String topic,
            @Header(KafkaHeaders.RECEIVED_TIMESTAMP) long ts) throws Exception {
        //logger.info("STREAM_IN_TOPIC Listener: ConsumerRecord: {}" + cr.toString());
        logger.info("STREAM_IN_TOPIC Listener:   Greeting: {}", gr.getContent());
        logger.info("STREAM_IN_TOPIC Listener:  From Headers: topic: {}, partition: {}, key: {}", topic, partition,
                    key);
        logger.info("STREAM_IN_TOPIC Listener:: From Record: topic: {}, parition: {}, key: {}",
                    record.topic(), record.partition(), record.key());
        logger.info("STREAM_IN_TOPIC Listener:: record value: {}, class: {}", record.value(), record.value().getClass() );
    }

    @Bean
    public KafkaListenerErrorHandler myTopicErrorHandler() {
        return (m, e) -> {
            logger.error("Got an error {}", e.getMessage());
            return "some info about the failure";
        };
    }

And output for a message is:

13 Mar 2019 09:56:57,884   DEBUG    [KafkaMessageController [] http-nio-8080-exec-1]   Sending a Kafka Message
13 Mar 2019 09:56:57,913   INFO     [KafkaConfig [] kafka9000-v0.1-b0589cc5-2fab-4b72-81f7-b0d5488c7478-StreamThread-1]   -------------- STREAM_IN_TOPIC peek: Got a greeting in the stream: Hello, World!
13 Mar 2019 09:56:57,919   INFO     [Metadata [] kafka-producer-network-thread | kafka9000-v0.1-b0589cc5-2fab-4b72-81f7-b0d5488c7478-StreamThread-1-producer]   Cluster ID: 8nREAmTCS0SZT-NzWsCacQ
13 Mar 2019 09:56:57,919   INFO     [KafkaConfig [] org.springframework.kafka.KafkaListenerEndpointContainer#1-0-C-1]   STREAM_IN_TOPIC Listener:   Greeting: Hello, World!
13 Mar 2019 09:56:57,920   INFO     [KafkaConfig [] org.springframework.kafka.KafkaListenerEndpointContainer#1-0-C-1]   STREAM_IN_TOPIC Listener:   Record: ConsumerRecord(topic = STREAM_TOPIC_IN_SSS, partition = 0, offset = 23, CreateTime = 1552489017878, serialized key size = 1, serialized value size = 34, headers = RecordHeaders(headers = [RecordHeader(key = __TypeId__, value = [99, 111, 109, 46, 116, 101, 114, 97, 109, 101, 100, 105, 99, 97, 46, 107, 97, 102, 97, 107, 97, 101, 120, 48, 48, 49, 119, 101, 98, 46, 109, 111, 100, 101, 108, 46, 71, 114, 101, 101, 116, 105, 110, 103])], isReadOnly = false), key = 1, value = {"id":1,"content":"Hello, World!"})
13 Mar 2019 09:56:57,920   INFO     [KafkaConfig [] org.springframework.kafka.KafkaListenerEndpointContainer#1-0-C-1]   STREAM_IN_TOPIC Listener:  From Headers: topic: STREAM_TOPIC_IN_SSS, partition: 0, key: 1
13 Mar 2019 09:56:57,920   INFO     [KafkaConfig [] org.springframework.kafka.KafkaListenerEndpointContainer#1-0-C-1]   STREAM_IN_TOPIC Listener:: From Record: topic: STREAM_TOPIC_IN_SSS, parition: 0, key: 1
13 Mar 2019 09:56:57,921   INFO     [KafkaConfig [] org.springframework.kafka.KafkaListenerEndpointContainer#1-0-C-1]   STREAM_IN_TOPIC Listener:: record value: {"id":1,"content":"Hello, World!"}, class: class java.lang.String
13 Mar 2019 09:56:58,030   INFO     [KafkaConfig [] org.springframework.kafka.KafkaListenerEndpointContainer#0-0-C-1]   STREAM_OUT_TOPIC Listener : GreetingResponse id: 1000, response: Hello, World!, yourself