Kafka uses a long poll <http://kafka.apache.org/documentation.html#design_pull>. So requests effectively block on the server, if there is insufficient data available. This elevates many of the issues associated with traditional polling approaches.
Service-based applications often require directed channels to do request response. People do use Kafka in this way, Philippe gave a good example below. You just need to be aware that, should you have a lot of services that need to interact, it could involve creating a lot of topics. Kafka topics are persistent and generally long lived. They shouldn’t be considered ephemeral imho. B > On 23 Jun 2016, at 17:35, Philippe Derome <phder...@gmail.com> wrote: > > See Keyhole Software blog and particularly John Boardman's presentation of > sample app with responsive web client using WebSockets connecting to a > netty embedded web server that itself uses producer and consumer clients > with a Kafka infrastructure (@johnwboardman). On first look, it seems like > a valid approach. Behind the web server are services that are Kafka apps > interacting with external web APIs. > > Anecdotally quite a few companies post jobs with Kafka playing a role in a > micro architecture solution. > > I'll now let experts speak... > On 23 Jun 2016 11:47 a.m., "Pranay Suresh" <pranay.sur...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Hey Kafka experts, >> >> After having read Jay Kreps awesome Kafka reading( >> >> https://engineering.linkedin.com/distributed-systems/log-what-every-software-engineer-should-know-about-real-time-datas-unifying >> ) >> I have a doubt. >> >> For communication between browsers (lets say collaborative editing, chat >> etc.) is Kafka the right choice ? Especially given that Kafka consumers are >> designed to pull , rather than a callback style push. For low latency >> possibly ephemeral data/events is Kafka a good choice ? Can I have a >> browser open a socket into a webserver and each request initiate a consumer >> to consume from kafka (by polling?) OR is Kafka designed and/or meant to be >> used for a separate usecase ? >> >> Any feedback is appreciated. Let the bashing begin! >> >> Many Thanks, >> pranay >>
