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Developing Consumers Using the Kinesis Data Streams API with the AWS SDK for Java

You can develop consumers using the Amazon Kinesis Data Streams API with the AWS SDK for Java. If you are new to Kinesis Data Streams, start by becoming familiar with the concepts and terminology presented in What Is Amazon Kinesis Data Streams? and Getting Started Using Amazon Kinesis Data Streams.

These examples discuss the Kinesis Data Streams API and use the AWS SDK for Java to get data from a stream. However, for most use cases, you should prefer using the Kinesis Client Library (KCL) . For more information, see Developing Consumers Using the Kinesis Client Library 1.x.

The Java example code in this section demonstrates how to perform basic Kinesis Data Streams API operations, and is divided up logically by operation type. These examples don't represent production-ready code. They don't check for all possible exceptions or account for all possible security or performance considerations. Also, you can call the Kinesis Data Streams API using other different programming languages. For more information about all available AWS SDKs, see Start Developing with Amazon Web Services.

Each task has prerequisites. For example, you cannot add data to a stream until you have created a stream, which requires you to create a client. For more information, see Creating and Managing Streams.

Getting Data from a Stream

The Kinesis Data Streams API provides the getShardIterator and getRecords methods to retrieve data from a stream. This is a pull model, where your code draws data directly from the shards of the stream.

We recommend that you use the record processor support provided by the Kinesis Client Library (KCL) to retrieve stream data in consumer applications. This is a push model, where you implement the code that processes the data. The KCL retrieves data records from the stream and delivers them to your application code. In addition, the KCL provides failover, recovery, and load balancing functionality. For more information, see Developing Consumers Using the Kinesis Client Library 1.x.

However, in some cases you might prefer to use the Kinesis Data Streams API with the AWS SDK for Java. For example, to implement custom tools for monitoring or debugging your streams.

Important

Kinesis Data Streams supports changes to the data record retention period of your data stream. For more information, see Changing the Data Retention Period.

Using Shard Iterators

You retrieve records from the stream on a per-shard basis. For each shard, and for each batch of records that you retrieve from that shard, you must obtain a shard iterator. The shard iterator is used in the getRecordsRequest object to specify the shard from which records are to be retrieved. The type associated with the shard iterator determines the point in the shard from which the records should be retrieved (see later in this section for more details). Before you can work with the shard iterator, you need to retrieve the shard, as discussed in Retrieving Shards from a Stream.

Obtain the initial shard iterator using the getShardIterator method. Obtain shard iterators for additional batches of records using the getNextShardIterator method of the getRecordsResult object returned by the getRecords method. A shard iterator is valid for 5 minutes. If you use a shard iterator while it is valid, you get a new one. Each shard iterator remains valid for 5 minutes, even after it is used.

To obtain the initial shard iterator, instantiate GetShardIteratorRequest and pass it to the getShardIterator method. To configure the request, specify the stream and the shard ID. For information about how to obtain the streams in your AWS account, see Listing StreamsListing Shards. For information about how to obtain the shards in a stream, see Retrieving Shards from a Stream.

String shardIterator;
GetShardIteratorRequest getShardIteratorRequest = new GetShardIteratorRequest();
getShardIteratorRequest.setStreamName(myStreamName);
getShardIteratorRequest.setShardId(shard.getShardId());
getShardIteratorRequest.setShardIteratorType("TRIM_HORIZON");

GetShardIteratorResult getShardIteratorResult = client.getShardIterator(getShardIteratorRequest);
shardIterator = getShardIteratorResult.getShardIterator();

This sample code specifies TRIM_HORIZON as the iterator type when obtaining the initial shard iterator. This iterator type means that records should be returned beginning with the first record added to the shard—rather than beginning with the most recently added record, also known as the tip. The following are possible iterator types:

• AT_SEQUENCE_NUMBER

• AFTER_SEQUENCE_NUMBER

• AT_TIMESTAMP

• TRIM_HORIZON

• LATEST

For more information, see ShardIteratorType.

Some iterator types require that you specify a sequence number in addition to the type; for example:

getShardIteratorRequest.setShardIteratorType("AT_SEQUENCE_NUMBER");
getShardIteratorRequest.setStartingSequenceNumber(specialSequenceNumber);

After you obtain a record using getRecords, you can get the sequence number for the record by calling the record's getSequenceNumber method.

record.getSequenceNumber()

In addition, the code that adds records to the data stream can get the sequence number for an added record by calling getSequenceNumber on the result of putRecord.

lastSequenceNumber = putRecordResult.getSequenceNumber();

You can use sequence numbers to guarantee strictly increasing ordering of records. For more information, see the code example in PutRecord Example.

Using GetRecords

After you obtain the shard iterator, instantiate a GetRecordsRequest object. Specify the iterator for the request using the setShardIterator method.

Optionally, you can also set the number of records to retrieve using the setLimit method. The number of records returned by getRecords is always equal to or less than this limit. If you do not specify this limit, getRecords returns 10 MB of retrieved records. The sample code below sets this limit to 25 records.

If no records are returned, that means no data records are currently available from this shard at the sequence number referenced by the shard iterator. In this situation, your application should wait for an amount of time that's appropriate for the data sources for the stream, but at least 1 second. Then try to get data from the shard again using the shard iterator returned by the preceding call to getRecords. There is about a 3-second latency from the time that a record is added to the stream to the time that it is available from getRecords.

Pass the getRecordsRequest to the getRecords method, and capture the returned value as a getRecordsResult object. To get the data records, call the getRecords method on the getRecordsResult object.

GetRecordsRequest getRecordsRequest = new GetRecordsRequest();
getRecordsRequest.setShardIterator(shardIterator);
getRecordsRequest.setLimit(25);

GetRecordsResult getRecordsResult = client.getRecords(getRecordsRequest);
List<Record> records = getRecordsResult.getRecords();

To prepare for another call to getRecords, obtain the next shard iterator from getRecordsResult.

shardIterator = getRecordsResult.getNextShardIterator();

For best results, sleep for at least 1 second (1,000 milliseconds) between calls to getRecords to avoid exceeding the limit on getRecords frequency.

try {
  Thread.sleep(1000);
}
catch (InterruptedException e) {}

Typically, you should call getRecords in a loop, even when you're retrieving a single record in a test scenario. A single call to getRecords might return an empty record list, even when the shard contains more records at later sequence numbers. When this occurs, the NextShardIterator returned along with the empty record list references a later sequence number in the shard, and successive getRecords calls eventually returns the records. The following sample demonstrates the use of a loop.

Example: getRecords

The following code example reflects the getRecords tips in this section, including making calls in a loop.

// Continuously read data records from a shard
List<Record> records;
    
while (true) {
   
  // Create a new getRecordsRequest with an existing shardIterator 
  // Set the maximum records to return to 25
  GetRecordsRequest getRecordsRequest = new GetRecordsRequest();
  getRecordsRequest.setShardIterator(shardIterator);
  getRecordsRequest.setLimit(25); 

  GetRecordsResult result = client.getRecords(getRecordsRequest);
  
  // Put the result into record list. The result can be empty.
  records = result.getRecords();
  
  try {
    Thread.sleep(1000);
  } 
  catch (InterruptedException exception) {
    throw new RuntimeException(exception);
  }
  
  shardIterator = result.getNextShardIterator();
}

If you are using the Kinesis Client Library, it might make multiple calls before returning data. This behavior is by design and does not indicate a problem with the KCL or your data.

Adapting to a Reshard

If getRecordsResult.getNextShardIterator returns null, it indicates the following: A shard split or merge has occurred that involved this shard, this shard is now in a CLOSED state, and you have read all available data records from this shard.

In this scenario, you should re-enumerate the shards in the stream to pick up the new shards that were created by the split or merge.

In the case of a split, the two new shards both have parentShardId equal to the shard ID of the shard that you were processing previously. The value of adjacentParentShardId for both of these shards is null.

In the case of a merge, the single new shard created by the merge has parentShardId equal to shard ID of one of the parent shards and adjacentParentShardId equal to the shard ID of the other parent shard. Your application has already read all the data from one of these shards. This is the shard for which getRecordsResult.getNextShardIterator returned null. If the order of the data is important to your application, ensure that it also reads all the data from the other parent shard before reading any new data from the child shard created by the merge.

If you are using multiple processors to retrieve data from the stream (say, one processor per shard), and a shard split or merge occurs, adjust the number of processors up or down to adapt to the change in the number of shards.

For more information about resharding, including a discussion of shards states—such as CLOSED—see Resharding a Stream.