Kafka Producer step

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Kafka Producer step

    The Kafka Producer step in Workflow Studio enables you to create an action that publishes messages to a specified topic within your Kafka environment. This step facilitates event-driven integrations by sending structured messages to Kafka topics, supporting efficient data streaming and processing.

    Show full answer Show less

    This step requires users to have the actiondesigner role and a Stream Connect subscription, along with the ServiceNow Stream Connect Installer plugin (com.glide.hub.streamconnect.installer) enabled.

    Key Features

    • Topic: Select the Kafka topic where the message will be published. Topics group messages of the same type, such as “Payments” or “Incidents.”
    • Message: Define the content of the message to be sent.
    • Key: Specify a key to ensure messages with the same key are stored in the same partition of the topic, which is important for message ordering and load distribution.
    • Headers: Add name-value pairs as headers to the message, supporting dynamic input through data pills.
    • Wait For Completion: Optionally configure the flow to wait until the message is successfully published before proceeding.
    • Schema: Reference a schema to enforce message structure compliance, ensuring the message matches the expected format defined in Stream Connect schema management.
    • Error Handling: Choose whether to stop the action and evaluate the error or continue to the next step if the Kafka Producer step fails. Regardless, action error evaluation runs.

    Outputs

    • Step Status Object: Provides runtime details including:
      • Code: Integer indicating success (0) or error (1) status of the step. These codes are fixed and not customizable.
      • Message: String containing any error message returned by the step or system operation.

    Practical Application

    Use this step to integrate ServiceNow workflows with Kafka event streams for real-time data exchange. For example, you can send incident creation events to a Kafka topic, including identifiers and descriptive data, facilitating downstream processing or analytics.

    By properly configuring topic, message, key, headers, and schema, you ensure reliable, structured message delivery aligned with your Kafka environment and business processes.

    Create an action that publishes events to a topic in your Kafka environment.

    Roles and availability

    The Kafka Producer step is an Workflow Studio action step. Users with the action_designer role can create a custom action with one or more action steps.

    This step is requires a Stream Connect subscription. For more information, see https://www.servicenow.com/now-platform/workflow-data-fabric.html.

    This step requires the ServiceNow Stream Connect Installer [com.glide.hub.stream_connect.installer] plugin.

    Fields

    Field Description
    Topic

    Name of the topic to publish the message to. A topic stores messages of the same type. For example, a topic named Payments might store messages about recent payments.

    Select a topic from the drop-down list.
    Message Text of the message.
    Key Name of the key for a specific partition. Topics can be partitioned. Messages with the same key are stored in the same partition. For example, payment messages with a key of June would all be stored in the same partition of the Payments topic.
    Headers Headers for the message, in name-value pairs. For both the Name and Value fields, you can enter a value or use a data pill.
    Wait For Completion Option to require the flow to wait for the step to complete before continuing.
    Schema Reference to a schema table. Select a schema from the list. For information on schemas, see Schema management in Stream Connect.
    Note:
    The message you're sending in the Message field must adhere to the structure of the selected schema.
    If this step fails Option to go to error evaluation or continue running the next step. This option has no effect on the Step Status. Select one of the following.
    • Stop the action and go to error evaluation: Stop running the action at the current step and go to error evaluation. The Step Status object contains the error information returned by the step.
    • Don't stop the action and go to the next step: Ignore the failure and continue running the action from the next step. The Step Status object contains the error information returned by the step. Action error evaluation runs regardless of whether the action continues running.

    Example

    In this example, the step sends a message recording the creation of an incident. The message includes an incident identifier, a description, and a message header. The message is sent to the incidents topic, and stored in the partition with the name of the incident identifier.

    Example Kafka Producer step.

    Outputs

    Field Description Data Type
    Step Status Object data pill containing runtime details about the step. Each step in an action returns a Step Status. Object
    Step Status > Code Integer data pill indicating whether the step produced an error. By default, a value of 1 indicates that the step produced an error. A value of 0 indicates that the step ran successfully. You can't customize these codes. Integer
    Step Status > Message String data pill containing the error message produced by the step or system operation. You can't customize this message. String