Kafka Producer step

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Kafka Producer step

    The Kafka Producer step is a Workflow Studio action step in ServiceNow that enables you to publish events to a specific topic in your Kafka environment. This step requires the Stream Connect subscription and the ServiceNow Stream Connect Installer plugin. It is designed for users with theactiondesignerrole to create custom actions involving Kafka message publishing.

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    Configuration and Fields

    • Topic: Select the Kafka topic to publish messages to. Topics group messages of the same type (e.g., Payments).
    • Message: Enter the text of the message to send. The message must conform to the selected schema structure if a schema is specified.
    • Key: Specify a key to determine the partition within the topic where the message is stored. Messages with the same key go to the same partition.
    • Headers: Add name-value pairs as message headers. Values can be static or dynamic via data pills.
    • Wait For Completion: Choose whether the flow should wait for this step to complete before continuing.
    • Schema: Reference a schema to enforce message structure consistency. The message must adhere to this schema.
    • If this step fails: Control error handling by deciding to stop the action and evaluate errors or continue to the next step despite failures. Error information is always available in the Step Status.

    Outputs

    The step returns a Step Status object with runtime details:

    • Step Status > Code: Integer indicating success (0) or error (1) of the step.
    • Step Status > Message: String containing any error message produced by the step or system.

    Practical Application

    This step is useful for integrating ServiceNow workflows with Kafka systems to publish messages such as incident creation events or payment notifications. It allows precise control over topic selection, message content, partitioning via keys, and error handling within automation flows.

    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/products/automation-engine.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