We have an application that consumes events from a kafka source. The logic from processing each element needs to take into account the events that were previously received (having the same partition key), without using time for windowing. The first implementation used a GlobalWindow, with an AggregateFunction for keeping the current state information and a trigger that would always fire in onElement call. I am guessing that the alternative of using a KeyedProcessFunction that and holds the state in a ValueState object would be more adequate, since we are not really taking timing into account, nor using any custom triggering. Is this assumption correct and are there any downsides to either one of these approaces?
1 Answer
In prefer using a KeyedProcessFunction in cases like this. It puts all of the related logic into one object -- rather than having to coordinate what's going on in a GlobalWindow, an AggregateFunction, and a Trigger (and perhaps also an Evictor). I find this results in implementations that are more maintainable and testable, plus you have more straightforward control over state management.
I don't see any advantages to a solution based on windows.
