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Forwarding Listener Results using `@SendTo`

Starting with version 2.0, if you also annotate a @KafkaListener with a @SendTo annotation and the method invocation returns a result, the result is forwarded to the topic specified by the @SendTo.

The @SendTo value can have several forms:

@SendTo("someTopic") routes to the literal topic.
@SendTo("#{someExpression}") routes to the topic determined by evaluating the expression once during application context initialization.
@SendTo("!{someExpression}") routes to the topic determined by evaluating the expression at runtime. The #root object for the evaluation has three properties:
- request: The inbound ConsumerRecord (or ConsumerRecords object for a batch listener).
- source: The org.springframework.messaging.Message<?> converted from the request.
- result: The method return result.
@SendTo (no properties): This is treated as !{source.headers['kafka_replyTopic']} (since version 2.1.3).

Starting with versions 2.1.11 and 2.2.1, property placeholders are resolved within @SendTo values.

The result of the expression evaluation must be a String that represents the topic name. The following examples show the various ways to use @SendTo:

@KafkaListener(topics = "annotated21")
@SendTo("!{request.value()}") // runtime SpEL
public String replyingListener(String in) {
    ...
}

@KafkaListener(topics = "${some.property:annotated22}")
@SendTo("#{myBean.replyTopic}") // config time SpEL
public Collection<String> replyingBatchListener(List<String> in) {
    ...
}

@KafkaListener(topics = "annotated23", errorHandler = "replyErrorHandler")
@SendTo("annotated23reply") // static reply topic definition
public String replyingListenerWithErrorHandler(String in) {
    ...
}
...
@KafkaListener(topics = "annotated25")
@SendTo("annotated25reply1")
public class MultiListenerSendTo {

    @KafkaHandler
    public String foo(String in) {
        ...
    }

    @KafkaHandler
    @SendTo("!{'annotated25reply2'}")
    public String bar(@Payload(required = false) KafkaNull nul,
            @Header(KafkaHeaders.RECEIVED_KEY) int key) {
        ...
    }

}

In order to support @SendTo, the listener container factory must be provided with a KafkaTemplate (in its replyTemplate property), which is used to send the reply. This should be a KafkaTemplate and not a ReplyingKafkaTemplate which is used on the client-side for request/reply processing. When using Spring Boot, it will auto-configure the template into the factory; when configuring your own factory, it must be set as shown in the examples below.

Starting with version 2.2, you can add a ReplyHeadersConfigurer to the listener container factory. This is consulted to determine which headers you want to set in the reply message. The following example shows how to add a ReplyHeadersConfigurer:

@Bean
public ConcurrentKafkaListenerContainerFactory<Integer, String> kafkaListenerContainerFactory() {
    ConcurrentKafkaListenerContainerFactory<Integer, String> factory =
        new ConcurrentKafkaListenerContainerFactory<>();
    factory.setConsumerFactory(cf());
    factory.setReplyTemplate(template());
    factory.setReplyHeadersConfigurer((k, v) -> k.equals("cat"));
    return factory;
}

You can also add more headers if you wish. The following example shows how to do so:

@Bean
public ConcurrentKafkaListenerContainerFactory<Integer, String> kafkaListenerContainerFactory() {
    ConcurrentKafkaListenerContainerFactory<Integer, String> factory =
        new ConcurrentKafkaListenerContainerFactory<>();
    factory.setConsumerFactory(cf());
    factory.setReplyTemplate(template());
    factory.setReplyHeadersConfigurer(new ReplyHeadersConfigurer() {

      @Override
      public boolean shouldCopy(String headerName, Object headerValue) {
        return false;
      }

      @Override
      public Map<String, Object> additionalHeaders() {
        return Collections.singletonMap("qux", "fiz");
      }

    });
    return factory;
}

When you use @SendTo, you must configure the ConcurrentKafkaListenerContainerFactory with a KafkaTemplate in its replyTemplate property to perform the send. Spring Boot will automatically wire in its auto-configured template (or any if a single instance is present).

Unless you use request/reply semantics, only the simple send(topic, value) method is used, so you may wish to create a subclass to generate the partition or key. The following example shows how to do so:

@Bean
public KafkaTemplate<String, String> myReplyingTemplate() {
    return new KafkaTemplate<String, String>(producerFactory()) {

        @Override
        public CompletableFuture<SendResult<String, String>> send(String topic, String data) {
            return super.send(topic, partitionForData(data), keyForData(data), data);
        }

        ...

    };
}

If the listener method returns Message<?> or Collection<Message<?>>, the listener method is responsible for setting up the message headers for the reply. For example, when handling a request from a ReplyingKafkaTemplate, you might do the following:

@KafkaListener(id = "messageReturned", topics = "someTopic")
public Message<?> listen(String in, @Header(KafkaHeaders.REPLY_TOPIC) byte[] replyTo,
        @Header(KafkaHeaders.CORRELATION_ID) byte[] correlation) {
    return MessageBuilder.withPayload(in.toUpperCase())
            .setHeader(KafkaHeaders.TOPIC, replyTo)
            .setHeader(KafkaHeaders.KEY, 42)
            .setHeader(KafkaHeaders.CORRELATION_ID, correlation)
            .setHeader("someOtherHeader", "someValue")
            .build();
}

When using request/reply semantics, the target partition can be requested by the sender.

You can annotate a @KafkaListener method with @SendTo even if no result is returned. This is to allow the configuration of an errorHandler that can forward information about a failed message delivery to some topic. The following example shows how to do so:

@KafkaListener(id = "voidListenerWithReplyingErrorHandler", topics = "someTopic",
        errorHandler = "voidSendToErrorHandler")
@SendTo("failures")
public void voidListenerWithReplyingErrorHandler(String in) {
    throw new RuntimeException("fail");
}

@Bean
public KafkaListenerErrorHandler voidSendToErrorHandler() {
    return (m, e) -> {
        return ... // some information about the failure and input data
    };
}

See Handling Exceptions for more information.

If a listener method returns an Iterable, by default a record for each element as the value is sent. Starting with version 2.3.5, set the splitIterables property on @KafkaListener to false and the entire result will be sent as the value of a single ProducerRecord. This requires a suitable serializer in the reply template’s producer configuration. However, if the reply is Iterable<Message<?>> the property is ignored and each message is sent separately.

Forwarding Listener Results using @SendTo

Forwarding Listener Results using `@SendTo`