Configure a Bridge with Kafka

Introduction

A Kafka Bridge is a one-way bridge that sends events from the Mendix Event Broker to topics on your own Apache Kafka cluster.

Configure Service

1. Configure the service by filling out the following:

   • Event Broker Space – the space where the bridge will operate
   • Name – the name you want to call the bridge
   • Kafka Bootstrap Servers – the addresses of the brokers in your Kafka cluster that the bridge uses to connect, in the format host1:port1,host2:port2
   • Username – the username used to authenticate to your Kafka cluster
   • Password – the password used to authenticate to your Kafka cluster
   The Kafka bridge supports the SASL SCRAM SHA-512 authentication method.

   

2. Click Next to connect events to your bridge.

Connect Events

To connect business events to Kafka, follow these steps:

1. Click Add Business Events to open a dialog box that displays all events managed by the Event Broker, including Mendix app-defined events and uploaded AsyncAPI events. Only events that can publish appear, as this bridge operates in one direction.

2. Select the events to integrate and specify the External topic for each event. The external topic is the Kafka topic on your cluster that receives the event.

   

3. Click Next to proceed to the confirmation screen.

After the bridge deploys, the Overview page shows the bridge status and the external topic for each connected business event.

Editing Bridges

You can edit a Kafka bridge to modify the configuration as your integration requirements evolve, without recreating it. For a Kafka bridge, you can:

• Add or remove Business Events
• Update Kafka Bootstrap Servers, Username, or Password

To edit a bridge:

1. On the Event Broker Manager page, navigate to the Event Broker Bridges tab.

2. Click the bridge you want to modify.

3. Click Edit to enter editing mode. In editing mode, you can perform the following actions:

   • Add Business Events:

     1. Click Add Business Events to open a dialog that displays available events.
     2. Select the events you want to add and click Select. Added events display an Added badge and can be removed before applying changes.

   • Remove Business Events:

     1. Navigate to the event you want to remove and click Remove. Removed events display a Removed badge, and their name and metadata appear grayed out.
     2. Re-add a removed event by clicking Add before applying changes.

   • Update Service Configuration:

     • Update the Kafka Bootstrap Servers, Username, or Password as needed

4. After you make your changes, you can:

   • Click Apply to save and apply the changes. A confirmation message indicates whether the changes were successful. Changes to the event configuration take effect when applied. After applying changes, the bridge status changes to Reconfiguring and returns to Running when reconfiguration is complete.
   • Click Cancel to exit editing mode without saving any changes.