Integrating Elixir with Kafka Using Java for Enhanced Client Features

In his talk at Code BEAM Europe 2023, Saša Jurić describes the journey of creating a customized Kafka client. His team confronted issues with the available BEAM ecosystem libraries, which lacked necessary features and were challenging to modify. With time constraints preventing them from building a client from scratch, they explored an alternative approach. Saša elaborates on the decision to leverage the official Java Kafka client by interfacing it with Elixir using ports and JInterface. This strategy allowed them to maintain most code in Elixir while ensuring comprehensive Kafka functionality. He discusses the intricacies of using ports for communication between Elixir and Java, handling back pressure, and the performance considerations during this integration. His approach highlights the potential of combining Elixir and Java to achieve robust, feature-rich Kafka interactions without being bogged down by the complexities of maintaining a low-level client.