Build a Chat Room Application with Redpanda Cloud and Java

Create a basic chat room application with Redpanda Cloud and Kafka Java clients.

This tutorial describes how to:

Start a Redpanda cluster to store and stream chat room messages.
Write a client application in Java to produce and consume chat room messages.
Build and run multiple clients to exchange chat messages streamed through Redpanda Cloud.

Prerequisites

You must have

Java 11 or 17 (OpenJDK is recommended)
Maven

Windows/Linux
macOS

You can download OpenJDK from Adoptium, and can follow the installation instructions for Maven on the official Maven website.

Mac users with Homebrew installed can run the following commands to install these dependencies:

brew install openjdk@11 maven

Make sure to follow any symlinking instructions in the Caveats output.

When the prerequisites are installed, the following commands should print the version of both Java and Maven:

java --version
mvn --version

Redpanda Cloud environments use certificates signed by Let’s Encrypt. Most programming languages will Load their root certificate authority (CA), ISRG Root X1, by default so you shouldn’t need to provide a custom CA.

Set up Redpanda Cloud

Complete the Redpanda Cloud Quickstart before continuing. This tutorial expands on the quickstart.

Set up your environment

Bootstrap a new Java project using the following Maven command:

mvn archetype:generate \
  -DgroupId=com.example \
  -DartifactId=chat-room \
  -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart \
  -DarchetypeVersion=1.4 \
  -DinteractiveMode=false

Set your working directory to the project folder:
```
cd chat-room
```

Add the required dependencies to your pom.xml file:

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.kafka</groupId>
  <artifactId>kafka-clients</artifactId>
  <version>3.4.0</version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
  <groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
  <artifactId>gson</artifactId>
  <version>2.8.9</version>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>

You can check for new versions of the Kafka Java client on the Sonatype website.

Set the source and target Java version to 11 in your pom.xml file:

<properties>
  <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
  <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
</properties>

Install the dependencies by building the project:
```
mvn package
```
The output is verbose, but you should see a successful build message:
```
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
```

Create a topic

You need a topic named chat-room for both Redpanda and the client to use to store chat room messages. If you completed the Redpanda Cloud Quickstart, this topic already exists in your cluster.

Verify that the chat-room topic exists in your cluster by listing all topics:

rpk topic list --tls-enabled

Output:

NAME       PARTITIONS  REPLICAS
chat-room  1           1

If the topic doesn’t exist yet, use rpk to create a chat-room topic:
```
rpk topic create chat-room --tls-enabled
```
Output:
```
TOPIC      STATUS
chat-room  OK
```

Confirm that the topic exists on the client side

The client may not always know that the topic exists. You can verify that it exists and create it if not. In chat-room/ create a source file called src/main/java/com/example/Admin.java with the following content.

Replace the placeholders with the same values that you used in the Redpanda Cloud Quickstart.

src/main/java/com/example/Admin.java

package com.example;

import org.apache.kafka.clients.admin.AdminClient;
import org.apache.kafka.clients.admin.NewTopic;
import org.apache.kafka.clients.admin.AdminClientConfig;
import org.apache.kafka.clients.CommonClientConfigs;
import org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.ProducerConfig;
import org.apache.kafka.common.config.SaslConfigs;
import org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringDeserializer;
import org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringSerializer;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Properties;

public class Admin {
  private static final String BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS = "<bootstrap-server-address>";
  private static final String SASL_USERNAME = "redpanda-chat-account";
  private static final String SASL_PASSWORD = "<password>";
  public static Properties getProducerProps() {
    Properties props = getAdminProps();
    props.put("key.serializer", StringSerializer.class.getName());
    props.put("value.serializer", StringSerializer.class.getName());
    return props;
  }
  public static Properties getConsumerProps(String groupId) {
    Properties props = getAdminProps();
    props.put("group.id", groupId);
    props.put("key.deserializer", StringDeserializer.class.getName());
    props.put("value.deserializer", StringDeserializer.class.getName());
    return props;
  }
  public static boolean topicExists(String topicName) {
      Properties props = getAdminProps();
      try (AdminClient client = AdminClient.create(props)) {
        return client.listTopics().names().get().contains(topicName);
      } catch (Exception e) {
          throw new RuntimeException(e);
      }
  }
  public static void createTopic(String topicName) {
    Properties props = getAdminProps();
    try (AdminClient client = AdminClient.create(props)) {
      NewTopic newTopic = new NewTopic(topicName, 1, (short) 1);
      client.createTopics(Collections.singletonList(newTopic));
    } catch (Exception e) {
      throw new RuntimeException(e);
    }
  }
  private static Properties getAdminProps() {
    Properties props = new Properties();
    props.put(AdminClientConfig.BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS_CONFIG, BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS);
    props.put(CommonClientConfigs.SECURITY_PROTOCOL_CONFIG, "SASL_SSL");
    props.put(SaslConfigs.SASL_MECHANISM, "SCRAM-SHA-256");
    props.put(SaslConfigs.SASL_JAAS_CONFIG,
          "org.apache.kafka.common.security.scram.ScramLoginModule required username=\""
                  + SASL_USERNAME + "\" password=\"" + SASL_PASSWORD + "\";");
    return props;
  }
}

This code is a utility class that provides methods for checking if a topic exists, creating a topic, and returning producer and consumer configuration properties. You will use these methods in the other classes in the chat room application.

Create a producer

A client needs a producer to publish chat-room topic messages.

To create a producer for the client, in chat-room/ create a source file src/main/java/com/example/ChatProducer.java with the following content.

src/main/java/com/example/ChatProducer.java

package com.example;

import org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.KafkaProducer;
import org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.ProducerRecord;
import com.google.gson.Gson;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
public class ChatProducer implements AutoCloseable {
  private KafkaProducer<String, String> producer;
  private String topic;
  private Gson gson;
  public ChatProducer(String topic) {
    this.producer = new KafkaProducer<>(Admin.getProducerProps());
    this.topic = topic;
    this.gson = new Gson();
  }
  public void sendMessage(String user, String message) {
    Map<String, String> messageMap = new HashMap<>();
    messageMap.put("user", user);
    messageMap.put("message", message);
    String jsonMessage = gson.toJson(messageMap);
    producer.send(new ProducerRecord<>(topic, null, jsonMessage));
    producer.flush();
  }
  @Override
  public void close() {
    producer.close();
  }
}

You now have a working producer that sends strings entered by the user to the chat-room topic. Messages are sent as JSON encoded strings here, but keep in mind that the producer only sends buffers, so you can encode the messages however you like.

Create a consumer

A client needs a consumer to receive chat-room topic messages.

To create a consumer for the client, in chat-room/ create a source file src/main/java/com/example/ChatConsumer.java with the following content.

src/main/java/com/example/ChatConsumer.java

package com.example;

import org.apache.kafka.clients.consumer.ConsumerRecords;
import org.apache.kafka.clients.consumer.KafkaConsumer;
import org.apache.kafka.clients.consumer.ConsumerRecord;
import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.reflect.TypeToken;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.util.Map;
import java.time.Duration;
import java.util.Collections;

public class ChatConsumer implements Runnable, AutoCloseable {
  private volatile boolean running = true;
  private KafkaConsumer<String, String> consumer;
  private Gson gson;
  private Type type;
  public ChatConsumer(String topic, String groupId) {
    this.consumer = new KafkaConsumer<>(Admin.getConsumerProps(groupId));
    this.consumer.subscribe(Collections.singletonList(topic));
    this.gson = new Gson();
    this.type = new TypeToken<Map<String, String>>(){}.getType();
  }
  @Override
  public void run() {
    while (running) {
      ConsumerRecords<String, String> records = consumer.poll(Duration.ofMillis(1000));
      for (ConsumerRecord<String, String> record : records) {
        Map<String, String> messageMap = gson.fromJson(record.value(), type);
        System.out.println(messageMap.get("user") + ": " + messageMap.get("message"));
      }
    }
  }
  @Override
  public void close() {
    running = false;
    consumer.close();
  }
}

You now have a consumer that reads all messages from the chat-room topic and prints them to the console. You can start as many consumer groups as you like, but remember that each group reads a message only once, which is why the example is using a generated UUID for the group ID.

Create a client application

The client needs an application that creates the topic, producer, and consumer and implements the chat logic.

To create a client application, in chat-room/ create a source file src/main/java/com/example/Main.java with the following content.

src/main/java/com/example/Main.java

package com.example;
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.UUID;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
import java.util.concurrent.Future;

public class Main {
  private static final String TOPIC = "chat-room";
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    if (!Admin.topicExists(TOPIC)) {
      Admin.createTopic(TOPIC);
    }
    Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
    System.out.print("Enter your username: ");
    String username = scanner.nextLine();
    ExecutorService executorService = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
    try (ChatConsumer consumer = new ChatConsumer(TOPIC, UUID.randomUUID().toString());
          ChatProducer producer = new ChatProducer(TOPIC)) {
      Future<?> future = executorService.submit(consumer);
      System.out.print("Connected, press Ctrl+C to exit\n");
      while (!future.isDone()) {
        String message = scanner.nextLine();
        producer.sendMessage(username, message);
      }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        System.out.println("Closing chat...");
    } finally {
        executorService.shutdownNow();
    }
  }
}

Build and run the application

Compile the client chat application, run it from multiple client terminals, and chat between the clients.

From chat-room/, compile the client application:
```
mvn compile
```
Open at least two terminals, and for each terminal:
1. Run the client application:
  mvn exec:java -Dexec.mainClass="com.example.Main"
2. When prompted with Enter user name:, enter a unique name for the chat room.
Use the chat application: enter a message in a terminal, and verify that the message is received in the other terminals.

For example:
```
Enter user name:
Alice
Connected, press Ctrl+C to exit
Alice: Hi, I'm Alice
Bob: Hi Alice, I'm Bob, nice to meet you
```

Next steps

This is a basic example of a chat room application. You can improve this application by implementing additional features and components, such as:

A user interface to make it more interactive and user-friendly.
A user registration and login system to authenticate users before they can access the chat room.
Rate limiting and other measures to prevent spamming and abuse in the chat room.

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Build a Chat Room Application with Redpanda Cloud and Java

Prerequisites

Set up Redpanda Cloud

Set up your environment

Create a topic

Confirm that the topic exists on the client side

Create a producer

Create a consumer

Create a client application

Build and run the application

Next steps

Suggested reading

Simple online edits

Contribution guide