You can use Kafka topics as sources and targets in mappings or

mapping

tasks. When you use Kafka topics in mappings, you can configure properties specific to Kafka. Kafka Connector uses the Kafka Producer and Consumer APIs to connect to Kafka. Use Kafka Connector to import a Kafka topic in Avro or JSON format in mappings to read and write primitive data types.

You can switch the mapping to advanced mode to include transformations and functions that enable advanced functionality. You can read and write primitive and hierarchical data types for Avro and JSON format in a mapping in advanced mode.

The advanced cluster can be hosted on Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure environment.