Azure Stream Analytics now allows you to seamlessly process events in the Protobuf data format using a built-in Protocol Buffer deserializer.
What is Protobuf?
Protobuf is Google’s language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data into binary format. This allows for many performance benefits, such as reducing the bandwidth needed to send messages, compact storage, and cross-language compatibility.
Protobuf with Azure Stream Analytics
The previous method of ingesting Protocol Buffers into your Azure Stream Analytics required customers to use our custom deserializer, which did not provide an intuitive experience. With the built-in deserializer, Azure Stream Analytics supports an out-of-the-box feature to align with the other file formats we support, including JSON and AVRO.
Configure your Stream Analytics job.
Using the Protobuf deserializer is simple to configure. When setting up your Stream Analytics input, select the file format as Protobuf and then upload the Protobuf definition file (.proto file). Complete your configuration by specifying the message type and prefix style.
Conclusion:
Azure Stream Analytics now offers a built-in Protobuf deserializer. With this release, you can specify the file format you are ingesting as a Protocol Buffer. This solution presents a more user-friendly experience compared to using a custom deserializer. To use the built-in deserializer, specify the Protobuf definition file, message type, and prefix style.
To learn more, visit the documentation for using Protocol Buffers with Azure Stream Analytics.