Apache Avro™ 1.6.0 Specification

Introduction

This document defines Apache Avro. It is intended to be the authoritative specification. Implementations of Avro must adhere to this document.

Schema Declaration

A Schema is represented in JSON by one of:

• A JSON string, naming a defined type.
• A JSON object, of the form:

  {"type": "typeName" ...attributes...}

  where typeName is either a primitive or derived type name, as defined below. Attributes not defined in this document are permitted as metadata, but must not affect the format of serialized data.
• A JSON array, representing a union of embedded types.

Apache Avro

Introduction

Apache Avro™ is a data serialization system.

Avro provides:

• Rich data structures.
• A compact, fast, binary data format.
• A container file, to store persistent data.
• Remote procedure call (RPC).
• Simple integration with dynamic languages. Code generation is not required to read or write data files nor to use or implement RPC protocols. Code generation as an optional optimization, only worth implementing for statically typed languages.