Data formats in Flow
Data formats specify how Flow should read and write data.
By default, Flow assumes that data is provided as JSON. However, by adding a data format to a model, this can be modified to any type of serialization format.
API specs and message formats
Some API specs which define transport also have their own message format (e.g., Protobuf). If that’s the case, you generally don’t need to do anything - Flow applies the correct formats when parsing the API spec.
| API Spec | Message Format | Docs |
|---|---|---|
Protobuf |
Protobuf |
|
OpenAPI |
JSON |
|
SOAP |
XML |
|
Avro |
Avro |
Use message formats in Taxi
If you’re using Taxi to describe your API specs, you need to specify the data format that is used for reading/writing messages.
By default, messages are expected to be in JSON. Other formats can be specified using an annotation on the top level type.
For example:
import flow.formats.Xml
@Xml
model Person {
firstName: FirstName
}You only need to apply the annotation to the top level entity.
| Message format | Annotation | Links |
|---|---|---|
Json |
Not needed - default format |
- |
Xml |
|
|
Csv |
|
|
Protobuf |
Not supported in Taxi - Use a Protobuf spec |
|
Avro |
Not supported directly in Taxi - Use an Avro spec |
