Broadway

Broadway

File:Broadway logo.png

The Broadway logo

Elixir's Broadway is a flexible and powerful framework for building scalable, low-latency, and fault-tolerant systems. It provides a simplified approach to creating high-performance concurrent applications using the actor model.

Overview

Broadway facilitates the development of data processing pipelines by efficiently moving and transforming data between stages. It focuses on simplicity, performance, and fault-tolerance, making it an ideal choice for various use cases such as ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes, event sourcing, log processing, and more.

Key Features

• Support for parallel processing and distribution of work
• Built-in fault-tolerance mechanisms for managing failures
• Easy integration with external systems and data sources
• Stream-based processing for efficient memory utilization
• Flexible backpressure handling to control the flow of data
• Support for event-driven architectures
• Simple API for defining pipeline stages and transformations

File:Broadway pipeline.png

A Broadway pipeline example

Getting Started

To start using Broadway, you first need to add it as a dependency in your Elixir project by including it in your `mix.exs` file:

```elixir defp deps do

 [
   {:broadway, "~> 2.0"}
 ]

end ```

After adding Broadway as a dependency, you can define a pipeline by configuring stages and their corresponding processors:

```elixir defmodule MyBroadwayPipeline do

 use Broadway
 
 def start_link(_) do
   Broadway.start_link(__MODULE__,
     name: __MODULE__,
     processors: [
       default: [module: MyPipelineStage]
     ]
   )
 end
 
 defmodule MyPipelineStage do
   use Broadway.Stage
 
   defp process(message, _metadata, _config) do
     # Process the message here
     {:ok, processed_message}
   end
 end

end ```

You can then start the pipeline by executing `MyBroadwayPipeline.start_link` and observe the data flowing through the defined stages.

Documentation and Resources

For more information on using Broadway and its advanced features, refer to the following resources:

• Broadway HexDocs - Official documentation with detailed examples and guides
• Broadway GitHub Repository - Source code and issue tracker
• Elixir Forum - A community forum to discuss and seek help regarding Broadway

Conclusion

Broadway empowers Elixir developers to build high-performance and fault-tolerant data processing systems with ease. Its simplicity, scalability, and robustness make it a powerful tool for various use cases. Whether you are processing gigabytes of data or handling real-time events, Broadway has got you covered. Start exploring the possibilities of Broadway today to unlock the full potential of concurrent, distributed systems in Elixir!

References

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