Quick Start #

This document provides a quick introduction to using Flink Table Store. Readers of this document will be guided to create a simple dynamic table to read and write it.

Step 1: Downloading Flink #

Note: Table Store is only supported since Flink 1.15.

Download the latest binary release of Flink, then extract the archive:

tar -xzf flink-*.tgz

Step 2: Copy Table Store Bundle Jar #

Download the latest bundle jar of Flink Table Store.

Copy table store bundle jar to flink/lib:

cp flink-table-store-dist-*.jar FLINK_HOME/lib/

Step 3: Copy Hadoop Bundle Jar #

Download Pre-bundled Hadoop.

cp flink-shaded-hadoop-2-uber-*.jar FLINK_HOME/lib/

Step 4: Start Flink Local Cluster #

In order to run multiple jobs, you need to modify the cluster configuration:

vi ./conf/flink-conf.yaml

taskmanager.numberOfTaskSlots: 2

To start a local cluster, run the bash script that comes with Flink:

./bin/start-cluster.sh

You should be able to navigate to the web UI at localhost:8081 to view the Flink dashboard and see that the cluster is up and running.

Start the SQL Client CLI:

./bin/sql-client.sh embedded

Step 5: Create Dynamic Table #

-- set root path to session config
SET 'table-store.path' = '/tmp/table_store';

-- create a word count dynamic table without 'connector' option
CREATE TABLE word_count (
    word STRING PRIMARY KEY NOT ENFORCED,
    cnt BIGINT
);

Step 6: Write Data #

-- create a word data generator table
CREATE TABLE word_table (
    word STRING
) WITH (
    'connector' = 'datagen',
    'fields.word.length' = '1'
);

-- table store requires checkpoint interval in streaming mode
SET 'execution.checkpointing.interval' = '10 s';

-- write streaming data to dynamic table
INSERT INTO word_count SELECT word, COUNT(*) FROM word_table GROUP BY word;

Step 7: OLAP Query #

-- use tableau result mode
SET 'sql-client.execution.result-mode' = 'tableau';

-- switch to batch mode
RESET 'execution.checkpointing.interval';
SET 'execution.runtime-mode' = 'batch';

-- olap query the table
SELECT * FROM word_count;

You can execute the query multiple times and observe the changes in the results.

Step 8: Streaming Query #

-- switch to streaming mode
SET 'execution.runtime-mode' = 'streaming';

-- track the changes of table and calculate the count interval statistics
SELECT `interval`, COUNT(*) AS interval_cnt FROM
  (SELECT cnt / 10000 AS `interval` FROM word_count) GROUP BY `interval`;

With the streaming mode, you can get the change log of the dynamic table, and perform new stream computations.

Step 9: Exit #

Cancel streaming job in localhost:8081.

-- drop the dynamic table, clear the files
DROP TABLE word_count;

-- exit sql-client
EXIT;

Stop the Flink local cluster:

./bin/stop-cluster.sh

Congratulation! #

You have completed the Flink Table Store Quick Start.