[FLINK-9569] Confusing construction of AvroSerializers for generic records

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Won't Fix
• Component/s: API / Type Serialization System
• Labels: pull-request-available
• Assignee: Tzu-Li (Gordon) Tai
• Reporter: Tzu-Li (Gordon) Tai
• Created: 12/Jun/18 08:42
• Updated: 01/Oct/19 15:38
• Resolved: 14/Dec/18 09:01

Description

The AvroSerializer currently has a AvroSerializer(Class<T> type, Schema schema) public constructor when used for generic records.

This is a bit confusing, because when using the AvroSerializer, the type to be serialized should always be a GenericData.Record type.

We should either:

• have a separate subclass of AvroSerializer, say GenericRecordAvroSerializer that is a AvroSerializer<GenericRecord>, or
• follow a similar approach to the instantiation methods in the AvroDeserialiationSchema. 

Issue Links

• links to: GitHub Pull Request #6151
• links to: GitHub Pull Request #6151