Kafka Dependencies - ccs vs ce

Question

To develop my Kafka connector I need to add a connect-API dependency.

Which one I should use?

For example mongodb connector use connect-api from maven central

But links from dev guide go to https://packages.confluent.io/maven/org/apache/kafka/connect-api/5.5.0-ccs/ and beside 5.5.0-ccs there is also 5.5.0-ce version.

So, at this moment last versions are:

• 2.5.0 from maven central
• 5.5.0-ccs from packages.confluent.io/maven
• 5.5.0-ce from packages.confluent.io/maven

What difference between all three variants?

Which one I should use?

Entirely

Answer 1

The 5.x version refer to Releases from Confluent whereas the 2.5.0 refers to the Open Source Apache Kafka project.

According to this documentation the ce belongs to the complete Confluent Platform, including all community and commercial component packages and the ccs to the Confluent Community component packages.

This doc on licenses around Confluent/Kafka will give you more details.

According to Confluent documentation on inter-compatibility:

Confluent Platform and Apache Kafka Compatibility

Confluent Platform  Apache Kafka
7.6.x               3.6.x
7.1.x               3.1.x
7.0.x               3.0.x
6.2.x               2.8.x
6.1.x               2.7.x
6.0.x               2.6.x
5.5.x               2.5.x
5.4.x               2.4.x
5.3.x               2.3.x
...                 ...

Kafka-Connect is part of Open Source Apache Kafka and of both Confluent packages, so it would not matter which version to use. There is a difference when it comes to pre-build/supported connectors available in the confluent packages compared to Open source version. As you plan to build your own, it would not matter.

This blog post is a nice introduction to Confluent Hub.

Madid