Do Flink on Web with FLOW

We present a web service named FLOW to let users do FLink On Web. FLOW aims to minimize the effort of handwriting streaming applications similar in spirit to Hortonworks Stream Analytics Manager, StreamAnalytix, and Nussknacker by letting users drag and drop graphical icons representing streaming operators on GUI.

FLOW builds on Flink Table API and lets users assemble graphical icons associated with not only basic SQL operations but also advanced SQL operations like window aggregation, temporal join, and pattern recognition (MATCH_RECOGNIZE clause). Its data preview function enables to observe how sample data changes before and after applying each operation on screen. In addition, FLOW shows the sample data as time-series charts and geographical maps by interacting with Elasticsearch and Kibana. Therefore, domain experts with basic knowledge of SQL can design their streaming applications easily on GUI without understanding of Flink DataStream API and Flink CEP library.

In this talk, we first present what motivates the development of FLOW, then show how FLOW can be used to figure out the "Popular Places" exercise in its own style, and lastly explain how FLOW leverages Flink Table API.