Java Development in Apache Beam

Project Structure

Key Directories

• sdks/java/core – Core Java SDK (PCollection, PTransform, Pipeline)
• sdks/java/harness – SDK harness (container entrypoint)
• sdks/java/io/ – I/O connectors (51+ connectors including BigQuery, Kafka, JDBC, etc.)
• sdks/java/extensions/ – Extensions (SQL, ML, protobuf, etc.)
• runners/ – Runner implementations:
  • runners/direct-java – Direct Runner (local execution)
  • runners/flink/ – Flink Runner
  • runners/spark/ – Spark Runner
  • runners/google-cloud-dataflow-java/ – Dataflow Runner
• examples/java/ – Java examples including WordCount

Build System

Apache Beam uses Gradle with a custom BeamModulePlugin. Every Java project’s build.gradle starts with:

apply plugin: 'org.apache.beam.module'
applyJavaNature( ... )

Common Commands

Build Commands

# Compile a specific project
./gradlew -p sdks/java/core compileJava

# Build a project (compile + tests)
./gradlew :sdks:java:harness:build

# Run WordCount example
./gradlew :examples:java:wordCount

Running Unit Tests

# Run all tests in a project
./gradlew :sdks:java:harness:test

# Run a specific test class
./gradlew :sdks:java:harness:test --tests org.apache.beam.fn.harness.CachesTest

# Run tests matching a pattern
./gradlew :sdks:java:harness:test --tests *CachesTest

# Run a specific test method
./gradlew :sdks:java:harness:test --tests *CachesTest.testClearableCache

Running Integration Tests

Integration tests have filenames ending in IT.java and use TestPipeline.

# Run I/O integration tests on Direct Runner
./gradlew :sdks:java:io:google-cloud-platform:integrationTest

# Run with custom GCP project
./gradlew :sdks:java:io:google-cloud-platform:integrationTest \
  -PgcpProject=<project> -PgcpTempRoot=gs://<bucket>/path

# Run on Dataflow Runner
./gradlew :runners:google-cloud-dataflow-java:examplesJavaRunnerV2IntegrationTest \
  -PdisableSpotlessCheck=true -PdisableCheckStyle=true -PskipCheckerFramework \
  -PgcpProject=<project> -PgcpRegion=us-central1 -PgcsTempRoot=gs://<bucket>/tmp

Code Formatting

# Format Java code
./gradlew spotlessApply

Writing Integration Tests

@Rule public TestPipeline pipeline = TestPipeline.create();

@Test
public void testSomething() {
  pipeline.apply(...);
  pipeline.run().waitUntilFinish();
}

Set pipeline options via -DbeamTestPipelineOptions='[...]':

-DbeamTestPipelineOptions='["--runner=TestDataflowRunner","--project=myproject","--region=us-central1","--stagingLocation=gs://bucket/path"]'

Using Modified Beam Code

Publish to Maven Local

# Publish a specific module
./gradlew -Ppublishing -p sdks/java/io/kafka publishToMavenLocal

# Publish all modules
./gradlew -Ppublishing publishToMavenLocal

Building SDK Container

# Build Java SDK container (for Runner v2)
./gradlew :sdks:java:container:java11:docker

# Tag and push
docker tag apache/beam_java11_sdk:2.XX.0.dev \
  "us-docker.pkg.dev/your-project/beam/beam_java11_sdk:custom"
docker push "us-docker.pkg.dev/your-project/beam/beam_java11_sdk:custom"

Building Dataflow Worker Jar

./gradlew :runners:google-cloud-dataflow-java:worker:shadowJar

Test Naming Conventions

• Unit tests: *Test.java
• Integration tests: *IT.java

JUnit Report Location

After running tests, find HTML reports at: <project>/build/reports/tests/test/index.html

IDE Setup (IntelliJ)

1. Open /beam (the repository root, NOT sdks/java)
2. Wait for indexing to complete
3. Find examples/java/build.gradle and click Run next to wordCount task to verify setup