Knative CLI plugins | Knative CLI | Red Hat OpenShift Serverless 1.34

Building events by using the kn-event plugin
Sending events by using the kn-event plugin

The Knative (kn) CLI supports the use of plugins, which enable you to extend the functionality of your kn installation by adding custom commands and other shared commands that are not part of the core distribution. Knative (kn) CLI plugins are used in the same way as the main kn functionality.

Currently, Red Hat supports the kn-source-kafka plugin and the kn-event plugin.

The kn-event plugin is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

Building events by using the kn-event plugin

You can use the builder-like interface of the kn event build command to build an event. You can then send that event at a later time or use it in another context.

Prerequisites

You have installed the Knative (kn) CLI.

Procedure

Build an event:

$ kn event build --field <field-name>=<value> --type <type-name> --id <id> --output <format>

where:

The --field flag adds data to the event as a field-value pair. You can use it multiple times.
The --type flag enables you to specify a string that designates the type of the event.
The --id flag specifies the ID of the event.

You can use the json or yaml arguments with the --output flag to change the output format of the event.

All of these flags are optional.

Building a simple event

$ kn event build -o yaml

Resultant event in the YAML format

data: {}
datacontenttype: application/json
id: 81a402a2-9c29-4c27-b8ed-246a253c9e58
source: kn-event/v0.4.0
specversion: "1.0"
time: "2021-10-15T10:42:57.713226203Z"
type: dev.knative.cli.plugin.event.generic

Building a sample transaction event

$ kn event build \
    --field operation.type=local-wire-transfer \
    --field operation.amount=2345.40 \
    --field operation.from=87656231 \
    --field operation.to=2344121 \
    --field automated=true \
    --field signature='FGzCPLvYWdEgsdpb3qXkaVp7Da0=' \
    --type org.example.bank.bar \
    --id $(head -c 10 < /dev/urandom | base64 -w 0) \
    --output json

Resultant event in the JSON format

{
  "specversion": "1.0",
  "id": "RjtL8UH66X+UJg==",
  "source": "kn-event/v0.4.0",
  "type": "org.example.bank.bar",
  "datacontenttype": "application/json",
  "time": "2021-10-15T10:43:23.113187943Z",
  "data": {
    "automated": true,
    "operation": {
      "amount": "2345.40",
      "from": 87656231,
      "to": 2344121,
      "type": "local-wire-transfer"
    },
    "signature": "FGzCPLvYWdEgsdpb3qXkaVp7Da0="
  }
}

Sending events by using the kn-event plugin

You can use the kn event send command to send an event. The events can be sent either to publicly available addresses or to addressable resources inside a cluster, such as Kubernetes services, as well as Knative services, brokers, and channels. The command uses the same builder-like interface as the kn event build command.

Prerequisites

You have installed the Knative (kn) CLI.

Procedure

Send an event:
```
$ kn event send --field <field-name>=<value> --type <type-name> --id <id> --to-url <url> --to <cluster-resource> --namespace <namespace>
```
where:
- The --field flag adds data to the event as a field-value pair. You can use it multiple times.
- The --type flag enables you to specify a string that designates the type of the event.
- The --id flag specifies the ID of the event.
- If you are sending the event to a publicly accessible destination, specify the URL using the --to-url flag.
- If you are sending the event to an in-cluster Kubernetes resource, specify the destination using the --to flag.
  - Specify the Kubernetes resource using the <Kind>:<ApiVersion>:<name> format.
- The --namespace flag specifies the namespace. If omitted, the namespace is taken from the current context.
  
  All of these flags are optional, except for the destination specification, for which you need to use either --to-url or --to.
  
  The following example shows sending an event to a URL:
  Example command
  $ kn event send \ --field player.id=6354aa60-ddb1-452e-8c13-24893667de20 \ --field player.game=2345 \ --field points=456 \ --type org.example.gaming.foo \ --to-url http://ce-api.foo.example.com/
  The following example shows sending an event to an in-cluster resource:
  Example command
  $ kn event send \ --type org.example.kn.ping \ --id $(uuidgen) \ --field event.type=test \ --field event.data=98765 \ --to Service:serving.knative.dev/v1:event-display