HBase has a convenient REST service, e.g. if we create some records in an HBase table: $ hbase shell
hbase(main):001:0> create 'profile', 'demographics'
hbase(main):002:0> put 'profile', 1234, 'demographics:age', 42
hbase(main):003:0> put 'profile', 1234, 'demographics:gender', 'F'
hbase(main):004:0> put 'profile', 2345, 'demographics:age', 8
hbase(main):005:0> put 'profile', 2345, 'demographics:gender', 'M'
hbase(main):006:0> scan 'profile'
ROW COLUMN+CELL
1234 column=demographics:age, timestamp=1496754873362, value=42
1234 column=demographics:gender, timestamp=1496754880025, value=F
2345 column=demographics:age, timestamp=1496754886334, value=8
2345 column=demographics:gender, timestamp=1496754891898, value=M ... and start the HBase REST service: [root@hdp03 ~]# hbase rest start We can retrieve the values by making calls to the HBase REST service: $ curl 'http://hdp03.woolford.io:8080/profile/1234' -H "Accept: application/json"
{
"Row": [{
"key": "MTIzNA==",
"Cell": [{
"column": "ZGVtb2dyYXBoaWNzOmFnZQ==",
"timestamp": 1496754873362,
"$": "NDI="
}, {
"column": "ZGVtb2dyYXBoaWNzOmdlbmRlcg==",
"timestamp": 1496754880025,
"$": "Rg=="
}]
}]
}
I notice that the HBase column names and cell values returned by the HBase REST service are base64 encoded: $ python
>>> import base64
>>> base64.b64decode("MTIzNA==")
'1234'
>>> base64.b64decode("ZGVtb2dyYXBoaWNzOmFnZQ==")
'demographics:age'
>>> base64.b64decode("NDI=")
'42'
>>> base64.b64decode("ZGVtb2dyYXBoaWNzOmdlbmRlcg==")
'demographics:gender'
>>> base64.b64decode("Rg==")
'F'
That's great for machine-to-machine communication, e.g. a webservice, but isn't very user-friendly since base64 isn't human readable. Is there a simple way (e.g. header parameter, HBase property) to make the HBase REST service return human-readable JSON? I realize I could write my own service, but I'd rather re-use existing code/functionality if possible.
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