Apache Avro

Apache Avro™ is a data serialization system. Simple integration with dynamic languages. Code generation is not required to read or write data files nor to use or implement RPC protocols. Code generation is an optional optimization, is only worth implementing for statically typed languages. Avro relies on schemas. When Avro data is read, the schema used when writing it is always present. This permits each datum to be written with no per-value overheads, making serialization both fast and small. This also facilitates use with dynamic, scripting languages, since data, together with its schema, is fully self-describing. When Avro data is stored in a file, its schema is stored with it, so that files may be processed later by any program. If the program reading the data expects a different schema this can be easily resolved, since both schemas are present.