Time for action – creating the source Avro data with Ruby

Let's create the sample data using Ruby to demonstrate the cross-language capabilities of Avro.

1. Add the rubygems package:

   $ sudo apt-get install rubygems
   

2. Install the Avro gem:

   $ gem install avro
   

3. Create the following as generate.rb:

   require 'rubygems'
   require 'avro'
   
   file = File.open('sightings.avro', 'wb')
   schema = Avro::Schema.parse(
   File.open("ufo.avsc", "rb").read)
   
   writer = Avro::IO::DatumWriter.new(schema)
   dw = Avro::DataFile::Writer.new(file, writer, schema)
   dw<< {"sighting_date" => "2012-01-12", "city" => "Boston", "shape" => "diamond", "duration" => 3.5}
   dw<< {"sighting_date" => "2011-06-13", "city" => "London", "shape" => "light", "duration" => 13}
   dw<< {"sighting_date" => "1999-12-31", "city" => "New York", "shape" => "light", "duration" => 0.25}
   dw<< {"sighting_date" => "2001-08-23", "city" => "Las Vegas", "shape" => "cylinder", "duration" => 1.2}
   dw...