Highlights
I/Os
* Python: Deprecated module `apache_beam.io.gcp.datastore.v1` has been removed
as the client it uses is out of date and does not support Python 3
([BEAM-9529](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-9529)).
Please migrate your code to use
[apache_beam.io.gcp.datastore.**v1new**](https://beam.apache.org/releases/pydoc/current/apache_beam.io.gcp.datastore.v1new.datastoreio.html).
See the updated
[datastore_wordcount](https://github.com/apache/beam/blob/master/sdks/python/apache_beam/examples/cookbook/datastore_wordcount.py)
for example usage.
* Python SDK: Added integration tests and updated batch write functionality for Google Cloud Spanner transform ([BEAM-8949](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-8949)).
New Features / Improvements
* Python SDK will now use Python 3 type annotations as pipeline type hints.
([10717](https://github.com/apache/beam/pull/10717))
If you suspect that this feature is causing your pipeline to fail, calling
`apache_beam.typehints.disable_type_annotations()` before pipeline creation
will disable is completely, and decorating specific functions (such as
`process()`) with `apache_beam.typehints.no_annotations` will disable it
for that function.
More details will be in
[Ensuring Python Type Safety](https://beam.apache.org/documentation/sdks/python-type-safety/)
and an upcoming
[blog post](https://beam.apache.org/blog/python-typing/index.html).
* Java SDK: Introducing the concept of options in Beam Schemas. These options add extra
context to fields and schemas. This replaces the current Beam metadata that is present
in a FieldType only, options are available in fields and row schemas. Schema options are
fully typed and can contain complex rows. *Remark: Schema aware is still experimental.*
([BEAM-9035](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-9035))
* Java SDK: The protobuf extension is fully schema aware and also includes protobuf option
conversion to beam schema options. *Remark: Schema aware is still experimental.*
([BEAM-9044](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-9044))
* Added ability to write to BigQuery via Avro file loads (Python) ([BEAM-8841](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-8841))
By default, file loads will be done using JSON, but it is possible to
specify the temp_file_format parameter to perform file exports with AVRO.
AVRO-based file loads work by exporting Python types into Avro types, so
to switch to Avro-based loads, you will need to change your data types
from Json-compatible types (string-type dates and timestamp, long numeric
values as strings) into Python native types that are written to Avro
(Python's date, datetime types, decimal, etc). For more information
see https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/loading-data-cloud-storage-avro#avro_conversions.
* Added integration of Java SDK with Google Cloud AI VideoIntelligence service
([BEAM-9147](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-9147))
* Added integration of Java SDK with Google Cloud AI natural language processing API
([BEAM-9634](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-9634))
* `docker-pull-licenses` tag was introduced. Licenses/notices of third party dependencies will be added to the docker images when `docker-pull-licenses` was set.
The files are added to `/opt/apache/beam/third_party_licenses/`.
By default, no licenses/notices are added to the docker images. ([BEAM-9136](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-9136))
Breaking Changes
* Dataflow runner now requires the `--region` option to be set, unless a default value is set in the environment ([BEAM-9199](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-9199)). See [here](https://cloud.google.com/dataflow/docs/concepts/regional-endpoints) for more details.
* HBaseIO.ReadAll now requires a PCollection of HBaseIO.Read objects instead of HBaseQuery objects ([BEAM-9279](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-9279)).
* ProcessContext.updateWatermark has been removed in favor of using a WatermarkEstimator ([BEAM-9430](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-9430)).
* Coder inference for PCollection of Row objects has been disabled ([BEAM-9569](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-9569)).
* Go SDK docker images are no longer released until further notice.
Deprecations
* Java SDK: Beam Schema FieldType.getMetadata is now deprecated and is replaced by the Beam
Schema Options, it will be removed in version `2.23.0`. ([BEAM-9704](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-9704))
* The `--zone` option in the Dataflow runner is now deprecated. Please use `--worker_zone` instead. ([BEAM-9716](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-9716))
Known Issues