diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/CharArrayRecord.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/CharArrayRecord.java
index aff00fc..65ecd8d 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/CharArrayRecord.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/CharArrayRecord.java
@@ -128,4 +128,10 @@
         builder.getChars(0, builder.length(), value, 0);
         this.size = builder.length();
     }
+
+    public void set(String strValue) throws IOException {
+        ensureCapacity(strValue.length());
+        strValue.getChars(0, strValue.length(), value, 0);
+        this.size = strValue.length();
+    }
 }
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/http/HttpServerRecordReader.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/http/HttpServerRecordReader.java
index b466614..81ad5ba 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/http/HttpServerRecordReader.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/http/HttpServerRecordReader.java
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@
     public HttpServerRecordReader(int port, String entryPoint, int queueSize, HttpServerConfig httpServerConfig)
             throws Exception {
         this.inputQ = new LinkedBlockingQueue<>(queueSize > 0 ? queueSize : DEFAULT_QUEUE_SIZE);
-        this.record = new CharArrayRecord(0);
+        this.record = new CharArrayRecord();
         webManager = new WebManager();
         webServer = new HttpServer(webManager.getBosses(), webManager.getWorkers(), port, httpServerConfig);
         webServer.addServlet(new HttpFeedServlet(webServer.ctx(),
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@
         if (srecord == null) {
             return null;
         }
-        record.set(srecord.toCharArray());
+        record.set(srecord);
         return record;
     }
 
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/stream/SemiStructuredRecordReader.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/stream/SemiStructuredRecordReader.java
index cc4b7f9..883f0ee 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/stream/SemiStructuredRecordReader.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/stream/SemiStructuredRecordReader.java
@@ -39,9 +39,9 @@
     private char recordStart;
     private char recordEnd;
     private int recordNumber = 0;
-    private static final List<String> recordReaderFormats =
-            Collections.unmodifiableList(Arrays.asList(ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_ADM,
-                    ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_JSON, ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_SEMISTRUCTURED));
+    private static final List<String> recordReaderFormats = Collections.unmodifiableList(
+            Arrays.asList(ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_ADM, ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_JSON_LOWER_CASE,
+                    ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_JSON_UPPER_CASE, ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_SEMISTRUCTURED));
     private static final String REQUIRED_CONFIGS = "";
 
     @Override
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/twitter/TwitterPullRecordReader.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/twitter/TwitterPullRecordReader.java
index 2cf5396..90662b2 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/twitter/TwitterPullRecordReader.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/twitter/TwitterPullRecordReader.java
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 import org.apache.asterix.external.api.IRawRecord;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.api.IRecordReader;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.dataflow.AbstractFeedDataFlowController;
-import org.apache.asterix.external.input.record.GenericRecord;
+import org.apache.asterix.external.input.record.CharArrayRecord;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.util.FeedLogManager;
 import org.apache.hyracks.api.exceptions.HyracksDataException;
 
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 import twitter4j.TwitterException;
 import twitter4j.TwitterObjectFactory;
 
-public class TwitterPullRecordReader implements IRecordReader<String> {
+public class TwitterPullRecordReader implements IRecordReader<char[]> {
 
     private Query query;
     private Twitter twitter;
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
     private QueryResult result;
     private int nextTweetIndex = 0;
     private long lastTweetIdReceived = 0;
-    private GenericRecord<String> record;
+    private CharArrayRecord record;
     private boolean stopped = false;
 
     public TwitterPullRecordReader(Twitter twitter, String keywords, int requestInterval) {
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
         this.requestInterval = requestInterval;
         this.query = new Query(keywords);
         this.query.setCount(100);
-        this.record = new GenericRecord<>();
+        this.record = new CharArrayRecord();
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@
     }
 
     @Override
-    public IRawRecord<String> next() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+    public IRawRecord<char[]> next() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
         if (result == null || nextTweetIndex >= result.getTweets().size()) {
             Thread.sleep(1000 * requestInterval);
             query.setSinceId(lastTweetIdReceived);
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/twitter/TwitterPushRecordReader.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/twitter/TwitterPushRecordReader.java
index 3c63281..0f93914 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/twitter/TwitterPushRecordReader.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/twitter/TwitterPushRecordReader.java
@@ -24,17 +24,17 @@
 import org.apache.asterix.external.api.IRawRecord;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.api.IRecordReader;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.dataflow.AbstractFeedDataFlowController;
-import org.apache.asterix.external.input.record.GenericRecord;
+import org.apache.asterix.external.input.record.CharArrayRecord;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.util.FeedLogManager;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.util.TwitterUtil;
 
 import twitter4j.FilterQuery;
 import twitter4j.TwitterStream;
 
-public class TwitterPushRecordReader implements IRecordReader<String> {
+public class TwitterPushRecordReader implements IRecordReader<char[]> {
     private LinkedBlockingQueue<String> inputQ;
     private TwitterStream twitterStream;
-    private GenericRecord<String> record;
+    private CharArrayRecord record;
     private boolean closed = false;
 
     public TwitterPushRecordReader(TwitterStream twitterStream, TwitterUtil.TweetListener tweetListener,
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@
     }
 
     private void init(TwitterStream twitterStream) {
-        record = new GenericRecord<>();
+        record = new CharArrayRecord();
         inputQ = new LinkedBlockingQueue<>();
         this.twitterStream = twitterStream;
     }
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@
     }
 
     @Override
-    public IRawRecord<String> next() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+    public IRawRecord<char[]> next() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
         String tweet = inputQ.poll();
         if (tweet == null) {
             return null;
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/twitter/TwitterRecordReaderFactory.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/twitter/TwitterRecordReaderFactory.java
index a31e0da..43a3816 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/twitter/TwitterRecordReaderFactory.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/input/record/reader/twitter/TwitterRecordReaderFactory.java
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
 
 import twitter4j.FilterQuery;
 
-public class TwitterRecordReaderFactory implements IRecordReaderFactory<String> {
+public class TwitterRecordReaderFactory implements IRecordReaderFactory<char[]> {
 
     private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
     private static final Logger LOGGER = LogManager.getLogger();
@@ -128,9 +128,9 @@
     }
 
     @Override
-    public IRecordReader<? extends String> createRecordReader(IHyracksTaskContext ctx, int partition)
+    public IRecordReader<? extends char[]> createRecordReader(IHyracksTaskContext ctx, int partition)
             throws HyracksDataException {
-        IRecordReader<? extends String> recordReader;
+        IRecordReader<? extends char[]> recordReader;
         switch (configuration.get(ExternalDataConstants.KEY_READER)) {
             case ExternalDataConstants.KEY_ADAPTER_NAME_PULL_TWITTER:
                 recordReader = new TwitterPullRecordReader(TwitterUtil.getTwitterService(configuration),
@@ -161,8 +161,8 @@
     }
 
     @Override
-    public Class<? extends String> getRecordClass() {
-        return String.class;
+    public Class<? extends char[]> getRecordClass() {
+        return char[].class;
     }
 
     private boolean validateConfiguration(Map<String, String> configuration) {
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/TweetParser.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/TweetParser.java
index 0183196..6cf84df 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/TweetParser.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/TweetParser.java
@@ -47,7 +47,13 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 
-public class TweetParser extends AbstractDataParser implements IRecordDataParser<String> {
+/**
+ * This class was introduced to parse Twitter data. As Tweets are JSON formatted records, we can use the JSON parser to
+ * to parse them instead of having this dedicated parser. In the future, we could either deprecate this class, or add
+ * some Tweet specific parsing processes into this class.
+ */
+
+public class TweetParser extends AbstractDataParser implements IRecordDataParser<char[]> {
     private final IObjectPool<IARecordBuilder, ATypeTag> recordBuilderPool =
             new ListObjectPool<>(new RecordBuilderFactory());
     private final IObjectPool<IAsterixListBuilder, ATypeTag> listBuilderPool =
@@ -252,12 +258,12 @@
     }
 
     @Override
-    public void parse(IRawRecord<? extends String> record, DataOutput out) throws HyracksDataException {
+    public void parse(IRawRecord<? extends char[]> record, DataOutput out) throws HyracksDataException {
         try {
             //TODO get rid of this temporary json
             resetPools();
             ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
-            writeRecord(om.readTree(record.get()), out, recordType);
+            writeRecord(om.readTree(record.getBytes()), out, recordType);
         } catch (IOException e) {
             throw HyracksDataException.create(e);
         }
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/factory/JSONDataParserFactory.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/factory/JSONDataParserFactory.java
index 501aea0..f9d50d3 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/factory/JSONDataParserFactory.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/factory/JSONDataParserFactory.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 import org.apache.asterix.external.api.IRecordDataParser;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.api.IStreamDataParser;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.parser.JSONDataParser;
+import org.apache.asterix.external.util.ExternalDataConstants;
 import org.apache.asterix.om.types.AOrderedListType;
 import org.apache.asterix.om.types.ARecordType;
 import org.apache.asterix.om.types.ATypeTag;
@@ -41,7 +42,8 @@
 public class JSONDataParserFactory extends AbstractRecordStreamParserFactory<char[]> {
 
     private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
-    private static final List<String> PARSER_FORMAT = Collections.unmodifiableList(Arrays.asList("json"));
+    private static final List<String> PARSER_FORMAT = Collections.unmodifiableList(
+            Arrays.asList(ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_JSON_LOWER_CASE, ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_JSON_UPPER_CASE));
     private static final List<ATypeTag> UNSUPPORTED_TYPES = Collections
             .unmodifiableList(Arrays.asList(ATypeTag.MULTISET, ATypeTag.POINT3D, ATypeTag.CIRCLE, ATypeTag.RECTANGLE,
                     ATypeTag.INTERVAL, ATypeTag.DAYTIMEDURATION, ATypeTag.DURATION, ATypeTag.BINARY));
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/factory/TweetParserFactory.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/factory/TweetParserFactory.java
index 34f0434..7844924 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/factory/TweetParserFactory.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/factory/TweetParserFactory.java
@@ -26,13 +26,15 @@
 import org.apache.asterix.external.api.IRecordDataParser;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.api.IRecordDataParserFactory;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.parser.TweetParser;
+import org.apache.asterix.external.util.ExternalDataConstants;
 import org.apache.asterix.om.types.ARecordType;
 import org.apache.hyracks.api.context.IHyracksTaskContext;
 
-public class TweetParserFactory implements IRecordDataParserFactory<String> {
+public class TweetParserFactory implements IRecordDataParserFactory<char[]> {
 
     private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
-    private static final List<String> parserFormats = Collections.unmodifiableList(Arrays.asList("twitter-status"));
+    private static final List<String> parserFormats =
+            Collections.unmodifiableList(Arrays.asList(ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_TWEET));
     private ARecordType recordType;
 
     @Override
@@ -46,7 +48,7 @@
     }
 
     @Override
-    public IRecordDataParser<String> createRecordParser(IHyracksTaskContext ctx) {
+    public IRecordDataParser<char[]> createRecordParser(IHyracksTaskContext ctx) {
         TweetParser dataParser = new TweetParser(recordType);
         return dataParser;
     }
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/provider/RecordConverterFactoryProvider.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/provider/RecordConverterFactoryProvider.java
index 77e634f..ea879fd 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/provider/RecordConverterFactoryProvider.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/provider/RecordConverterFactoryProvider.java
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
             throws AsterixException {
         switch (recordFormat) {
             case ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_ADM:
-            case ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_JSON:
+            case ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_JSON_LOWER_CASE:
                 // converter that produces records of adm/json type
                 switch (format) {
                     case ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_CSV:
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/util/ExternalDataConstants.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/util/ExternalDataConstants.java
index 5a04e33..729215e 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/util/ExternalDataConstants.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/util/ExternalDataConstants.java
@@ -153,7 +153,8 @@
     public static final String FORMAT_HIVE = "hive";
     public static final String FORMAT_BINARY = "binary";
     public static final String FORMAT_ADM = "adm";
-    public static final String FORMAT_JSON = "json";
+    public static final String FORMAT_JSON_LOWER_CASE = "json";
+    public static final String FORMAT_JSON_UPPER_CASE = "JSON";
     public static final String FORMAT_DELIMITED_TEXT = "delimited-text";
     public static final String FORMAT_TWEET = "twitter-status";
     public static final String FORMAT_RSS = "rss";
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/test/StreamRecordReaderProviderTest.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/test/StreamRecordReaderProviderTest.java
index 3a9d7a5..6e2c92f 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/test/StreamRecordReaderProviderTest.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/test/StreamRecordReaderProviderTest.java
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
     public void Test() throws AsterixException {
         List<String> recordReaderFormats =
                 Arrays.asList(ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_LINE_SEPARATED, ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_ADM,
-                        ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_JSON, ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_SEMISTRUCTURED,
+                        ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_JSON_LOWER_CASE, ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_SEMISTRUCTURED,
                         ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_DELIMITED_TEXT, ExternalDataConstants.FORMAT_CSV);
         Map<String, String> config = new HashMap<>();
         for (String format : recordReaderFormats) {
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/test/TweetParserTest.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/test/TweetParserTest.java
index 9916fa5..e18c13d 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/test/TweetParserTest.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/test/TweetParserTest.java
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
 
+import org.apache.asterix.external.input.record.CharArrayRecord;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.input.record.GenericRecord;
 import org.apache.asterix.external.parser.TweetParser;
 import org.apache.asterix.om.types.AOrderedListType;
@@ -64,12 +65,12 @@
                 new ARecordType("TweetType", new String[] { "id", "geo" }, new IAType[] { AINT64, geoUnionType }, true);
 
         TweetParser parser = new TweetParser(tweetRecordType);
+        CharArrayRecord record = new CharArrayRecord();
 
         List<String> lines = Files.readAllLines(Paths.get(getClass().getResource("/test_tweets.txt").toURI()));
         ByteArrayOutputStream is = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
         DataOutput output = new DataOutputStream(is);
         for (int iter1 = 0; iter1 < lines.size(); iter1++) {
-            GenericRecord<String> record = new GenericRecord<>();
             record.set(lines.get(iter1));
             try {
                 parser.parse(record, output);
@@ -93,9 +94,9 @@
         List<String> lines = Files.readAllLines(Paths.get(getClass().getResource("/test_tweets.txt").toURI()));
         ByteArrayOutputStream is = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
         DataOutput output = new DataOutputStream(is);
+        CharArrayRecord record = new CharArrayRecord();
         int regularCount = 0;
         for (int iter1 = 0; iter1 < lines.size(); iter1++) {
-            GenericRecord<String> record = new GenericRecord<>();
             record.set(lines.get(iter1));
             try {
                 parser.parse(record, output);