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Chapter 44. Flatpack

Flatpack Component

The Flatpack component supports fixed width and delimited file parsing using the FlatPack library. Notice: This component only supports consuming from flatpack files to Object model. You can not (yet) write from Object model to flatpack format.
Maven users will need to add the following dependency to their pom.xml for this component: 
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.camel</groupId>
    <artifactId>camel-flatpack</artifactId>
    <version>x.x.x</version>
    <!-- use the same version as your Camel core version -->
</dependency>

URI format

flatpack:[delim|fixed]:flatPackConfig.pzmap.xml[?options]
Or for a delimited file handler with no configuration file just use: 
flatpack:someName[?options]
You can append query options to the URI in the following format, ?option=value&option=value&...

URI Options

Name Default Value Description
delimiter , The default character delimiter for delimited files.
textQualifier " The text qualifier for delimited files.
ignoreFirstRecord true Whether the first line is ignored for delimited files (for the column headers).
splitRows true As of Apache Camel 1.5, the component can either process each row one by one or the entire content at once.
allowShortLines false *Camel 2.9.3:* Allows for lines to be shorter than expected and ignores the extra characters.
ignoreExtraColumns false *Camel 2.9.3:* Allows for lines to be longer than expected and ignores the extra characters.

Examples

  • flatpack:fixed:foo.pzmap.xml creates a fixed-width endpoint using the foo.pzmap.xml file configuration.
  • flatpack:delim:bar.pzmap.xml creates a delimited endpoint using the bar.pzmap.xml file configuration.
  • flatpack:foo creates a delimited endpoint called foo with no file configuration.

Message Headers

Apache Camel will store the following headers on the IN message:
Header Description
camelFlatpackCounter The current row index. For splitRows=false the counter is the total number of rows.

Message Body

The component delivers the data in the IN message as a org.apache.camel.component.flatpack.DataSetList object that has converters for java.util.Map or java.util.List. Usually you want the Map if you process one row at a time (splitRows=true). Use List for the entire content (splitRows=false), where each element in the list is a Map. Each Map contains the key for the column name and its corresponding value.
For example to get the firstname from the sample below: 
  Map row = exchange.getIn().getBody(Map.class);
  String firstName = row.get("FIRSTNAME");
However, you can also always get it as a List (even for splitRows=true). The same example: 
  List data = exchange.getIn().getBody(List.class);
  Map row = (Map)data.get(0);
  String firstName = row.get("FIRSTNAME");

Header and Trailer records

The header and trailer notions in Flatpack are supported. However, you must use fixed record IDs:
  • header for the header record (must be lowercase)
  • trailer for the trailer record (must be lowercase)
The example below illustrates this fact that we have a header and a trailer. You can omit one or both of them if not needed. 
    <RECORD id="header" startPosition="1" endPosition="3" indicator="HBT">
        <COLUMN name="INDICATOR" length="3"/>
        <COLUMN name="DATE" length="8"/>
    </RECORD>

    <COLUMN name="FIRSTNAME" length="35" />
    <COLUMN name="LASTNAME" length="35" />
    <COLUMN name="ADDRESS" length="100" />
    <COLUMN name="CITY" length="100" />
    <COLUMN name="STATE" length="2" />
    <COLUMN name="ZIP" length="5" />

    <RECORD id="trailer" startPosition="1" endPosition="3" indicator="FBT">
        <COLUMN name="INDICATOR" length="3"/>
        <COLUMN name="STATUS" length="7"/>
    </RECORD>

Using the endpoint

A common use case is sending a file to this endpoint for further processing in a separate route. For example: 
  <camelContext xmlns="http://activemq.apache.org/camel/schema/spring">
    <route>
      <from uri="file://someDirectory"/>
      <to uri="flatpack:foo"/>
    </route>

    <route>
      <from uri="flatpack:foo"/>
      ...
    </route>
  </camelContext>
You can also convert the payload of each message created to a Map for easy Bean Integration