48.2. Implementing the Component Interface

The DefaultComponent class

You implement a new component by extending the org.apache.camel.impl.DefaultComponent class, which provides some standard functionality and default implementations for some of the methods. In particular, the DefaultComponent class provides support for URI parsing and for creating a scheduled executor (which is used for the scheduled poll pattern).

URI parsing

The createEndpoint(String uri) method defined in the base Component interface takes a complete, unparsed endpoint URI as its sole argument. The DefaultComponent class, on the other hand, defines a three-argument version of the createEndpoint() method with the following signature: 
protected abstract Endpoint createEndpoint(
    String uri,
    String remaining,
    Map parameters
)
throws Exception;
uri is the original, unparsed URI; remaining is the part of the URI that remains after stripping off the component prefix at the start and cutting off the query options at the end; and parameters contains the parsed query options. It is this version of the createEndpoint() method that you must override when inheriting from DefaultComponent. This has the advantage that the endpoint URI is already parsed for you.
The following sample endpoint URI for the file component shows how URI parsing works in practice: 
file:///tmp/messages/foo?delete=true&moveNamePostfix=.old
For this URI, the following arguments are passed to the three-argument version of createEndpoint():
ArgumentSample Value
urifile:///tmp/messages/foo?delete=true&moveNamePostfix=.old
remaining/tmp/messages/foo
parameters
Two entries are set in java.util.Map:
  • parameter delete is boolean true
  • parameter moveNamePostfix has the string value, .old.

Parameter injection

By default, the parameters extracted from the URI query options are injected on the endpoint's bean properties. The DefaultComponent class automatically injects the parameters for you.
For example, if you want to define a custom endpoint that supports two URI query options: delete and moveNamePostfix. All you must do is define the corresponding bean methods (getters and setters) in the endpoint class: 
public class FileEndpoint extends ScheduledPollEndpoint {
    ...
    public boolean isDelete() {
        return delete;
    }
    public void setDelete(boolean delete) {
        this.delete = delete;
    }
    ...
    public String getMoveNamePostfix() {
        return moveNamePostfix;
    }
    public void setMoveNamePostfix(String moveNamePostfix) {
        this.moveNamePostfix = moveNamePostfix;
    }
}
It is also possible to inject URI query options into consumer parameters. For details, see the section called “Consumer parameter injection”.

Disabling endpoint parameter injection

If there are no parameters defined on your Endpoint class, you can optimize the process of endpoint creation by disabling endpoint parameter injection. To disable parameter injection on endpoints, override the useIntrospectionOnEndpoint() method and implement it to return false, as follows: 
protected boolean useIntrospectionOnEndpoint() {
  return false;
}
Note
The useIntrospectionOnEndpoint() method does not affect the parameter injection that might be performed on a Consumer class. Parameter injection at that level is controlled by the Endpoint.configureProperties() method (see Section 49.2, “Implementing the Endpoint Interface”).

Scheduled executor service

The scheduled executor is used in the scheduled poll pattern, where it is responsible for driving the periodic polling of a consumer endpoint (a scheduled executor is effectively a thread pool implementation).
To instantiate a scheduled executor service, use the ExecutorServiceStrategy object that is returned by the CamelContext.getExecutorServiceStrategy() method. For details of the Apache Camel threading model, see Section 2.8, “Threading Model”.
Note
Prior to Apache Camel 2.3, the DefaultComponent class provided a getExecutorService() method for creating thread pool instances. Since 2.3, however, the creation of thread pools is now managed centrally by the ExecutorServiceStrategy object.

Validating the URI

If you want to validate the URI before creating an endpoint instance, you can override the validateURI() method from the DefaultComponent class, which has the following signature:
protected void validateURI(String uri,
                           String path,
                           Map parameters)
    throws ResolveEndpointFailedException;
If the supplied URI does not have the required format, the implementation of validateURI() should throw the org.apache.camel.ResolveEndpointFailedException exception.

Creating an endpoint

Example 48.2, “Implementation of createEndpoint()” outlines how to implement the DefaultComponent.createEndpoint() method, which is responsible for creating endpoint instances on demand.

Example 48.2. Implementation of createEndpoint()

public class CustomComponent extends DefaultComponent { 1
    ...
    protected Endpoint createEndpoint(String uri, String remaining, Map parameters) throws Exception { 2
        CustomEndpoint result = new CustomEndpoint(uri, this); 3
        // ...
        return result;
    }
}
1
The CustomComponent is the name of your custom component class, which is defined by extending the DefaultComponent class.
2
When extending DefaultComponent, you must implement the createEndpoint() method with three arguments (see the section called “URI parsing”).
3
Create an instance of your custom endpoint type, CustomEndpoint, by calling its constructor. At a minimum, this constructor takes a copy of the original URI string, uri, and a reference to this component instance, this.

Example

Example 48.3, “FileComponent Implementation” shows a sample implementation of a FileComponent class.

Example 48.3. FileComponent Implementation

package org.apache.camel.component.file;

import org.apache.camel.CamelContext;
import org.apache.camel.Endpoint;
import org.apache.camel.impl.DefaultComponent;

import java.io.File;
import java.util.Map;

public class FileComponent extends DefaultComponent {
    public static final String HEADER_FILE_NAME = "org.apache.camel.file.name";

    public FileComponent() { 1
    }

    public FileComponent(CamelContext context) { 2
        super(context);
    }

    protected Endpoint createEndpoint(String uri, String remaining, Map parameters) throws Exception { 3
        File file = new File(remaining);
        FileEndpoint result = new FileEndpoint(file, uri, this);
        return result;
    }
}
1
Always define a no-argument constructor for the component class in order to facilitate automatic instantiation of the class.
2
A constructor that takes the parent CamelContext instance as an argument is convenient when creating a component instance by programming.
3
The implementation of the FileComponent.createEndpoint() method follows the pattern described in Example 48.2, “Implementation of createEndpoint()”. The implementation creates a FileEndpoint object.

SynchronizationRouteAware Interface

SynchronizationRouteAware interface allows you to have callbacks before and after the exchange has been routed.
  • onBeforeRoute: Invoked before the exchange has been routed by the given route. However, this callback may not get invoked, if you add the SynchronizationRouteAware implementation to the UnitOfWork, after starting the route.
  • onAfterRoute: Invoked after the exchange has been routed by the given route. However, if the exchange is being routed through multiple routes, it would generate call backs for each route.
    This invocation occurs before these callbacks:
    1. The consumer of the route writes any response back to the caller (if in InOut mode)
    2. The UnitOfWork is done by calling either Synchronization.onComplete(org.apache.camel.Exchange) or Synchronization.onFailure(org.apache.camel.Exchange)