In Apache Camel what does "route()" do in a restful declaration? - apache-camel

Question

Trying to google "route" in relation to Camel is like trying to google "the". Browsing the docs and can't find it either, only an interface called Route.
Inherited some code that looks like
rest("/someRoute")
.description("Some description")
.consumes("text/plain")
.produces("text/plain")
.post()
.route()
.to("direct:toSomewhere");
What does route() do? I have tried with and without route() and it doesn't seem to do anything.

Answer 1

Using .route allows you to define new route(s) within your rest-definition. It can be handy if your route is short or if you just want to process/transform/validate the message in someway before sending it to your actual consumer endpoint.
For example
rest("/someRoute")
.id("someRoute")
.description("Some description")
.post()
.consumes("text/plain")
.produces("text/plain")
.route()
.routeId("someRoutePost")
.process(new SomeMessageProcessor())
.to("direct:toSomewhere")
.end()
.endRest()
.get()
.route()
.routeId("someRouteGet")
.setHeader(Exchange.HTTP_RESPONSE_CODE, constant(405))
.setBody(constant("GET not allowed on this route"))
.end()
.endRest()
But if you just want to call direct consumer endpoint and do this stuff there instead you can do that.
it is up to ones preference really.
thanks, I see if I wanted to say call .log() I would have to put .route() first
Yes. Camel uses method-chaining with its Java-DSL where something like this is often required. When defining Rest most methods return RestDefinition but if you look closely .route method returns RouteDefition instead.
To get back to RestDefition from route one can use .endRest() as the .end() in the example doesn't really do anything other than make it easier to see where to RouteDefition block ends.
Update: Note that this example is for Camel 3.14.0. In Newer versions of Camel route() and endRest() methods have been Removed from RestDefition class. Example for Camel 3.18.1 can be found here.