Use string as Apache Camel endpoint? - apache-camel

Question

Requisite disclaimer about being new to Camel--and, frankly, new to developing generally. I'd like to have a string generated as the output of some function be the source of my camel route which then gets written to some file. It's the first part that seems challenging: I have a string, how do I turn it into a message? I can't write it into a file nor can I use JMS. I feel like it should be easy and obvious, but I'm having a hard time finding a simple guide to help.
Some pseudo-code using the Java DSL:
def DesiredString() {return "MyString";}
// A camel route to be implemented elsewhere; I want something like:
class MyRoute() extends RouteBuilder {
source(DesiredString())
.to("file://C:/out/?fileName=MyFileFromString.txt");
}
I vaguely understand using the bean component, but I'm not sure that solves the problem: I can execute my method that generates the string, but how do I turn that into a message? The "vague" is doing a lot of work there: I could be missing something there.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Not sure if I understand your problem. There is a bit of confusion about what the String should be become: the route source or the message body.
However, I guess that you want to write the String returned by your method into a File through a Camel route.
If this is correct, I have to clarify first the route source. A Camel Route normally starts with
from(component:address)
So if you want to receive requests from remote via HTTP it could be
from("http4:localhost:8080")
This creates an HTTP server that listens on port 8080 for messages.
In your case I don't know if the method that returns the String is in the same application as the Camel route. If it is, you can use the Direct component for "method-like" calls in the same process.
from(direct:input)
.to("file:...");
input is a name you can freely choose. You can then route messages to this route from another Camel route or with a ProducerTemplate
ProducerTemplate template = camelContext.createProducerTemplate();
template.sendBody("direct:input", "This is my string");
The sendBody method takes the endpoint where to send the message and the message body. But there are much more variants of sendBody with different signatures depending on what you want to send it (headers etc).
If you want to dive into Camel get a copy of Camel in Action 2nd edition. It contains everything you need to know about Camel.

Answer 2

Example:Sending String(as a body content)to store in file using camel Java DSL:
CamelContext context = new DefaultCamelContext();
context.addRoutes(new RouteBuilder() {
public void configure() {
from("timer:StringSentToFile?period=2000")
.setBody(simple(DesiredString()))
.to("file:file://C:/out/?fileName=MyFileFromString.txt&noop=true")
.log("completed route");
}
});
ProducerTemplate template = context.createProducerTemplate();
context.start();