Predicates

Predicates

Camel supports a pluggable interface called Predicate which can be used to integrate a dynamic predicate into Enterprise Integration Patterns such as when using the Message Filter or Content Based Router .

A Predicate is being evaluated to a boolean value so the result is either true or false . This makes Predicate so powerful as it is often used to control the routing of message in which path they should be routed.

A simple example is to route an Exchange based on a header value:

from("jms:queue:order"
)

   .choice()

      .when(header("type"
).isEqualTo("widget"
)).to("bean:widgetOrder"
)

      .when(header("type"
).isEqualTo("wombat"
)).to("bean:wombatOrder"
)

   .otherwise()

      .to("bean:miscOrder"
)

   .end();  

In the route above the Predicate is the header("type").isEqualTo("widget") as its constructed as an Expression that is evaluated as a Predicate . To do this the various Builder classes helps us here to create a nice and fluent syntax. isEqualTo is a builder method that returns a Predicate based on the input.

Sometimes the fluent builders can get long and a bit complex to read, then you can just define your predicate outside the route and then just refer to the predicate in the route:

Predicate isWidget = header("type"
).isEqualTo("widget"
);

And then you can refer to it in the route as:

from("jms:queue:order"
)

   .choice()

      .when(isWidget).to("bean:widgetOrder"
)

      .when(isWombat).to("bean:wombatOrder"
)

   .otherwise()

      .to("bean:miscOrder"
)

   .end();  

Negating a Predicate

You can use the not method on the PredicateBuilder to negate a predicate.

First we import the not static, so it makes our route nice and easy to read:

import
 static
 org.apache.camel.builder.PredicateBuilder.not

And then we can use it to enclose an existing predicate and negate it as the example shows:

from("direct:start"
)

    .choice()

        .when(not(header("username"
).regex("goofy|pluto"
))).to("mock:people"
)

        .otherwise().to("mock:animals"
)

    .end();

Compound Predicates

You can also create compound predicates using boolean operators such as and, or, not and many others.
The sample below demonstrates this:

// We define 3 predicates based on some user roles


// we have static
 imported and/or from org.apache.camel.builder.PredicateBuilder




// First we have a regular user that is just identified having a username header


Predicate user = header("username"
).isNotNull();



// The admin user must be a user AND have a admin header as true



Predicate admin = and(user, header("admin"
).isEqualTo("true
"
));



// And God must be an admin and (either have type god or a special message containing Camel Rider)


Predicate god = and(admin, or(body().contains("Camel Rider"
), header("type"
).isEqualTo("god"
)));



// As you can see with the predicates above we can stack them to build compound predicates




// In our route below we can create a nice content based router based on the predicates we


// have defined. Then the route is easy to read and understand.


// We encourage you to define complex predicates outside the fluent router builder as


// it will just get a bit complex for
 humans to read


from("direct:start"
).choice()

  .when(god).to("mock:god"
)

  .when(admin).to("mock:admin"
)

  .when(user).to("mock:user"
)

  .otherwise().to("mock:guest"
)

.end();

Extensible Predicates

Camel supports extensible Predicates using multiple Languages ; the following languages are supported out of the box

• Bean Language for using Java for expressions
• Constant
• the unified EL from JSP and JSF
• Header
• JXPath
• Mvel
• OGNL
• Property
• Scala DSL
• Scripting Languages such as
  • BeanShell
  • JavaScript
  • Groovy
  • Python
  • PHP
  • Ruby
• Simple
  • File Language
• SQL
• XPath
• XQuery

Most of these languages is also supported used as Annotation Based Expression Language .

You can easily write your own plugin predicate by implementing the Predicate interface .

There are also a number of helper builders available such as the PredicateBuilder class

Using Predicates in your IDE

To use different expression and predicates in your IDE you need to perform a static import of the builder class for the language(s) you wish to use.

Language(s)	Builder class to import
Scripting Languages such as BeanShell , JavaScript , Groovy , PHP , Python and Ruby	org.apache.camel.builder.script.ScriptBuilder
SQL	org.apache.camel.builder.josql.SqlBuilder
XPath	org.apache.camel.builder.xml.XPathBuilder
XQuery	org.apache.camel.builder.saxon.XQueryBuilder