Mina

Since Camel 2.10

Both producer and consumer are supported

The Mina component is a transport mechanism for working with Apache MINA 2.x

Favor using Netty as Netty is a much more active maintained and popular project than Apache Mina currently is.

Be careful with sync=false on consumer endpoints. In camel-mina, all consumer exchanges are InOut. This is different to camel-mina.

Maven users will need to add the following dependency to their pom.xml for this component:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.camel</groupId>
    <artifactId>camel-mina</artifactId>
    <version>x.x.x</version>
    <!-- use the same version as your Camel core version -->
</dependency>

URI format

mina:tcp://hostname[:port][?options]
mina:udp://hostname[:port][?options]
mina:vm://hostname[:port][?options]

You can specify a codec in the Registry using the codec option. If you are using TCP and no codec is specified then the textline flag is used to determine if text-line-based codec or object serialization should be used instead. By default, the object serialization is used.

For UDP if no codec is specified the default uses a basic ByteBuffer based codec.

The VM protocol is used as a direct forwarding mechanism in the same JVM.

A Mina producer has a default timeout value of 30 seconds, while it waits for a response from the remote server.

In normal use, camel-mina only supports marshalling the body content—message headers and exchange properties are not sent.
However, the option, transferExchange, does allow you to transfer the exchange itself over the wire. See options below.

Configuring Options

Camel components are configured on two separate levels:

  • component level

  • endpoint level

Configuring Component Options

At the component level, you set general and shared configurations that are, then, inherited by the endpoints. It is the highest configuration level.

For example, a component may have security settings, credentials for authentication, urls for network connection and so forth.

Some components only have a few options, and others may have many. Because components typically have pre-configured defaults that are commonly used, then you may often only need to configure a few options on a component; or none at all.

You can configure components using:

  • the Component DSL.

  • in a configuration file (application.properties, *.yaml files, etc).

  • directly in the Java code.

Configuring Endpoint Options

You usually spend more time setting up endpoints because they have many options. These options help you customize what you want the endpoint to do. The options are also categorized into whether the endpoint is used as a consumer (from), as a producer (to), or both.

Configuring endpoints is most often done directly in the endpoint URI as path and query parameters. You can also use the Endpoint DSL and DataFormat DSL as a type safe way of configuring endpoints and data formats in Java.

A good practice when configuring options is to use Property Placeholders.

Property placeholders provide a few benefits:

  • They help prevent using hardcoded urls, port numbers, sensitive information, and other settings.

  • They allow externalizing the configuration from the code.

  • They help the code to become more flexible and reusable.

The following two sections list all the options, firstly for the component followed by the endpoint.

Component Options

The Mina component supports 27 options, which are listed below.

Name Description Default Type

disconnect (common)

Whether to disconnect(close) from Mina session right after use. Can be used for both consumer and producer.

false

boolean

minaLogger (common)

You can enable the Apache MINA logging filter. Apache MINA uses slf4j logging at INFO level to log all input and output.

false

boolean

sync (common)

Setting to set endpoint as one-way or request-response.

true

boolean

timeout (common)

You can configure the timeout that specifies how long to wait for a response from a remote server. The timeout unit is in milliseconds, so 60000 is 60 seconds.

30000

long

writeTimeout (common)

Maximum amount of time it should take to send data to the MINA session. Default is 10000 milliseconds.

10000

long

bridgeErrorHandler (consumer)

Allows for bridging the consumer to the Camel routing Error Handler, which mean any exceptions (if possible) occurred while the Camel consumer is trying to pickup incoming messages, or the likes, will now be processed as a message and handled by the routing Error Handler. Important: This is only possible if the 3rd party component allows Camel to be alerted if an exception was thrown. Some components handle this internally only, and therefore bridgeErrorHandler is not possible. In other situations we may improve the Camel component to hook into the 3rd party component and make this possible for future releases. By default the consumer will use the org.apache.camel.spi.ExceptionHandler to deal with exceptions, that will be logged at WARN or ERROR level and ignored.

false

boolean

clientMode (consumer)

If the clientMode is true, mina consumer will connect the address as a TCP client.

false

boolean

noReplyLogLevel (consumer (advanced))

If sync is enabled this option dictates MinaConsumer which logging level to use when logging a there is no reply to send back.

Enum values:

  • TRACE

  • DEBUG

  • INFO

  • WARN

  • ERROR

  • OFF

WARN

LoggingLevel

lazyStartProducer (producer)

Whether the producer should be started lazy (on the first message). By starting lazy you can use this to allow CamelContext and routes to startup in situations where a producer may otherwise fail during starting and cause the route to fail being started. By deferring this startup to be lazy then the startup failure can be handled during routing messages via Camel’s routing error handlers. Beware that when the first message is processed then creating and starting the producer may take a little time and prolong the total processing time of the processing.

false

boolean

cachedAddress (producer (advanced))

Whether to create the InetAddress once and reuse. Setting this to false allows to pickup DNS changes in the network.

true

boolean

lazySessionCreation (producer (advanced))

Sessions can be lazily created to avoid exceptions, if the remote server is not up and running when the Camel producer is started.

true

boolean

autowiredEnabled (advanced)

Whether autowiring is enabled. This is used for automatic autowiring options (the option must be marked as autowired) by looking up in the registry to find if there is a single instance of matching type, which then gets configured on the component. This can be used for automatic configuring JDBC data sources, JMS connection factories, AWS Clients, etc.

true

boolean

configuration (advanced)

To use the shared mina configuration.

MinaConfiguration

disconnectOnNoReply (advanced)

If sync is enabled then this option dictates MinaConsumer if it should disconnect where there is no reply to send back.

true

boolean

maximumPoolSize (advanced)

Number of worker threads in the worker pool for TCP and UDP.

16

int

orderedThreadPoolExecutor (advanced)

Whether to use ordered thread pool, to ensure events are processed orderly on the same channel.

true

boolean

transferExchange (advanced)

Only used for TCP. You can transfer the exchange over the wire instead of just the body. The following fields are transferred: In body, Out body, fault body, In headers, Out headers, fault headers, exchange properties, exchange exception. This requires that the objects are serializable. Camel will exclude any non-serializable objects and log it at WARN level.

false

boolean

allowDefaultCodec (codec)

The mina component installs a default codec if both, codec is null and textline is false. Setting allowDefaultCodec to false prevents the mina component from installing a default codec as the first element in the filter chain. This is useful in scenarios where another filter must be the first in the filter chain, like the SSL filter.

true

boolean

codec (codec)

To use a custom minda codec implementation.

ProtocolCodecFactory

decoderMaxLineLength (codec)

To set the textline protocol decoder max line length. By default the default value of Mina itself is used which are 1024.

1024

int

encoderMaxLineLength (codec)

To set the textline protocol encoder max line length. By default the default value of Mina itself is used which are Integer.MAX_VALUE.

-1

int

encoding (codec)

You can configure the encoding (a charset name) to use for the TCP textline codec and the UDP protocol. If not provided, Camel will use the JVM default Charset.

String

filters (codec)

You can set a list of Mina IoFilters to use.

List

textline (codec)

Only used for TCP. If no codec is specified, you can use this flag to indicate a text line based codec; if not specified or the value is false, then Object Serialization is assumed over TCP.

false

boolean

textlineDelimiter (codec)

Only used for TCP and if textline=true. Sets the text line delimiter to use. If none provided, Camel will use DEFAULT. This delimiter is used to mark the end of text.

Enum values:

  • DEFAULT

  • AUTO

  • UNIX

  • WINDOWS

  • MAC

MinaTextLineDelimiter

sslContextParameters (security)

To configure SSL security.

SSLContextParameters

useGlobalSslContextParameters (security)

Enable usage of global SSL context parameters.

false

boolean

Endpoint Options

The Mina endpoint is configured using URI syntax:

mina:protocol:host:port

With the following path and query parameters:

Path Parameters (3 parameters)

Name Description Default Type

protocol (common)

Required Protocol to use.

String

host (common)

Required Hostname to use. Use localhost or 0.0.0.0 for local server as consumer. For producer use the hostname or ip address of the remote server.

String

port (common)

Required Port number.

int

Query Parameters (26 parameters)

Name Description Default Type

disconnect (common)

Whether to disconnect(close) from Mina session right after use. Can be used for both consumer and producer.

false

boolean

minaLogger (common)

You can enable the Apache MINA logging filter. Apache MINA uses slf4j logging at INFO level to log all input and output.

false

boolean

sync (common)

Setting to set endpoint as one-way or request-response.

true

boolean

timeout (common)

You can configure the timeout that specifies how long to wait for a response from a remote server. The timeout unit is in milliseconds, so 60000 is 60 seconds.

30000

long

writeTimeout (common)

Maximum amount of time it should take to send data to the MINA session. Default is 10000 milliseconds.

10000

long

clientMode (consumer)

If the clientMode is true, mina consumer will connect the address as a TCP client.

false

boolean

bridgeErrorHandler (consumer (advanced))

Allows for bridging the consumer to the Camel routing Error Handler, which mean any exceptions (if possible) occurred while the Camel consumer is trying to pickup incoming messages, or the likes, will now be processed as a message and handled by the routing Error Handler. Important: This is only possible if the 3rd party component allows Camel to be alerted if an exception was thrown. Some components handle this internally only, and therefore bridgeErrorHandler is not possible. In other situations we may improve the Camel component to hook into the 3rd party component and make this possible for future releases. By default the consumer will use the org.apache.camel.spi.ExceptionHandler to deal with exceptions, that will be logged at WARN or ERROR level and ignored.

false

boolean

exceptionHandler (consumer (advanced))

To let the consumer use a custom ExceptionHandler. Notice if the option bridgeErrorHandler is enabled then this option is not in use. By default the consumer will deal with exceptions, that will be logged at WARN or ERROR level and ignored.

ExceptionHandler

exchangePattern (consumer (advanced))

Sets the exchange pattern when the consumer creates an exchange.

Enum values:

  • InOnly

  • InOut

ExchangePattern

noReplyLogLevel (consumer (advanced))

If sync is enabled this option dictates MinaConsumer which logging level to use when logging a there is no reply to send back.

Enum values:

  • TRACE

  • DEBUG

  • INFO

  • WARN

  • ERROR

  • OFF

WARN

LoggingLevel

cachedAddress (producer (advanced))

Whether to create the InetAddress once and reuse. Setting this to false allows to pickup DNS changes in the network.

true

boolean

lazySessionCreation (producer (advanced))

Sessions can be lazily created to avoid exceptions, if the remote server is not up and running when the Camel producer is started.

true

boolean

lazyStartProducer (producer (advanced))

Whether the producer should be started lazy (on the first message). By starting lazy you can use this to allow CamelContext and routes to startup in situations where a producer may otherwise fail during starting and cause the route to fail being started. By deferring this startup to be lazy then the startup failure can be handled during routing messages via Camel’s routing error handlers. Beware that when the first message is processed then creating and starting the producer may take a little time and prolong the total processing time of the processing.

false

boolean

disconnectOnNoReply (advanced)

If sync is enabled then this option dictates MinaConsumer if it should disconnect where there is no reply to send back.

true

boolean

maximumPoolSize (advanced)

Number of worker threads in the worker pool for TCP and UDP.

16

int

orderedThreadPoolExecutor (advanced)

Whether to use ordered thread pool, to ensure events are processed orderly on the same channel.

true

boolean

transferExchange (advanced)

Only used for TCP. You can transfer the exchange over the wire instead of just the body. The following fields are transferred: In body, Out body, fault body, In headers, Out headers, fault headers, exchange properties, exchange exception. This requires that the objects are serializable. Camel will exclude any non-serializable objects and log it at WARN level.

false

boolean

allowDefaultCodec (codec)

The mina component installs a default codec if both, codec is null and textline is false. Setting allowDefaultCodec to false prevents the mina component from installing a default codec as the first element in the filter chain. This is useful in scenarios where another filter must be the first in the filter chain, like the SSL filter.

true

boolean

codec (codec)

To use a custom minda codec implementation.

ProtocolCodecFactory

decoderMaxLineLength (codec)

To set the textline protocol decoder max line length. By default the default value of Mina itself is used which are 1024.

1024

int

encoderMaxLineLength (codec)

To set the textline protocol encoder max line length. By default the default value of Mina itself is used which are Integer.MAX_VALUE.

-1

int

encoding (codec)

You can configure the encoding (a charset name) to use for the TCP textline codec and the UDP protocol. If not provided, Camel will use the JVM default Charset.

String

filters (codec)

You can set a list of Mina IoFilters to use.

List

textline (codec)

Only used for TCP. If no codec is specified, you can use this flag to indicate a text line based codec; if not specified or the value is false, then Object Serialization is assumed over TCP.

false

boolean

textlineDelimiter (codec)

Only used for TCP and if textline=true. Sets the text line delimiter to use. If none provided, Camel will use DEFAULT. This delimiter is used to mark the end of text.

Enum values:

  • DEFAULT

  • AUTO

  • UNIX

  • WINDOWS

  • MAC

MinaTextLineDelimiter

sslContextParameters (security)

To configure SSL security.

SSLContextParameters

Message Headers

The Mina component supports 4 message header(s), which is/are listed below:

Name Description Default Type

CamelMinaCloseSessionWhenComplete (common)

Constant: MINA_CLOSE_SESSION_WHEN_COMPLETE

Indicates whether the session should be closed after complete.

Boolean

CamelMinaIoSession (consumer)

Constant: MINA_IOSESSION

The key of the IoSession which is stored in the message header.

IoSession

CamelMinaLocalAddress (consumer)

Constant: MINA_LOCAL_ADDRESS

The socket address of local machine that received the message.

SocketAddress

CamelMinaRemoteAddress (consumer)

Constant: MINA_REMOTE_ADDRESS

The socket address of the remote machine that send the message.

SocketAddress

Using a custom codec

See the Mina how to write your own codec. To use your custom codec with camel-mina, you should register your codec in the Registry; for example, by creating a bean in the Spring XML file. Then use the codec option to specify the bean ID of your codec. See HL7 that has a custom codec.

Sample with sync=false

In this sample, Camel exposes a service that listens for TCP connections on port 6200. We use the textline codec. In our route, we create a Mina consumer endpoint that listens to on port 6200:

from("mina:tcp://localhost:" + port1 + "?textline=true&sync=false").to("mock:result");

As the sample is part of a unit test, we test it by sending some data to it on port 6200.

MockEndpoint mock = getMockEndpoint("mock:result");
mock.expectedBodiesReceived("Hello World");

template.sendBody("mina:tcp://localhost:" + port1 + "?textline=true&sync=false", "Hello World");

MockEndpoint.assertIsSatisfied(context);

Sample with sync=true

In the next sample, we have a more common use case where we expose a TCP service on port 6201 also use the textline codec. However, this time we want to return a response, so we set the sync option to true on the consumer.

from("mina:tcp://localhost:" + port2 + "?textline=true&sync=true").process(new Processor() {
    public void process(Exchange exchange) throws Exception {
        String body = exchange.getIn().getBody(String.class);
        exchange.getOut().setBody("Bye " + body);
    }
});

Then we test the sample by sending some data and retrieving the response using the template.requestBody() method. As we know the response is a String, we cast it to String and can assert that the response is, in fact, something we have dynamically set in our processor code logic.

String response = (String)template.requestBody("mina:tcp://localhost:" + port2 + "?textline=true&sync=true", "World");
assertEquals("Bye World", response);

Sample with Spring DSL

Spring DSL can also be used for MINA. In the sample below, we expose a TCP server on port 5555:

   <route>
     <from uri="mina:tcp://localhost:5555?textline=true"/>
     <to uri="bean:myTCPOrderHandler"/>
  </route>

In the route above, we expose a TCP server on port 5555 using the textline codec. We let the Spring bean with ID, myTCPOrderHandler, handle the request and return a reply. For instance, the handler bean could be implemented as follows:

    public String handleOrder(String payload) {
        ...
        return "Order: OK"
   }

Closing Session When Complete

When acting as a server, you sometimes want to close the session when, for example, a client conversion is finished. To instruct Camel to close the session, you should add a header with the key CamelMinaCloseSessionWhenComplete set to a boolean true value.

For instance, the example below will close the session after it has written the bye message back to the client:

        from("mina:tcp://localhost:8080?sync=true&textline=true").process(new Processor() {
            public void process(Exchange exchange) throws Exception {
                String body = exchange.getIn().getBody(String.class);
                exchange.getOut().setBody("Bye " + body);
                exchange.getOut().setHeader(MinaConstants.MINA_CLOSE_SESSION_WHEN_COMPLETE, true);
            }
        });

Get the IoSession for message

You can get the IoSession from the message header with this key MinaConstants.MINA_IOSESSION, and also get the local host address with the key MinaConstants.MINA_LOCAL_ADDRESS and remote host address with the key MinaConstants.MINA_REMOTE_ADDRESS.

Configuring Mina filters

Filters permit you to use some Mina Filters, such as SslFilter. You can also implement some customized filters. Please note that codec and logger are also implemented as Mina filters of the type, IoFilter. Any filters you may define are appended to the end of the filter chain; that is, after codec and logger.

Spring Boot Auto-Configuration

When using mina with Spring Boot make sure to use the following Maven dependency to have support for auto configuration:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.camel.springboot</groupId>
  <artifactId>camel-mina-starter</artifactId>
  <version>x.x.x</version>
  <!-- use the same version as your Camel core version -->
</dependency>

The component supports 28 options, which are listed below.

Name Description Default Type

camel.component.mina.allow-default-codec

The mina component installs a default codec if both, codec is null and textline is false. Setting allowDefaultCodec to false prevents the mina component from installing a default codec as the first element in the filter chain. This is useful in scenarios where another filter must be the first in the filter chain, like the SSL filter.

true

Boolean

camel.component.mina.autowired-enabled

Whether autowiring is enabled. This is used for automatic autowiring options (the option must be marked as autowired) by looking up in the registry to find if there is a single instance of matching type, which then gets configured on the component. This can be used for automatic configuring JDBC data sources, JMS connection factories, AWS Clients, etc.

true

Boolean

camel.component.mina.bridge-error-handler

Allows for bridging the consumer to the Camel routing Error Handler, which mean any exceptions (if possible) occurred while the Camel consumer is trying to pickup incoming messages, or the likes, will now be processed as a message and handled by the routing Error Handler. Important: This is only possible if the 3rd party component allows Camel to be alerted if an exception was thrown. Some components handle this internally only, and therefore bridgeErrorHandler is not possible. In other situations we may improve the Camel component to hook into the 3rd party component and make this possible for future releases. By default the consumer will use the org.apache.camel.spi.ExceptionHandler to deal with exceptions, that will be logged at WARN or ERROR level and ignored.

false

Boolean

camel.component.mina.cached-address

Whether to create the InetAddress once and reuse. Setting this to false allows to pickup DNS changes in the network.

true

Boolean

camel.component.mina.client-mode

If the clientMode is true, mina consumer will connect the address as a TCP client.

false

Boolean

camel.component.mina.codec

To use a custom minda codec implementation. The option is a org.apache.mina.filter.codec.ProtocolCodecFactory type.

ProtocolCodecFactory

camel.component.mina.configuration

To use the shared mina configuration. The option is a org.apache.camel.component.mina.MinaConfiguration type.

MinaConfiguration

camel.component.mina.decoder-max-line-length

To set the textline protocol decoder max line length. By default the default value of Mina itself is used which are 1024.

1024

Integer

camel.component.mina.disconnect

Whether to disconnect(close) from Mina session right after use. Can be used for both consumer and producer.

false

Boolean

camel.component.mina.disconnect-on-no-reply

If sync is enabled then this option dictates MinaConsumer if it should disconnect where there is no reply to send back.

true

Boolean

camel.component.mina.enabled

Whether to enable auto configuration of the mina component. This is enabled by default.

Boolean

camel.component.mina.encoder-max-line-length

To set the textline protocol encoder max line length. By default the default value of Mina itself is used which are Integer.MAX_VALUE.

-1

Integer

camel.component.mina.encoding

You can configure the encoding (a charset name) to use for the TCP textline codec and the UDP protocol. If not provided, Camel will use the JVM default Charset.

String

camel.component.mina.filters

You can set a list of Mina IoFilters to use.

List

camel.component.mina.lazy-session-creation

Sessions can be lazily created to avoid exceptions, if the remote server is not up and running when the Camel producer is started.

true

Boolean

camel.component.mina.lazy-start-producer

Whether the producer should be started lazy (on the first message). By starting lazy you can use this to allow CamelContext and routes to startup in situations where a producer may otherwise fail during starting and cause the route to fail being started. By deferring this startup to be lazy then the startup failure can be handled during routing messages via Camel’s routing error handlers. Beware that when the first message is processed then creating and starting the producer may take a little time and prolong the total processing time of the processing.

false

Boolean

camel.component.mina.maximum-pool-size

Number of worker threads in the worker pool for TCP and UDP.

16

Integer

camel.component.mina.mina-logger

You can enable the Apache MINA logging filter. Apache MINA uses slf4j logging at INFO level to log all input and output.

false

Boolean

camel.component.mina.no-reply-log-level

If sync is enabled this option dictates MinaConsumer which logging level to use when logging a there is no reply to send back.

LoggingLevel

camel.component.mina.ordered-thread-pool-executor

Whether to use ordered thread pool, to ensure events are processed orderly on the same channel.

true

Boolean

camel.component.mina.ssl-context-parameters

To configure SSL security. The option is a org.apache.camel.support.jsse.SSLContextParameters type.

SSLContextParameters

camel.component.mina.sync

Setting to set endpoint as one-way or request-response.

true

Boolean

camel.component.mina.textline

Only used for TCP. If no codec is specified, you can use this flag to indicate a text line based codec; if not specified or the value is false, then Object Serialization is assumed over TCP.

false

Boolean

camel.component.mina.textline-delimiter

Only used for TCP and if textline=true. Sets the text line delimiter to use. If none provided, Camel will use DEFAULT. This delimiter is used to mark the end of text.

MinaTextLineDelimiter

camel.component.mina.timeout

You can configure the timeout that specifies how long to wait for a response from a remote server. The timeout unit is in milliseconds, so 60000 is 60 seconds.

30000

Long

camel.component.mina.transfer-exchange

Only used for TCP. You can transfer the exchange over the wire instead of just the body. The following fields are transferred: In body, Out body, fault body, In headers, Out headers, fault headers, exchange properties, exchange exception. This requires that the objects are serializable. Camel will exclude any non-serializable objects and log it at WARN level.

false

Boolean

camel.component.mina.use-global-ssl-context-parameters

Enable usage of global SSL context parameters.

false

Boolean

camel.component.mina.write-timeout

Maximum amount of time it should take to send data to the MINA session. Default is 10000 milliseconds.

10000

Long