SpEL

Since Camel 2.7

Camel allows Spring Expression Language (SpEL) to be used as an Expression or Predicate in the DSL or XML Configuration.

It is recommended to use SpEL in Spring runtimes. However, you can use SpEL in other runtimes (there may be functionality SpEL cannot do when not running in a Spring runtime)

Variables

The following variables are available in expressions and predicates written in SpEL:

Variable	Type	Description
this	Exchange	the Exchange is the root object
exchange	Exchange	the Exchange object
exception	Throwable	the Exchange exception (if any)
exchangeId	String	the exchange id
fault	Message	the Fault message (if any)
body	Object	The IN message body.
request	Message	the exchange.in message
response	Message	the exchange.out message (if any)
properties	Map	the exchange properties
property(name)	Object	the property by the given name
property(name, type)	Type	the property by the given name as the given type

Variable

Type

Description

this

Exchange

the Exchange is the root object

exchange

Exchange

the Exchange object

exception

Throwable

the Exchange exception (if any)

exchangeId

String

the exchange id

fault

Message

the Fault message (if any)

body

Object

The IN message body.

request

Message

the exchange.in message

response

Message

the exchange.out message (if any)

properties

Map

the exchange properties

property(name)

Object

the property by the given name

property(name, type)

Type

the property by the given name as the given type

Options

The SpEL language supports 1 options, which are listed below.

Name Default Java Type Description

Name	Default	Java Type	Description
trim	`true`	`Boolean`	Whether to trim the value to remove leading and trailing whitespaces and line breaks

trim

true

Boolean

Whether to trim the value to remove leading and trailing whitespaces and line breaks

Samples

Expression templating

SpEL expressions need to be surrounded by #{ } delimiters since expression templating is enabled. This allows you to combine SpEL expressions with regular text and use this as extremely lightweight template language.

For example if you construct the following route:

from("direct:example")
    .setBody(spel("Hello #{request.body}! What a beautiful #{request.headers['dayOrNight']}"))
    .to("mock:result");

In the route above, notice spel is a static method which we need to import from org.apache.camel.language.spel.SpelExpression.spel, as we use spel as an Expression passed in as a parameter to the setBody method. Though if we use the fluent API we can do this instead:

from("direct:example")
    .setBody().spel("Hello #{request.body}! What a beautiful #{request.headers['dayOrNight']}")
    .to("mock:result");

Notice we now use the spel method from the setBody() method. And this does not require us to static import the spel method from org.apache.camel.language.spel.SpelExpression.spel.

And sent a message with the string "World" in the body, and a header "dayOrNight" with value "day":

template.sendBodyAndHeader("direct:example", "World", "dayOrNight", "day");

The output on mock:result will be "Hello World! What a beautiful day"

Bean integration

You can reference beans defined in the Registry (most likely an ApplicationContext) in your SpEL expressions. For example if you have a bean named "foo" in your ApplicationContext you can invoke the "bar" method on this bean like this:

#{@foo.bar == 'xyz'}

SpEL in enterprise integration patterns

You can use SpEL as an expression for Recipient List or as a predicate inside a Message Filter:

<route>
  <from uri="direct:foo"/>
  <filter>
    <spel>#{request.headers.foo == 'bar'}</spel>
    <to uri="direct:bar"/>
  </filter>
</route>

And the equivalent in Java DSL:

from("direct:foo")
    .filter().spel("#{request.headers.foo == 'bar'}")
    .to("direct:bar");

Loading script from external resource

Since Camel 2.11

You can externalize the script and have Camel load it from a resource such as "classpath:", "file:", or "http:".
This is done using the following syntax: "resource:scheme:location", eg to refer to a file on the classpath you can do:

.setHeader("myHeader").spel("resource:classpath:myspel.txt")

Spring Boot Auto-Configuration

When using spring 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-spring-starter</artifactId>
  <version>x.x.x</version>
  <!-- use the same version as your Camel core version -->
</dependency>

The component supports 6 options, which are listed below.

Name	Description	Default	Type
camel.component.spring-event.basic-property-binding	Whether the component should use basic property binding (Camel 2.x) or the newer property binding with additional capabilities	false	Boolean
camel.component.spring-event.bridge-error-handler	Allows for bridging the consumer to the Camel routing Error Handler, which mean any exceptions occurred while the consumer is trying to pickup incoming messages, or the likes, will now be processed as a message and handled by the routing Error Handler. 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.spring-event.enabled	Whether to enable auto configuration of the spring-event component. This is enabled by default.		Boolean
camel.component.spring-event.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.language.spel.enabled	Whether to enable auto configuration of the spel language. This is enabled by default.		Boolean
camel.language.spel.trim	Whether to trim the value to remove leading and trailing whitespaces and line breaks	true	Boolean

Name

Description

Default

Type

camel.component.spring-event.basic-property-binding

Whether the component should use basic property binding (Camel 2.x) or the newer property binding with additional capabilities

false

Boolean

camel.component.spring-event.bridge-error-handler

Allows for bridging the consumer to the Camel routing Error Handler, which mean any exceptions occurred while the consumer is trying to pickup incoming messages, or the likes, will now be processed as a message and handled by the routing Error Handler. 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.spring-event.enabled

Whether to enable auto configuration of the spring-event component. This is enabled by default.

Boolean

camel.component.spring-event.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.language.spel.enabled

Whether to enable auto configuration of the spel language. This is enabled by default.

Boolean

camel.language.spel.trim

Whether to trim the value to remove leading and trailing whitespaces and line breaks

true

Boolean