OptaPlanner

Since Camel 2.13

Both producer and consumer are supported

The Optaplanner component solves the planning problem contained in a message with OptaPlanner.
For example: feed it an unsolved Vehicle Routing problem and it solves it.

The component supports consumer as BestSolutionChangedEvent listener and producer for processing Solution and ProblemFactChange

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

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

URI format

optaplanner:solverConfig[?options]

The solverConfig is the classpath-local URI of the solverConfig, for example /org/foo/barSolverConfig.xml.

You can append query options to the URI in the following format, ?option=value&option=value&…​

OptaPlanner Options

The OptaPlanner component supports 3 options, which are listed below.

Name Description Default Type

bridgeErrorHandler (consumer)

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

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

basicPropertyBinding (advanced)

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

false

boolean

The OptaPlanner endpoint is configured using URI syntax:

optaplanner:configFile

with the following path and query parameters:

Path Parameters (1 parameters):

Name Description Default Type

configFile

Required Specifies the location to the solver file

String

Query Parameters (9 parameters):

Name Description Default Type

solverId (common)

Specifies the solverId to user for the solver instance key

DEFAULT_SOLVER

String

bridgeErrorHandler (consumer)

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

exceptionHandler (consumer)

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)

Sets the exchange pattern when the consumer creates an exchange. The value can be one of: InOnly, InOut, InOptionalOut

ExchangePattern

async (producer)

Specifies to perform operations in async mode

false

boolean

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

threadPoolSize (producer)

Specifies the thread pool size to use when async is true

10

int

basicPropertyBinding (advanced)

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

false

boolean

synchronous (advanced)

Sets whether synchronous processing should be strictly used, or Camel is allowed to use asynchronous processing (if supported).

false

boolean

Message Headers

Name Default Value Type Context Description

CamelOptaPlannerSolverId

null

String

Shared

Specifies the solverId to use

CamelOptaPlannerIsAsync

PUT

String

Producer

Specify whether to use another thread for submitting Solution instances rather than blocking the current thread.

Message Body

Camel takes the planning problem for the IN body, solves it and returns it on the OUT body. The IN body object supports the following use cases:

  • If the body is instance of Solution, then it will be solved using the solver identified by solverId and either synchronously or asynchronously.

  • If the body is instance of ProblemFactChange, then it will trigger addProblemFactChange. If the processing is asynchronously, then it will wait till isEveryProblemFactChangeProcessed before returning result.

  • If the body is none of the above types, then the producer will return the best result from the solver identified by solverId

Termination

The solving will take as long as specified in the solverConfig.

<solver>
  ...
  <termination>
    <!-- Terminate after 10 seconds, unless it's not feasible by then yet -->
    <terminationCompositionStyle>AND</terminationCompositionStyle>
    <secondsSpentLimit>10</secondsSpentLimit>
    <bestScoreLimit>-1hard/0soft</bestScoreLimit>
  </termination>
  ...
<solver>

Samples

Solve an planning problem that’s on the ActiveMQ queue with OptaPlanner:

from("activemq:My.Queue").
  .to("optaplanner:/org/foo/barSolverConfig.xml");

Expose OptaPlanner as a REST service:

from("cxfrs:bean:rsServer?bindingStyle=SimpleConsumer")
  .to("optaplanner:/org/foo/barSolverConfig.xml");

Spring Boot Auto-Configuration

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

The component supports 4 options, which are listed below.

Name Description Default Type

camel.component.optaplanner.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.optaplanner.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.optaplanner.enabled

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

Boolean

camel.component.optaplanner.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