Timer

Since Camel 1.0

Only consumer is supported

The Timer component is used to generate message exchanges when a timer fires You can only consume events from this endpoint.

URI format

timer:name[?options]

Where name is the name of the Timer object, which is created and shared across endpoints. So if you use the same name for all your timer endpoints, only one Timer object and thread will be used.

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

Note: The IN body of the generated exchange is null. So exchange.getIn().getBody() returns null.

Advanced Scheduler

See also the Quartz component that supports much more advanced scheduling.

Options

The Timer component supports 2 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

basicPropertyBinding (advanced)

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

false

boolean

The Timer endpoint is configured using URI syntax:

timer:timerName

with the following path and query parameters:

Path Parameters (1 parameters):

Name Description Default Type

timerName

Required The name of the timer

String

Query Parameters (14 parameters):

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

delay (consumer)

Delay before first event is triggered.

1s

long

fixedRate (consumer)

Events take place at approximately regular intervals, separated by the specified period.

false

boolean

includeMetadata (consumer)

Whether to include metadata in the exchange such as fired time, timer name, timer count etc. This information is default included.

true

boolean

period (consumer)

If greater than 0, generate periodic events every period.

1s

long

repeatCount (consumer)

Specifies a maximum limit of number of fires. So if you set it to 1, the timer will only fire once. If you set it to 5, it will only fire five times. A value of zero or negative means fire forever.

0

long

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

basicPropertyBinding (advanced)

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

false

boolean

daemon (advanced)

Specifies whether or not the thread associated with the timer endpoint runs as a daemon. The default value is true.

true

boolean

pattern (advanced)

Allows you to specify a custom Date pattern to use for setting the time option using URI syntax.

String

synchronous (advanced)

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

false

boolean

time (advanced)

A java.util.Date the first event should be generated. If using the URI, the pattern expected is: yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss or yyyy-MM-dd’T’HH:mm:ss.

Date

timer (advanced)

To use a custom Timer

Timer

Exchange Properties

When the timer is fired, it adds the following information as properties to the Exchange:

Name Type Description

Exchange.TIMER_NAME

String

The value of the name option.

Exchange.TIMER_TIME

Date

The value of the time option.

Exchange.TIMER_PERIOD

long

The value of the period option.

Exchange.TIMER_FIRED_TIME

Date

The time when the consumer fired.

Exchange.TIMER_COUNTER

Long

The current fire counter. Starts from 1.

Sample

To set up a route that generates an event every 60 seconds:

from("timer://foo?fixedRate=true&period=60000").to("bean:myBean?method=someMethodName");

The above route will generate an event and then invoke the someMethodName method on the bean called myBean in the Registry.

And the route in Spring DSL:

<route>
  <from uri="timer://foo?fixedRate=true&amp;period=60000"/>
  <to uri="bean:myBean?method=someMethodName"/>
</route>

Firing as soon as possible

Since Camel 2.17

You may want to fire messages in a Camel route as soon as possible you can use a negative delay:

<route>
  <from uri="timer://foo?delay=-1"/>
  <to uri="bean:myBean?method=someMethodName"/>
</route>

In this way the timer will fire messages immediately.

You can also specify a repeatCount parameter in conjunction with a negative delay to stop firing messages after a fixed number has been reached.

If you don’t specify a repeatCount then the timer will continue firing messages until the route will be stopped.

Firing only once

Since Camel 2.8

You may want to fire a message in a Camel route only once, such as when starting the route. To do that you use the repeatCount option as shown:

<route>
  <from uri="timer://foo?repeatCount=1"/>
  <to uri="bean:myBean?method=someMethodName"/>
</route>

Spring Boot Auto-Configuration

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

The component supports 3 options, which are listed below.

Name Description Default Type

camel.component.timer.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.timer.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.timer.enabled

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

Boolean
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