Cron

Since Camel 3.1

Only consumer is supported

The Cron component is a generic interface component that allows triggering events at a specific time interval specified using the Unix cron syntax (e.g. 0/2 * * * * ? to trigger an event every two seconds).

As an interface component, the Cron component does not contain a default implementation. Instead, it requires that the users plug the implementation of their choice.

The following standard Camel components support the Cron endpoints:

The Cron component is also supported in Camel K, which can use the Kubernetes scheduler to trigger the routes when required by the cron expression. Camel K does not require additional libraries to be plugged when using cron expressions compatible with Kubernetes cron syntax.

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

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

Additional libraries may be needed to plug a specific implementation.

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 Cron 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 (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

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

cronService (advanced)

The id of the CamelCronService to use when multiple implementations are provided.

String

Endpoint Options

The Cron endpoint is configured using URI syntax:

cron:name

With the following path and query parameters:

Path Parameters (1 parameters)

Name Description Default Type

name (consumer)

Required The name of the cron trigger.

String

Query Parameters (4 parameters)

Name Description Default Type

schedule (consumer)

Required A cron expression that will be used to generate events.

String

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

Usage

The component can be used to trigger events at specified times, as in the following example:

  • Java

  • XML

from("cron:tab?schedule=0/1+*+*+*+*+?")
.setBody().constant("event")
.log("${body}");
<route>
    <from uri="cron:tab?schedule=0/1+*+*+*+*+?"/>
    <setBody>
      <constant>event</constant>
    </setBody>
    <to uri="log:info"/>
</route>

The schedule expression 0/3+10+*+*+*+? can be also written as 0/3 10 * * * ? and triggers an event every three seconds only in the tenth minute of each hour.

Breaking down the parts in the schedule expression(in order):

  • Seconds (optional)

  • Minutes

  • Hours

  • Day of month

  • Month

  • Day of the week

  • Year (optional)

Schedule expressions can be made of five to seven parts. When expressions are composed of six parts, the first items is the Seconds part (and year is considered missing).

Other valid examples of schedule expressions are:

  • 0/2 * * * ? (Five parts, an event every two minutes)

  • 0 0/2 * * * MON-FRI 2030 (Seven parts, an event every two minutes only in the year 2030)

Spring Boot Auto-Configuration

When using cron 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-cron-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.cron.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.cron.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.cron.cron-service

The id of the CamelCronService to use when multiple implementations are provided.

String

camel.component.cron.enabled

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

Boolean
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