Timer

Since Camel 1.0

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.

TIP:*Advanced Scheduler* See also the Quartz component that supports much more advanced scheduling.

TIP:*Specify time in human friendly format* In Camel 2.3 onwards you can specify the time in human friendly syntax.

Options

The Timer component has no options.

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 (12 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/ERROR level and ignored.

false

boolean

delay (consumer)

The number of milliseconds to wait before the first event is generated. Should not be used in conjunction with the time option. The default value is 1000. You can also specify time values using units, such as 60s (60 seconds), 5m30s (5 minutes and 30 seconds), and 1h (1 hour).

1000

long

fixedRate (consumer)

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

false

boolean

period (consumer)

If greater than 0, generate periodic events every period milliseconds. The default value is 1000. You can also specify time values using units, such as 60s (60 seconds), 5m30s (5 minutes and 30 seconds), and 1h (1 hour).

1000

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 options is not in use. By default the consumer will deal with exceptions, that will be logged at WARN/ERROR level and ignored.

ExceptionHandler

exchangePattern (consumer)

Sets the default exchange pattern when creating an exchange.

ExchangePattern

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

Camel 2.8: 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");
Instead of 60000 you can use period=60s which is more friendly to read.

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

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>

See Also

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