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URI format

rest://method:path[:uriTemplate]?[options]

Configuring Options

Camel components are configured on two separate levels:

component level
endpoint level

Configuring Component Options

The component level is the highest level which holds general and common configurations that are inherited by the endpoints. 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.

Configuring components can be done with the Component DSL, in a configuration file (application.properties|yaml), or directly with Java code.

Configuring Endpoint Options

Where you find yourself configuring the most is on endpoints, as endpoints often have many options, which allows you to configure what you need the endpoint to do. The options are also categorized into whether the endpoint is used as consumer (from) or as a producer (to), or used for both.

Configuring endpoints is most often done directly in the endpoint URI as path and query parameters. You can also use the Endpoint DSL as a type safe way of configuring endpoints.

A good practice when configuring options is to use Property Placeholders, which allows to not hardcode urls, port numbers, sensitive information, and other settings. In other words placeholders allows to externalize the configuration from your code, and gives more flexibility and reuse.

The following two sections lists all the options, firstly for the component followed by the endpoint.

Component Options

The REST component supports 8 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.		boolean
consumerComponentName (consumer)	The Camel Rest component to use for (consumer) the REST transport, such as jetty, servlet, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestConsumerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.		String
apiDoc (producer)	The swagger api doc resource to use. The resource is loaded from classpath by default and must be in JSON format.		String
componentName (producer)	Deprecated The Camel Rest component to use for (producer) the REST transport, such as http, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestProducerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.		String
host (producer)	Host and port of HTTP service to use (override host in swagger schema).		String
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.		boolean
producerComponentName (producer)	The Camel Rest component to use for (producer) the REST transport, such as http, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestProducerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.		String
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

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.

boolean

consumerComponentName (consumer)

The Camel Rest component to use for (consumer) the REST transport, such as jetty, servlet, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestConsumerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.

String

apiDoc (producer)

The swagger api doc resource to use. The resource is loaded from classpath by default and must be in JSON format.

String

componentName (producer)

Deprecated The Camel Rest component to use for (producer) the REST transport, such as http, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestProducerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.

String

host (producer)

Host and port of HTTP service to use (override host in swagger schema).

String

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.

boolean

producerComponentName (producer)

The Camel Rest component to use for (producer) the REST transport, such as http, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestProducerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.

String

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

Endpoint Options

The REST endpoint is configured using URI syntax:

rest:method:path:uriTemplate

with the following path and query parameters:

Path Parameters (3 parameters)

Name	Description	Type
method (common)	Required HTTP method to use. Enum values: get post put delete patch head trace connect options	String
path (common)	Required The base path.	String
uriTemplate (common)	The uri template.	String

Name

Description

Default

Type

method (common)

Required HTTP method to use.

Enum values:

get
post
put
delete
patch
head
trace
connect
options

String

path (common)

Required The base path.

String

uriTemplate (common)

The uri template.

String

Query Parameters (16 parameters)

Name	Description	Type
consumes (common)	Media type such as: 'text/xml', or 'application/json' this REST service accepts. By default we accept all kinds of types.	String
inType (common)	To declare the incoming POJO binding type as a FQN class name.	String
outType (common)	To declare the outgoing POJO binding type as a FQN class name.	String
produces (common)	Media type such as: 'text/xml', or 'application/json' this REST service returns.	String
routeId (common)	Name of the route this REST services creates.	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.	boolean
consumerComponentName (consumer)	The Camel Rest component to use for (consumer) the REST transport, such as jetty, servlet, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestConsumerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.	String
description (consumer)	Human description to document this REST service.	String
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 InOptionalOut	ExchangePattern
apiDoc (producer)	The openapi api doc resource to use. The resource is loaded from classpath by default and must be in JSON format.	String
bindingMode (producer)	Configures the binding mode for the producer. If set to anything other than 'off' the producer will try to convert the body of the incoming message from inType to the json or xml, and the response from json or xml to outType. Enum values: auto off json xml json_xml	RestBindingMode
host (producer)	Host and port of HTTP service to use (override host in openapi schema).	String
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.	boolean
producerComponentName (producer)	The Camel Rest component to use for (producer) the REST transport, such as http, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestProducerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.	String
queryParameters (producer)	Query parameters for the HTTP service to call. The query parameters can contain multiple parameters separated by ampersand such such as foo=123&bar=456.	String

Name

Description

Default

Type

consumes (common)

Media type such as: 'text/xml', or 'application/json' this REST service accepts. By default we accept all kinds of types.

String

inType (common)

To declare the incoming POJO binding type as a FQN class name.

String

outType (common)

To declare the outgoing POJO binding type as a FQN class name.

String

produces (common)

Media type such as: 'text/xml', or 'application/json' this REST service returns.

String

routeId (common)

Name of the route this REST services creates.

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.

boolean

consumerComponentName (consumer)

The Camel Rest component to use for (consumer) the REST transport, such as jetty, servlet, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestConsumerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.

String

description (consumer)

Human description to document this REST service.

String

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
InOptionalOut

ExchangePattern

apiDoc (producer)

The openapi api doc resource to use. The resource is loaded from classpath by default and must be in JSON format.

String

bindingMode (producer)

Configures the binding mode for the producer. If set to anything other than 'off' the producer will try to convert the body of the incoming message from inType to the json or xml, and the response from json or xml to outType.

Enum values:

auto
off
json
xml
json_xml

RestBindingMode

host (producer)

Host and port of HTTP service to use (override host in openapi schema).

String

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.

boolean

producerComponentName (producer)

The Camel Rest component to use for (producer) the REST transport, such as http, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestProducerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.

String

queryParameters (producer)

Query parameters for the HTTP service to call. The query parameters can contain multiple parameters separated by ampersand such such as foo=123&bar=456.

String

Supported rest components

The following components support rest consumer (Rest DSL):

camel-netty-http
camel-jetty
camel-servlet
camel-undertow

The following components support rest producer:

camel-http
camel-netty-http
camel-undertow
camel-vertx-http

Path and uriTemplate syntax

The path and uriTemplate option is defined using a REST syntax where you define the REST context path using support for parameters.

If no uriTemplate is configured then path option works the same way. It does not matter if you configure only path or if you configure both options. Though configuring both a path and uriTemplate is a more common practice with REST.

The following is a Camel route using a path only

from("rest:get:hello")
  .transform().constant("Bye World");

And the following route uses a parameter which is mapped to a Camel header with the key "me".

from("rest:get:hello/{me}")
  .transform().simple("Bye ${header.me}");

The following examples have configured a base path as "hello" and then have two REST services configured using uriTemplates.

from("rest:get:hello:/{me}")
  .transform().simple("Hi ${header.me}");

from("rest:get:hello:/french/{me}")
  .transform().simple("Bonjour ${header.me}");

Rest producer examples

You can use the rest component to call REST services like any other Camel component.

For example to call a REST service on using hello/{me} you can do

from("direct:start")
  .to("rest:get:hello/{me}");

And then the dynamic value {me} is mapped to Camel message with the same name. So to call this REST service you can send an empty message body and a header as shown:

template.sendBodyAndHeader("direct:start", null, "me", "Donald Duck");

The Rest producer needs to know the hostname and port of the REST service, which you can configure using the host option as shown:

from("direct:start")
  .to("rest:get:hello/{me}?host=myserver:8080/foo");

Instead of using the host option, you can configure the host on the restConfiguration as shown:

restConfiguration().host("myserver:8080/foo");

from("direct:start")
  .to("rest:get:hello/{me}");

You can use the producerComponent to select which Camel component to use as the HTTP client, for example to use http you can do:

restConfiguration().host("myserver:8080/foo").producerComponent("http");

from("direct:start")
  .to("rest:get:hello/{me}");

Rest producer binding

The REST producer supports binding using JSon or XML like the rest-dsl does.

For example to use jetty with json binding mode turned on you can configure this in the rest configuration:

restConfiguration().component("jetty").host("localhost").port(8080).bindingMode(RestBindingMode.json);

from("direct:start")
  .to("rest:post:user");

Then when calling the REST service using rest producer it will automatic bind any POJOs to json before calling the REST service:

  UserPojo user = new UserPojo();
  user.setId(123);
  user.setName("Donald Duck");

  template.sendBody("direct:start", user);

In the example above we send a POJO instance UserPojo as the message body. And because we have turned on JSon binding in the rest configuration, then the POJO will be marshalled from POJO to JSon before calling the REST service.

However if you want to also perform binding for the response message (eg what the REST service send back as response) you would need to configure the outType option to specify what is the classname of the POJO to unmarshal from JSon to POJO.

For example if the REST service returns a JSon payload that binds to com.foo.MyResponsePojo you can configure this as shown:

  restConfiguration().component("jetty").host("localhost").port(8080).bindingMode(RestBindingMode.json);

  from("direct:start")
    .to("rest:post:user?outType=com.foo.MyResponsePojo");

You must configure outType option if you want POJO binding to happen for the response messages received from calling the REST service.

More examples

See Rest DSL which offers more examples and how you can use the Rest DSL to define those in a nicer RESTful way.

There is a camel-example-servlet-rest-tomcat example in the Apache Camel distribution, that demonstrates how to use the Rest DSL with SERVLET as transport that can be deployed on Apache Tomcat, or similar web containers.

Spring Boot Auto-Configuration

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

The component supports 12 options, which are listed below.

Name	Description	Default	Type
camel.component.rest-api.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.rest-api.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.rest-api.enabled	Whether to enable auto configuration of the rest-api component. This is enabled by default.		Boolean
camel.component.rest.api-doc	The swagger api doc resource to use. The resource is loaded from classpath by default and must be in JSON format.		String
camel.component.rest.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.rest.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.rest.consumer-component-name	The Camel Rest component to use for (consumer) the REST transport, such as jetty, servlet, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestConsumerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.		String
camel.component.rest.enabled	Whether to enable auto configuration of the rest component. This is enabled by default.		Boolean
camel.component.rest.host	Host and port of HTTP service to use (override host in swagger schema)		String
camel.component.rest.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.component.rest.producer-component-name	The Camel Rest component to use for (producer) the REST transport, such as http, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestProducerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.		String
camel.component.rest.component-name	Deprecated The Camel Rest component to use for (producer) the REST transport, such as http, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestProducerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.		String

Name

Description

Default

Type

camel.component.rest-api.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.rest-api.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.rest-api.enabled

Whether to enable auto configuration of the rest-api component. This is enabled by default.

Boolean

camel.component.rest.api-doc

The swagger api doc resource to use. The resource is loaded from classpath by default and must be in JSON format.

String

camel.component.rest.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.rest.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.rest.consumer-component-name

The Camel Rest component to use for (consumer) the REST transport, such as jetty, servlet, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestConsumerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.

String

camel.component.rest.enabled

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

Boolean

camel.component.rest.host

Host and port of HTTP service to use (override host in swagger schema)

String

camel.component.rest.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.component.rest.producer-component-name

The Camel Rest component to use for (producer) the REST transport, such as http, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestProducerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.

String

camel.component.rest.component-name

Deprecated The Camel Rest component to use for (producer) the REST transport, such as http, undertow. If no component has been explicit configured, then Camel will lookup if there is a Camel component that integrates with the Rest DSL, or if a org.apache.camel.spi.RestProducerFactory is registered in the registry. If either one is found, then that is being used.

String