Multicast
The Multicast allows to route the same message to a number of endpoints and process them in a different way. The main difference between the Multicast and Splitter is that Splitter will split the message into several pieces but the Multicast will not modify the request message.
Options
Name |
Default Value |
Description |
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Refers to an AggregationStrategy |
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If enables then sending messages to the multicasts occurs concurrently. Note the caller thread will still wait until all messages has been fully processed, before it continues. Its only the sending and processing the replies from the multicasts which happens concurrently. |
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Refers to a custom Thread Pool to be used for parallel processing. Notice if you set this option, then parallel processing is automatic implied, and you do not have to enable that option as well. |
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Camel 2.2: Whether or not to stop continue processing immediately when an exception occurred. If disable, then Camel will send the message to all multicasts regardless if one of them failed. You can deal with exceptions in the AggregationStrategy |
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If enabled then Camel will process replies out-of-order, eg in the order they come back. If disabled, Camel will process replies in the same order as multicasted. |
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Camel 2.5: Sets a total timeout specified in millis. If the Multicast hasn't been able to send and process all replies within the given timeframe, then the timeout triggers and the Multicast breaks out and continues. Notice if you provide a TimeoutAwareAggregationStrategy |
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Camel 2.8: Refers to a custom Processor to prepare the copy of the Exchange each multicast will receive. This allows you to do any custom logic, such as deep-cloning the message payload if that's needed etc. |
Example
The following example shows how to take a request from the direct:a endpoint , then multicast these request to direct:x, direct:y, direct:z.
Using the Fluent Builders
By default Multicast invokes each endpoint sequentially. If parallel processing is desired, simply use
from("direct:a").multicast().parallelProcessing().to("direct:x", "direct:y", "direct:z");
In case of using InOut MEP, an AggregationStrategy is used for aggregating all reply messages. The default is to only use the latest reply message and discard any earlier replies. The aggregation strategy is configurable:
from("direct:start") .multicast(new MyAggregationStrategy()) .parallelProcessing().timeout(500).to("direct:a", "direct:b", "direct:c") .end() .to("mock:result");
Stop processing in case of exception
Available as of Camel 2.1
The Multicast will by default continue to process the entire Exchange even in case one of the multicasted messages will thrown an exception during routing.
For example if you want to multicast to 3 destinations and the 2nd destination fails by an exception. What Camel does by default is to process the remainder destinations. You have the chance to remedy or handle this in the AggregationStrategy
.
But sometimes you just want Camel to stop and let the exception be propagated back, and let the Camel error handler handle it. You can do this in Camel 2.1 by specifying that it should stop in case of an exception occurred. This is done by the stopOnException
option as shown below:
from("direct:start") .multicast() .stopOnException().to("direct:foo", "direct:bar", "direct:baz") .end() .to("mock:result"); from("direct:foo").to("mock:foo"); from("direct:bar").process(new MyProcessor()).to("mock:bar"); from("direct:baz").to("mock:baz");
And using XML DSL you specify it as follows:
<route> <from uri="direct:start"/> <multicast stopOnException="true"> <to uri="direct:foo"/> <to uri="direct:bar"/> <to uri="direct:baz"/> </multicast> <to uri="mock:result"/> </route> <route> <from uri="direct:foo"/> <to uri="mock:foo"/> </route> <route> <from uri="direct:bar"/> <process ref="myProcessor"/> <to uri="mock:bar"/> </route> <route> <from uri="direct:baz"/> <to uri="mock:baz"/> </route>
Using onPrepare to execute custom logic when preparing messages
Available as of Camel 2.8
The Multicast will copy the source Exchange and multicast each copy. However the copy is a shallow copy, so in case you have mutateable message bodies, then any changes will be visible by the other copied messages. If you want to use a deep clone copy then you need to use a custom onPrepare
which allows you to do this using the Processor interface.
Notice the onPrepare
can be used for any kind of custom logic which you would like to execute before the Exchange is being multicasted.
Design for immutable
Its best practice to design for immutable objects.
For example if you have a mutable message body as this Animal class:
Then we can create a deep clone processor which clones the message body:
Then we can use the AnimalDeepClonePrepare class in the Multicast route using the onPrepare
option as shown:
And the same example in XML DSL
Notice the onPrepare
option is also available on other EIPs such as Splitter, Recipient List, and Wire Tap.
Using This Pattern
If you would like to use this EIP Pattern then please read the Getting Started, you may also find the Architecture useful particularly the description of Endpoint and URIs. Then you could try out some of the Examples first before trying this pattern out.