Property placeholders

Camel has extensive support for property placeholders, which can be used almost anywhere in your Camel routes, endpoints, DSL, and route configuration, bean integration and elsewhere.

Property placeholders are used to define a placeholder instead of the actual value. This is important as you would want to be able to make your applications external configurable, such as values for network addresses, port numbers, authentication credentials, login tokens, and configuration in general.

Properties component

Camel provides the Properties out of the box from the core, which is responsible for handling and resolving the property placeholders.

See the Properties documentation for how to configure Camel to known from which location(a) to load properties.

Property placeholder syntax

The value of a Camel property can be obtained by specifying its key name within a property placeholder, using the following syntax: {{key}}

For example:

{{file.uri}}

where file.uri is the property key.

Property placeholders can be used to specify parts, or all, of an endpoint’s URI by embedding one or more placeholders in the URI’s string definition.

Using property placeholder with default value

You can specify a default value to use if a property with the key does not exist, where the default value is the text after the colon:

{{file.url:/some/path}}

In this case the default value is /some/path.

Using optional property placeholders

Camel’s elaborate property placeholder feature supports optional placeholders, which is defined with the ? (question mark) as prefix in the key name, as shown:

{{?myBufferSize}}

If a value for the key exists then the value is used, however if the key does not exist, then Camel understands this, such as when used in Endpoints:

file:foo?bufferSize={{?myBufferSize}}

Then the bufferSize option will only be configured in the endpoint, if a placeholder exists. Otherwise the option will not be set on the endpoint, meaning the endpoint would be restructued as:

file:foo

Then the option bufferSize is not in specified at all, and this would allow Camel to use the standard default value for bufferSize if any exists.

Reverse a boolean value

If a property placeholder is a boolean value, then it is possible to negate (reverse) the value by using ! as prefix in the key.

integration.ftpEnabled=true
from("ftp:....").autoStartup("{{integration.ftpEnabled}}")
    .to("kafka:cheese")

from("jms:....").autoStartup("{{!integration.ftpEnabled}}")
    .to("kafka:cheese")

In the example above then the FTP route or the JMS route should only be started. So if the FTP is enabled then JMS should be disable, and vise-versa. We can do this be negating the autoStartup in the JMS route, by using !integration.ftpEnabled as the key.

Using property placeholders

When using property placeholders in the endpoint URIs you should use this with the syntax {{key}} as shown in this example:

cool.end = mock:result
where = cheese

And in Java DSL:

from("direct:start")
    .to("{{cool.end}}");

And in XML DSL:

<route>
  <from uri="direct:start"/>
  <to uri="{{cool.end}}"/>
</route>

A property placeholder may also just be a one part in the endpoint URI. A common use-case is to use a placeholder for an endpoint option such as the size of the write buffer in the file endpoint:

buf = 8192
from("direct:start")
    .to("file:outbox?bufferSize={{buf}}");

And in XML DSL:

<route>
  <from uri="direct:start"/>
  <to uri="file:outbox?bufferSize={{buf}}"/>
</route>

However the placeholder can be anywhere, so it could also be the name of a mock endpoint

from("direct:start")
    .to("mock:{{where}}");

In the example above the mock endpoint, is already hardcoded to start with mock:, and the where placeholder has the value cheese so the resolved uri becomes mock:cheese.

Property placeholders referring to other properties (nested placeholders)

You can also have properties with refer to each other such as:

cool.foo=result
cool.concat=mock:{{cool.foo}}

Notice how cool.concat refer to another property.

And the route in XML:

<route>
  <from uri="direct:start"/>
  <to uri="{{cool.concat}}"/>
</route>

Turning off nested placeholders

If the placeholder value contains data that interfere with the property placeholder syntax {{ and }} (such as JSon data), you can be then explicit turn off nested placeholder by ?nested=false in the key name, such as shown:

<route>
  <from uri="direct:start"/>
  <to uri="elasticsearch:foo?query={{myQuery?nested=false}}"/>
</route>

In the example above the placeholder myQuery placeholder value is as follows

{"query":{"match_all":{}}}

Notice how the json query ends with }} which interfere with the Camel property placeholder syntax.

Nested placeholders can also be turned off globally on the Properties component, such as:

CamelContext context = ...
context.getPropertiesComponent().setNestedPlaceholder(false);

Escape a property placeholder

The property placeholder can be problematic if the double curly brackets are used by a third party library like for example a query in ElasticSearch of type {"query":{"match_all":{}}}.

To work around that it is possible to escape the double curly brackets with a backslash character like for example \{{ property-name \}}. This way, it won’t be interpreted as a property placeholder to resolve and will be resolved as {{ property-name }}.

If for some reason, the backslash character before the double curly brackets must not be interpreted as an escape character, it is possible to add another backslash in front of it to escape it, it will then be seen as a backslash.

Using property placeholders multiple times

You can of course also use placeholders several times:

cool.start=direct:start
cool.showid=true
cool.result=result

And in this route we use cool.start two times:

from("{{cool.start}}")
    .to("log:{{cool.start}}?showBodyType=false&showExchangeId={{cool.showid}}")
    .to("mock:{{cool.result}}");

Using property placeholders with producer template

You can also your property placeholders when using ProducerTemplate for example:

template.sendBody("{{cool.start}}", "Hello World");

Using property placeholders with consumer template

This can also be done when using ConsumerTemplate, such as:

Object body = template.receiveBody("{{cool.start}}");

Resolving property placeholders on cloud

When you are running your Camel application on the cloud you may want to automatically scan any Configmap or Secret as it was an application properties. Given the following Secret:

apiVersion: v1
data:
  my-property: Q2FtZWwgNC44
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: my-secret
type: Opaque

You can mount it in your Pod container, for instance, under /etc/camel/conf.d/_secrets/my-secret. Now, just make your Camel application be aware where to scan your configuration via camel.main.cloud-properties-location = /etc/camel/conf.d/_secrets/my-secret application properties. It’s a comma separated value, so, you can add as many Secrets/Configmaps you need.

At runtime, you will be able to read the configuration transparently as {{ my-property }} as you’re doing with the rest of properties.

the same configuration works with Configmap.

Resolving property placeholders from Java code

If you need to resolve property placeholder(s) from some Java code, then Camel has two APIs for this:

  • You can use the method resolveProperty on the PropertiesComponent to resolve a single property from Java code.

  • Use the method resolvePropertyPlaceholders on the CamelContext to resolve (one or more) property placeholder(s) in a String.

For example to resolve a placeholder with key foo, you can do:

Optional<String> prop = camelContext.getPropertiesComponent().resolveProperty("foo");
if (prop.isPresent()) {
    String value = prop.get();
    ....
}

This API is to lookup a single property and returns a java.util.Optional type.

The CamelContext have another API which is capable of resolving multiple placeholders, and interpolate placeholders from an input String. Lets try with an example to explain this:

String msg = camelContext.resolvePropertyPlaceholders("{{greeting}} Camel user, Camel is {{cool}} dont you think?");

The input string is a text statement which have two placeholders that will be resolved, for example:

greeting = Hi
cool = awesome

Will be resolved to:

Hi Camel user, Camel is awesome dont you think?

Using property placeholders for any kind of attribute in Spring XML files

Previously it was only the xs:string type attributes in the XML DSL that support placeholders. For example often a timeout attribute would be a xs:int type and thus you cannot set a string value as the placeholder key. This is now possible using a special placeholder namespace.

In the example below we use the prop prefix for the namespace http://camel.apache.org/schema/placeholder. Now we can use prop: as prefix to configure any kind of XML attributes in Spring XML files.

In the example below we want to use a placeholder for the stopOnException option in the Multicast EIP. The stopOnException is a xs:boolean type, so we cannot configure this as:

<multicast stopOnException="{{stop}}">
   ...
</multicast>

Instead, we must use the prop: namespace, so we must add this namespace in the top of the XML file in the <beans> tag.

To configure the option we must then use the prop:optionName as shown below:

<multicast prop:stopOnException="stop">
  ...
</multicast>

The complete example is below:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:prop="http://camel.apache.org/schema/placeholder"
       xsi:schemaLocation="
           http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
           http://camel.apache.org/schema/spring http://camel.apache.org/schema/spring/camel-spring.xsd">

    <bean id="damn" class="java.lang.IllegalArgumentException">
        <constructor-arg index="0" value="Damn"/>
    </bean>

    <camelContext xmlns="http://camel.apache.org/schema/spring">
        <propertyPlaceholder id="properties" location="classpath:myprop.properties"/>
        <route>
            <from uri="direct:start"/>
            <!-- use prop namespace, to define a property placeholder, which maps to option stopOnException={{stop}} -->
            <multicast prop:stopOnException="stop">
                <to uri="mock:a"/>
                <throwException ref="damn"/>
                <to uri="mock:b"/>
            </multicast>
        </route>
    </camelContext>
</beans>

In our properties file we have the value defined as:

stop = true

Bridging Camel property placeholders with Spring XML files

If you are using Spring Boot then this does not apply. This is only for legacy Camel and Spring applications which are using Spring XML files.

The Spring Framework does not allow third-party frameworks such as Apache Camel to seamless hook into the Spring property placeholder mechanism. However, you can bridge Spring and Camel by declaring a Spring bean with the type org.apache.camel.spring.spi.BridgePropertyPlaceholderConfigurer, which is a Spring org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer type.

To bridge Spring and Camel you must define a single bean as shown below:

<!-- bridge spring property placeholder with Camel -->
<!-- you must NOT use the <context:property-placeholder at the same time, only this bridge bean -->
<bean id="bridgePropertyPlaceholder" class="org.apache.camel.spring.spi.BridgePropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
  <property name="location" value="classpath:org/apache/camel/component/properties/cheese.properties"/>
</bean>

You must not use the spring <context:property-placeholder> namespace at the same time; this is not possible.

After declaring this bean, you can define property placeholders using both the Spring style, and the Camel style within the <camelContext> tag as shown below:

<!-- a bean that uses Spring property placeholder -->
<!-- the ${hi} is a spring property placeholder -->
<bean id="hello" class="org.apache.camel.component.properties.HelloBean">
  <property name="greeting" value="${hi}"/>
</bean>

<camelContext xmlns="http://camel.apache.org/schema/spring">
  <!-- in this route we use Camels property placeholder {{ }} style -->
  <route>
    <from uri="direct:{{cool.bar}}"/>
    <bean ref="hello"/>
    <to uri="{{cool.end}}"/>
  </route>
</camelContext>

Notice how the hello bean is using pure Spring property placeholders using the ${} notation. And in the Camel routes we use the Camel placeholder notation with {{key}}.

Using property placeholder functions

The Properties component includes the following functions out of the box:

  • env - A function to lookup the property from OS environment variables

  • sys - A function to lookup the property from Java JVM system properties

  • bean - A function to lookup the property from the return value of bean’s method (requires camel-bean JAR)

  • service - A function to lookup the property from OS environment variables using the service naming idiom

  • service.name - A function to lookup the property from OS environment variables using the service naming idiom returning the hostname part only

  • service.port - A function to lookup the property from OS environment variables using the service naming idiom returning the port part only

These functions are intended to make it easy to lookup values from the environment, as shown in the example below:

<camelContext>
    <route>
        <from uri="direct:start"/>
        <to uri="{{env:SOMENAME}}"/>
        <to uri="{{sys:MyJvmPropertyName}}"/>
    </route>
</camelContext>

You can use default values as well, so if the property does not exist, you can define a default value as shown below, where the default value is a log:foo and log:bar value.

<camelContext>
    <route>
        <from uri="direct:start"/>
        <to uri="{{env:SOMENAME:log:foo}}"/>
        <to uri="{{sys:MyJvmPropertyName:log:bar}}"/>
    </route>
</camelContext>

The service function is for looking up a service which is defined using OS environment variables using the service naming idiom, to refer to a service location using hostname : port

  • NAME_SERVICE_HOST

  • NAME_SERVICE_PORT

in other words the service uses _SERVICE_HOST and _SERVICE_PORT as prefix. So if the service is named FOO, then the OS environment variables should be set as

export $FOO_SERVICE_HOST=myserver
export $FOO_SERVICE_PORT=8888

For example if the FOO service a remote HTTP service, then we can refer to the service in the Camel endpoint uri, and use the HTTP component to make the HTTP call:

<camelContext>
    <route>
        <from uri="direct:start"/>
        <to uri="http://{{service:FOO}}/myapp"/>
    </route>
</camelContext>

And we can use default values if the service has not been defined, for example to call a service on localhost, maybe for unit testing.

<camelContext>
<route>
    <from uri="direct:start"/>
    <to uri="http://{{service:FOO:localhost:8080}}/myapp"/>
</route>
</camelContext>

The bean function (you need to have camel-bean JAR on classpath) is for looking up the property from the return value of bean’s method.

Assuming we have registered a bean named 'foo' that has a method called 'bar' that returns a directory name, then we can refer to the bean’s method in the camel endpoint url, and use the file component to poll a directory:

<camelContext>
<route>
    <from uri="file:{{bean:foo.bar}}"/>
    <to uri="direct:result"/>
</route>
</camelContext>
The method must be a public no-arg method (i.e. no parameters) and return a value such as a String, boolean, int.

Using Kubernetes property placeholder functions

The camel-kubernetes component include the following functions:

  • configmap - A function to lookup the string property from Kubernetes ConfigMaps.

  • configmap-binary - A function to lookup the binary property from Kubernetes ConfigMaps.

  • secret - A function to lookup the string property from Kubernetes Secrets.

  • secret-binary - A function to lookup the binary property from Kubernetes Secrets.

The syntax for both functions are:

configmap:name/key[:defaultValue]

Where the default value is optional, for example the following will lookup myKey, and fail if there is no such configmap.

configmap:mymap/mykey

In this example then it would not fail as a default value is provided:

configmap:mymap/mykey:123

If the value stored in the configmap is in binary format, so it is stored as Binary Data, it will be downloaded in a file, and it returns the absolute path of the file

configmap-binary:mymap/mybinkey

it returns a path like /tmp/camel11787545916150467474/mybinkey

Before the Kubernetes property placeholder functions can be used they need to be configured with either (or both)

  • path - A mount path that must be mounted to the running pod, to load the configmaps or secrets from local disk.

  • kubernetes client - Autowired An io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.KubernetesClient instance to use for connecting to the Kubernetes API server.

Camel will first use mount paths (if configured) to lookup, and then fallback to use the KubernetesClient.

Configuring mount paths for ConfigMaps and Secrets

The configuration of the mount path are used by the given order:

  1. Reading configuration property with keys camel.kubernetes-config.mount-path-configmaps and camel.kubernetes-config.mount-path-secrets.

  2. Use JVM system property with key camel.k.mount-path.configmaps and camel.k.mount-path.secrets (Camel K compatible).

  3. Use OS ENV variable with key CAMEL_K_MOUNT_PATH_CONFIGMAPS and CAMEL_K_MOUNT_PATH_SECRETS (Camel K compatible).

For example to use /etc/camel/resources/ as mount path, you can configure this in the application.properties:

camel.kubernetes-config.mount-path-configmaps = /etc/camel/myconfig/
camel.kubernetes-config.mount-path-secrets = /etc/camel/mysecrets/

Configuring Kubernetes Client

Camel will autowire the KubernetesClient if a single instance of the client exists in the running application (lookup via the Registry). Otherwise, a new KubernetesClient is created. The client can be configured from either

  • Using camel.kubernetes-config.client. properties (see below for example)

  • Attempt to auto-configure itself by a combination of OS Environment variables, reading from ~./kube/config configuration, and service account token file. For more details see the https://github.com/fabric8io/kubernetes-client documentation.

You most likely only need to explicit configure the KubernetesClient when you want to connect from a local computer to a remote Kubernetes cluster, where you can specify various options, such as the masterUrl and oauthToken as shown:

camel.kubernetes-config.client.masterUrl = https://127.0.0.1:50179/
camel.kubernetes-config.client.oauthToken = eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI...

The KubernetesClient has many options, see the https://github.com/fabric8io/kubernetes-client documentation.

If you only use mount paths, then it is good practice to disable KubernetesClient which can be done by setting enabled to false as show:

camel.kubernetes-config.client-enabled = false

When running your Camel applications inside an existing Kubernetes cluster, then you often would not need to explicit configure the KubernetesClient and can rely on default settings.

If you use Camel Quarkus, then it is recommended to use their https://quarkus.io/guides/kubernetes-config which automatic pre-configure the KubernetesClient which Camel then will reuse.

Using configmap with Kubernetes

Given a configmap named myconfig in Kubernetes that has two entries:

drink = beer
first = Carlsberg

Then these values can be used in your Camel routes such as:

<camelContext>
  <route>
    <from uri="direct:start"/>
    <log message="What {{configmap:myconfig/drink}} do you want?"/>
    <log message="I want {{configmap:myconfig/first}}"/>
  </route>
</camelContext>

You can also provide a default value in case a key does not exist:

    <log message="I want {{configmap:myconfig/second:Heineken}}"/>

Using secrets with Kubernetes

Camel reads ConfigMaps from the Kubernetes API Server. And when RBAC is enabled on the cluster, the ServiceAccount that is used to run the application needs to have the proper permissions for such access.

A secret named mydb could contain username and passwords to connect to a database such as:

myhost = killroy
myport = 5555
myuser = scott
mypass = tiger

This can be used in Camel with for example the Postrgres Sink Kamelet:

<camelContext>
  <route>
    <from uri="direct:rome"/>
    <setBody>
      <constant>{ "username":"oscerd", "city":"Rome"}</constant>
    </setBody>
    <to uri="kamelet:postgresql-sink?serverName={{secret:mydb/myhost}}
             &amp;serverPort={{secret:mydb/myport}}
             &amp;username={{secret:mydb/myuser}}
             &amp;password={{secret:mydb/mypass}}
             &amp;databaseName=cities
             &amp;query=INSERT INTO accounts (username,city) VALUES (:#username,:#city)"/>
  </route>
</camelContext>

The postgres-sink Kamelet can also be configured in application.properties which reduces the configuration in the route above:

camel.component.kamelet.postgresql-sink.databaseName={{secret:mydb/myhost}}
camel.component.kamelet.postgresql-sink.serverPort={{secret:mydb/myport}}
camel.component.kamelet.postgresql-sink.username={{secret:mydb/myuser}}
camel.component.kamelet.postgresql-sink.password={{secret:mydb/mypass}}

Which reduces the route to:

<camelContext>
  <route>
    <from uri="direct:rome"/>
    <setBody>
      <constant>{ "username":"oscerd", "city":"Rome"}</constant>
    </setBody>
    <to uri="kamelet:postgresql-sink?databaseName=cities
             &amp;query=INSERT INTO accounts (username,city) VALUES (:#username,:#city)"/>
  </route>
</camelContext>

Using configmap or secrets in local-mode

During development you may want to run in local mode where you do not need acces to a Kubernetes cluster, to lookup the configmap. In the local mode, then Camel will lookup the configmap keys from local properties, eg:

For example the example above with the postgresql kamelet, that was configured using a secret:

camel.component.kamelet.postgresql-sink.databaseName={{secret:mydb/myhost}}
camel.component.kamelet.postgresql-sink.serverPort={{secret:mydb/myport}}
camel.component.kamelet.postgresql-sink.username={{secret:mydb/myuser}}
camel.component.kamelet.postgresql-sink.password={{secret:mydb/mypass}}

Now suppose we have a local Postrgres database we want to use, then we can turn on local mode and specify the credentials in the same properties file:

camel.kubernetes-config.local-mode = true
mydb/myhost=localhost
mydb/myport=1234
mydb/myuser=scott
mydb/mypass=tiger
Notice how the key is prefixed with the name of the secret and a slash, eg name/key. This makes it easy to copy/paste from the actual use of the configmap/secret and into the application.properties file.

Using custom property placeholder functions

The Properties component allow to plugin 3rd party functions which can be used during parsing of the property placeholders. These functions are then able to do custom logic to resolve the placeholders, such as looking up in databases, do custom computations, or whatnot. The name of the function becomes the prefix used in the placeholder.

This is best illustrated in the example route below, where we use beer as the prefix:

<route>
    <from uri="direct:start"/>
    <to uri="{{beer:FOO}}"/>
    <to uri="{{beer:BAR}}"/>
</route>

The implementation of the function is only two methods as shown below:

@org.apache.camel.spi.annotations.PropertiesFunction("beer")
public class MyBeerFunction implements PropertiesFunction {

    @Override
    public String getName() {
        return "beer";
    }

    @Override
    public String apply(String remainder) {
        return "mock:" + remainder.toLowerCase();
    }
}

The function must implement the org.apache.camel.spi.PropertiesFunction interface. The method getName is the name of the function (beer). And the apply method is where we implement the custom logic to do. As the sample code is from a unit test, it just returns a value to refer to a mock endpoint.

You also need to have camel-component-maven-plugin as part of building the component will then ensure that this custom properties function has necessary source code generated that makes Camel able to automatically discover the function.

If the custom properties function need logic to startup and shutdown, then the function can extend ServiceSupport and have this logic in doStart and doStop methods.
For an example see the camel-base64 component.

Using third party property sources

The properties component allows to plugin 3rd party sources to load and lookup properties via the PropertySource API from camel-api.

The regular PropertySource will lookup the property on-demand, for example to lookup values from a backend source such as a database or HashiCorp Vault etc.

A PropertySource can define that it supports loading all its properties (by implementing LoadablePropertiesSource) from the source at once, for example from file system. This allows Camel properties component to load these properties at once during startup.

For example the camel-microprofile-config component is implemented using this. The 3rd-party PropertySource can automatically be discovered from classpath when Camel is starting up. This is done by including the file META-INF/services/org/apache/camel/property-source-factory which refers to the fully qualified class name of the PropertySource implementation.

See MicroProfile Config component as an example.

You can also register 3rd-party property sources via Java API:

PropertiesComponent pc = context.getPropertiesComponent();
pc.addPropertiesSource(myPropertySource);
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