Producing multiple outputs from a Camel Processor/Component

Question

I am trying to implement a Camel Component/Processor that takes one input and produces multiple output messages, similar to a Splitter. Like Splitter, the output should go to the next processor/endpoint in the route.

I have looked at Splitter & MulticastProcessor classes in the hope that I can reuse them or use similar logic. The idea, as I understood, is to create an new Exchange for each output and emit them. To do this, I need to provide the endpoint to which output is written to. This works, if I dynamically create the end point within the Processor class; my requirement is to send the output to the end point configured in the route. That is in the route below, mycomponent needs to write (multiple times) to file:output.

    <route>
        <from uri="file:input"/>
        <to uri="mycomponent:OrderFlow?multi.output=true"/>
        <to uri="file:output" />
    </route>

In case of Splitter, it is instantiated by SplitDefinition class which has access to the output Processor/Endpoint.

a) From within a Processor is it possible to access the configured Output Processor/Endpoint?

b) If not, should I be writing a ProcessorDefinition class for my processor? Any pointers on this would help.

Two solutions suggested below by Petter are,

a) Inject a Producer template b) Use Splitter component with a method call instead of writing a new component.

Answer 1

I assume you have read this page.

Yes, you can send multiple exchanges from a custom processor, but not really to the next processor in the flow. As in the link above, you can decouple the component implementation by injecting a producer template with a specific destination. You can cut your route into several parts using the direct or seda transport and make your component send the messages there. This way, you can reuse the code in several routes.

This is, as you point out, done in the splitter component (among others) in Camel core. Take a look at the multicastprocessor baseclass for example. However, there processors are aware of the following processors in the route, thanks to the route builder. You custom processor is not that lucky.

You can, non the less, extract that information from the CamelContext. Get hold of your route and there you can find the processors in the route. However, that seems like overcomplicating things.

UPDATE: Instead of trying to alter the DSL, make use of the already existing DSL and components.

.split().method("mycomponent", "OrderFlow")

Instead of emitting new exchanges, your OrderFlow method just needs to create a List<..> with the resulting messages.