OpenShift Camel Component – Manage OpenShift from Camel

Posted: February 10th, 2014 | Author: sabre1041 | Filed under: Technology | Tags: Camel, OpenShift | 3 Comments »

Since its creation in 2007, the Apache Camel project has allowed developers to integrate systems by creating Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) applications using industry standard Enterprise Integration Patterns (EIP). At its core, Camel is a routing engine builder for which messages can be received and processed. The processing of messages uses a standardized API library backed by an extensive collection of components which abstracts the actual implementation of routing and transformation of messages. These components also include the ability to communicate with external systems through an array of protocols ranging from web services, REST and JMS. With more than 80 components in the standard Camel distribution, developers have the flexibility to perform power operations with minimal effort to suit their business needs. One of the benefits of the Camel component framework is that it was designed as a factory system where new components can be easily added to solve a business use case.

As more companies and individuals look to migrate their operations and applications into cloud-based solutions, the management of these resources can prove to be a challenge. The overall architecture may be different than what many individuals are accustomed. The OpenShift Platform as a Service (PaaS) is one such cloud offering where developers can quickly create powerful scaled applications without having to worry about managing infrastructure or complex software installation.

Introducing the OpenShift Camel Component

Imagine being able to communicate with the OpenShift Platform directly through a Camel route? With the OpenShift Camel component, it is now possible. Exposed through an Endpoint as both a Camel Consumer and Producer, OpenShift resource details can be retrieved or modified all within a Camel route. Want to find out information about a particular OpenShift Domain, such as the applications and their details? How about automating application deployments? These are only some of the possibilities now available.

Communication between the OpenShift Camel component and OpenShift is facilitated by using the REST API exposed by the OpenShift platform and the OpenShift Java Client. Responses from the OpenShift Camel component will be returned using the API from the OpenShift Java Client.

Using the OpenShift Camel Component in your project

The OpenShift Camel Component can be easily added to a new or existing project. The following steps will describe how this can be accomplished.

GitHub Project: https://github.com/sabre1041/camel-openshift

1. Fork/Clone the GitHub repository 

   git clone https://github.com/sabre1041/camel-openshift.git

2. Build the project using Maven

   mvn clean install

3. Add the component to a new or existing Camel Project as a Maven dependency in the projects’ POM file.

   <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.camel</groupId>
       <artifactId>camel-openshift</artifactId>
       <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
   </dependency>

4. The following example implementation will retrieve information about the authenticated user and print out their user details to the log:Java DSL

    
   import org.apache.camel.builder.RouteBuilder;
   
   public class PrintOpenShiftUserRoute extends RouteBuilder {
   
       public void configure() throws Exception {
           // Retrieve User Details
           from("openshift://user?userName=<openshift_username>&password=<openshift_password>")
               //Print to Log
               .log("${body}");
       }
   
   }

   Spring XML

   <route>
     <description>Spring XML Route. Full XML omitted for brevity</description>
     <from uri="openshift://user?userName=<openshift_user>&amp;password=<openshift_password>"/>
     <log message="${body}"/>
   </route>

With the steps above complete, the project can be deployed to a running container or unit tests can be created to verify the expected results. Additional functionality including how to leverage Authentication as Message Headers can be found on the GitHub project page.

In an upcoming post, I will demonstrate several uses for the OpenShift Camel including how the component can be leveraged within a SwitchYard application.

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