Name

Timer — generates message exchanges when a timer fires

Overview

You can only consume events from this endpoint.

URI format

The URI format for a Timer endpoint is:

timer:name[?options]

Where name is the name of the Timer object, which is created and shared across endpoints. So if you use the same name for all your timer endpoints, only one Timer object and thread will be used.

You can append query options to the URI in the following format, ?option=value&option=value&...

[Note]Note

The IN body of the generated exchange is null. So exchange.getIn().getBody() returns null.

[Note]Note

See also the Quartz component, which supports much more advanced scheduling.

[Note]Note

From Apache Camel 2.3 onwards, you can specify the time in human friendly syntax.

Options

Table 50, “Timer options” lists the options for a Timer endpoint.

Table 50. Timer options

NameDefaultDescription
time null A java.util.Date the first event should be generated. If using the URI, the pattern expected is: yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss or yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.
pattern null Allows you to specify a custom Date pattern to use for setting the time option using URI syntax.
period 1000 If greater than 0, generate periodic events every period milliseconds.
delay 1000 The number of milliseconds to wait before the first event is generated. Should not be used in conjunction with the time option. The default value has been changed to 1000 from Apache Camel 2.11 onwards. In older releases the default value is 0.
fixedRate false Events take place at approximately regular intervals, separated by the specified period.
daemon true Specifies whether or not the thread associated with the timer endpoint runs as a daemon.
repeatCount 0 Apache Camel 2.8: Specifies a maximum limit of number of fires. So if you set it to 1, the timer will only fire once. If you set it to 5, it will only fire five times. A value of zero or negative means fire forever.

Exchange Properties

When the timer is fired, it adds the following information as properties to the Exchange:

NameTypeDescription
Exchange.TIMER_NAME String The value of the name option.
Exchange.TIMER_TIME Date The value of the time option.
Exchange.TIMER_PERIOD long The value of the period option.
Exchange.TIMER_FIRED_TIME Date The time when the consumer fired.
Exchange.TIMER_COUNTER Long Apache Camel 2.8: The current fire counter. Starts from 1.

Message Headers

When the timer is fired, it adds the following information as headers to the IN message:

NameTypeDescription
Exchange.TIMER_FIRED_TIME java.util.Date The time when the consumer fired

Sample

To set up a route that generates an event every 60 seconds:

   from("timer://foo?fixedRate=true&period=60000").to("bean:myBean?method=someMethodName");
[Note]Note

Instead of 60000, you can specify the more readable, period=60s.

The above route will generate an event and then invoke the someMethodName method on the bean called myBean in the Registry, such as JNDI or Spring.

And the route in Spring DSL:

  <route>
    <from uri="timer://foo?fixedRate=true&eriod=60000"/>
    <to uri="bean:myBean?method=someMethodName"/>
    </route>

Firing only once

Available as of Apache Camel 2.8

You may want to fire a message in a Apache Camel route only once, such as when starting the route. To do so, use the repeatCount option as follows:

   <route>
     <from uri="timer://foo?repeatCount=1"/>
     <to uri="bean:myBean?method=someMethodName"/>
   </route>

Related topics

Quartz