In Spring Integration, a message is a generic wrapper for any Java object combined with metadata used by the framework while handling that object. It consists of a payload and headers. The payload can be of any type, and the headers hold commonly required information such as ID, timestamp, correlation ID, and return address. Headers are also used for passing values to and from connected transports. For example, when creating a message from a received file, the file name may be stored in a header to be accessed by downstream components. Likewise, if a message’s content is ultimately going to be sent by an outbound mail adapter, the various properties (to, from, cc, subject, and others) may be configured as message header values by an upstream component. Developers can also store any arbitrary key-value pairs in the headers.

Figure 5.1. Message

A message channel represents the "pipe" of a pipes-and-filters architecture. Producers send messages to a channel, and consumers receive messages from a channel. The message channel therefore decouples the messaging components and also provides a convenient point for interception and monitoring of messages.

Figure 5.2. Message Channel

A message channel may follow either point-to-point or publish-subscribe semantics. With a point-to-point channel, no more than one consumer can receive each message sent to the channel. Publish-subscribe channels, on the other hand, attempt to broadcast each message to all subscribers on the channel. Spring Integration supports both of these models.

Whereas "point-to-point" and "publish-subscribe" define the two options for how many consumers ultimately receive each message, there is another important consideration: Should the channel buffer messages? In Spring Integration, pollable channels are capable of buffering Messages within a queue. The advantage of buffering is that it allows for throttling the inbound messages and thereby prevents overloading a consumer. However, as the name suggests, this also adds some complexity, since a consumer can only receive the messages from such a channel if a poller is configured. On the other hand, a consumer connected to a subscribable channel is simply message-driven. Section 6.1.2, “Message Channel Implementations” has a detailed discussion of the variety of channel implementations available in Spring Integration.

One of the primary goals of Spring Integration is to simplify the development of enterprise integration solutions through inversion of control. This means that you should not have to implement consumers and producers directly, and you should not even have to build messages and invoke send or receive operations on a message channel. Instead, you should be able to focus on your specific domain model with an implementation based on plain objects. Then, by providing declarative configuration, you can "connect" your domain-specific code to the messaging infrastructure provided by Spring Integration. The components responsible for these connections are message endpoints. This does not mean that you should necessarily connect your existing application code directly. Any real-world enterprise integration solution requires some amount of code focused upon integration concerns such as routing and transformation. The important thing is to achieve separation of concerns between the integration logic and the business logic. In other words, as with the Model-View-Controller (MVC) paradigm for web applications, the goal should be to provide a thin but dedicated layer that translates inbound requests into service layer invocations and then translates service layer return values into outbound replies. The next section provides an overview of the message endpoint types that handle these responsibilities, and, in upcoming chapters, you can see how Spring Integration’s declarative configuration options provide a non-invasive way to use each of these.

A message transformer is responsible for converting a message’s content or structure and returning the modified message. Probably the most common type of transformer is one that converts the payload of the message from one format to another (such as from XML to java.lang.String). Similarly, a transformer can add, remove, or modify the message’s header values.

A message filter determines whether a message should be passed to an output channel at all. This simply requires a boolean test method that may check for a particular payload content type, a property value, the presence of a header, or other conditions. If the message is accepted, it is sent to the output channel. If not, it is dropped (or, for a more severe implementation, an Exception could be thrown). Message filters are often used in conjunction with a publish-subscribe channel, where multiple consumers may receive the same message and use the criteria of the filter to narrow down the set of messages to be processed.

Note

Be careful not to confuse the generic use of "filter" within the pipes-and-filters architectural pattern with this specific endpoint type that selectively narrows down the messages flowing between two channels. The pipes-and-filters concept of a "filter" matches more closely with Spring Integration’s message endpoint: any component that can be connected to a message channel in order to send or receive messages.

A message router is responsible for deciding what channel or channels (if any) should receive the message next. Typically, the decision is based upon the message’s content or the metadata available in the message headers. A message router is often used as a dynamic alternative to a statically configured output channel on a service activator or other endpoint capable of sending reply messages. Likewise, a message router provides a proactive alternative to the reactive message filters used by multiple subscribers, as described earlier.

Figure 5.3. Message Router

A splitter is another type of message endpoint whose responsibility is to accept a message from its input channel, split that message into multiple messages, and send each of those to its output channel. This is typically used for dividing a "composite" payload object into a group of messages containing the subdivided payloads.

Basically a mirror-image of the splitter, the aggregator is a type of message endpoint that receives multiple messages and combines them into a single message. In fact, aggregators are often downstream consumers in a pipeline that includes a splitter. Technically, the aggregator is more complex than a splitter, because it is required to maintain state (the messages to be aggregated), to decide when the complete group of messages is available, and to timeout if necessary. Furthermore, in case of a timeout, the aggregator needs to know whether to send the partial results, discard them, or send them to a separate channel. Spring Integration provides a CorrelationStrategy, a ReleaseStrategy, and configurable settings for timeout, whether to send partial results upon timeout, and a discard channel.

A Service Activator is a generic endpoint for connecting a service instance to the messaging system. The input message channel must be configured, and, if the service method to be invoked is capable of returning a value, an output message Channel may also be provided.

	Note
	The output channel is optional, since each message may also provide its own Return Address header. This same rule applies for all consumer endpoints.

The service activator invokes an operation on some service object to process the request message, extracting the request message’s payload and converting (if the method does not expect a message-typed parameter). Whenever the service object’s method returns a value, that return value is likewise converted to a reply message if necessary (if it is not already a message type). That reply message is sent to the output channel. If no output channel has been configured, the reply is sent to the channel specified in the message’s "return address", if available.

A request-reply service activator endpoint connects a target object’s method to input and output Message Channels.

Figure 5.4. Service Activator

	Note
	As discussed earlier, in Message Channel, channels can be pollable or subscribable. In the preceding diagram, this is depicted by the "clock" symbol and the solid arrow (poll) and the dotted arrow (subscribe).

A channel adapter is an endpoint that connects a message channel to some other system or transport. Channel adapters may be either inbound or outbound. Typically, the channel adapter does some mapping between the message and whatever object or resource is received from or sent to the other system (file, HTTP Request, JMS message, and others). Depending on the transport, the channel adapter may also populate or extract message header values. Spring Integration provides a number of channel adapters, which are described in upcoming chapters.

Figure 5.5. An inbound channel adapter endpoint connects a source system to a MessageChannel.

	Note
	Message sources can be pollable (for example, POP3) or message-driven_ (for example, IMAP Idle). In the preceding diagram, this is depicted by the "clock" symbol and the solid arrow (poll) and the dotted arrow (message-driven).

Figure 5.6. An outbound channel adapter endpoint connects a MessageChannel to a target system.

	Note
	As discussed earlier in Message Channel, channels can be pollable or subscribable. In the preceding diagram, this is depicted by the "clock" symbol and the solid arrow (poll) and the dotted arrow (subscribe).

Consuming endpoints (anything with an inputChannel) consist of two beans, the consumer and the message handler. The consumer has a reference to the message handler and invokes it as messages arrive.

Consider the following XML example:

<int:service-activator id = "someService" ... />

Given the preceding example, the bean names are as follows:

When using Enterprise Integration Pattern (EIP) annotations, the names depend on several factors. Consider the following example of an annotated POJO:

@Component
public class SomeComponent {

    @ServiceActivator(inputChannel = ...)
    public String someMethod(...) {
        ...
    }

}

Given the preceding example, the bean names are as follows:

Starting with version 5.0.4, you can modify these names by using the @EndpointId annotation, as the following example shows:

@Component
public class SomeComponent {

    @EndpointId("someService")
    @ServiceActivator(inputChannel = ...)
    public String someMethod(...) {
        ...
    }

}

Given the preceding example, the bean names are as follows:

The @EndpointId creates names as created by the id attribute with XML configuration. Consider the following example of an annotated bean:

@Configuratiom
public class SomeConfiguration {

    @Bean
    @ServiceActivator(inputChannel = ...)
    public MessageHandler someHandler() {
        ...
    }

}

Given the preceding example, the bean names are as follows:

Starting with version 5.0.4, you can modify these names by using the @EndpointId annotation, as the following example shows:

@Configuratiom
public class SomeConfiguration {

    @Bean("someService.handler")             
    @EndpointId("someService")               
    @ServiceActivator(inputChannel = ...)
    public MessageHandler someHandler() {
        ...
    }

}

The @EndpointId annotation creates names as created by the id attribute with XML configuration, as long as you use the convention of appending .handler to the @Bean name.

There is one special case where a third bean is created: For architectural reasons, if a MessageHandler @Bean does not define an AbstractReplyProducingMessageHandler, the framework wraps the provided bean in a ReplyProducingMessageHandlerWrapper. This wrapper supports request handler advice handling and emits the normal produced no reply debug log messages. Its bean name is the handler bean name plus .wrapper (when there is an @EndpointId — otherwise, it is the normal generated handler name).

Similarly Pollable Message Sources create two beans, a SourcePollingChannelAdapter (SPCA) and a MessageSource.

Consider the following XML configuration:

<int:inbound-channel-adapter id = "someAdapter" ... />

Given the preceding XML configuration, the bean names are as follows:

Consider the following Java configuration of a POJO to define an @EndpointId:

@EndpointId("someAdapter")
@InboundChannelAdapter(channel = "channel3", poller = @Poller(fixedDelay = "5000"))
public String pojoSource() {
    ...
}

Given the preceding Java configuration example, the bean names are as follows:

Consider the following Java configuration of a bean to define an @EndpointID:

@Bean("someAdapter.source")
@EndpointId("someAdapter")
@InboundChannelAdapter(channel = "channel3", poller = @Poller(fixedDelay = "5000"))
public MessageSource<?> source() {
    return () -> {
        ...
    };
}

Given the preceding example, the bean names are as follows:

Spring Integration bootstraps certain features by using Spring Framework’s SpringFactories mechanism to load several IntegrationConfigurationInitializer classes. This includes the -core jar as well as certain others, including -http and -jmx. The information for this process is stored in a META-INF/spring.factories file in each jar.

Some developers prefer to repackage their application and all dependencies into a single jar by using well known tools, such as the Apache Maven Shade Plugin.

By default, the shade plugin does not merge the spring.factories files when producing the shaded jar.

In addition to spring.factories, other META-INF files (spring.handlers and spring.schemas) are used for XML configuration. These files also need to be merged.

	Important
	Spring Boot’s executable jar mechanism takes a different approach, in that it nests the jars, thus retaining each spring.factories file on the class path. So, with a Spring Boot application, nothing more is needed if you use its default executable jar format.

Even if you do not use Spring Boot, you can still use the tooling provided by Boot to enhance the shade plugin by adding transformers for the above mentioned files.

You may wish to consult the current spring-boot-starter-parent pom to see the current settings that boot uses. The following example shows how to configure the plugin:

...
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <keepDependenciesWithProvidedScope>true</keepDependenciesWithProvidedScope>
                <createDependencyReducedPom>true</createDependencyReducedPom>
            </configuration>
            <dependencies>
                <dependency> 
                    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                    <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                    <version>${spring.boot.version}</version>
                </dependency>
            </dependencies>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>shade</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <transformers> 
                            <transformer
                                implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.AppendingTransformer">
                                <resource>META-INF/spring.handlers</resource>
                            </transformer>
                            <transformer
                                implementation="org.springframework.boot.maven.PropertiesMergingResourceTransformer">
                                <resource>META-INF/spring.factories</resource>
                            </transformer>
                            <transformer
                                implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.AppendingTransformer">
                                <resource>META-INF/spring.schemas</resource>
                            </transformer>
                            <transformer
                                implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ServicesResourceTransformer" />
                        </transformers>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
...

You can add a property for ${spring.boot.version} or use an explicit version.

When using XML configuration, to avoid getting false schema validation errors, you should use a "Spring-aware" IDE, such as the Spring Tool Suite (STS), Eclipse with the Spring IDE plugins, or IntelliJ IDEA. These IDEs know how to resolve the correct XML schema from the classpath (by using the META-INF/spring.schemas file in the jars). When using STS or Eclipse with the plugin, you must enable Spring Project Nature on the project.

The schemas hosted on the internet for certain legacy modules (those that existed in version 1.0) are the 1.0 versions for compatibility reasons. If your IDE uses these schemas, you are likely to see false errors.

Each of these online schemas has a warning similar to the following:

Important

This schema is for the 1.0 version of Spring Integration Core. We cannot update it to the current schema because that will break any applications using 1.0.3 or lower. For subsequent versions, the unversioned schema is resolved from the classpath and obtained from the jar. Please refer to github: https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-integration/tree/master/spring-integration-core/src/main/resources/org/springframework/integration/config

The affected modules are

With XML configuration and Spring Integration Namespace support, the XML parsers hide how target beans are declared and wired together. For Java configuration, it is important to understand the Framework API for target end-user applications.

The first-class citizens for EIP implementation are Message, Channel, and Endpoint (see Section 5.3, “Main Components”, earlier in this chapter). Their implementations (contracts) are:

The first two are simple enough to understand how to implement, configure, and use. The last one deserves more attention

The AbstractEndpoint is widely used throughout the Spring Framework for different component implementations. Its main implementations are:

When you use messaging annotations or the Java DSL, you need ot worry about these components, because the Framework automatically produces them with appropriate annotations and BeanPostProcessor implementations. When building components manually, you should use the ConsumerEndpointFactoryBean to help determine the target AbstractEndpoint consumer implementation to create, based on the provided inputChannel property.

On the other hand, the ConsumerEndpointFactoryBean delegates to an another first class citizen in the Framework: org.springframework.messaging.MessageHandler. The goal of the implementation of this interface is to handle the message consumed by the endpoint from the channel. All EIP components in Spring Integration are MessageHandler implementations (for example, AggregatingMessageHandler, MessageTransformingHandler, AbstractMessageSplitter, and others). The target protocol outbound adapters (FileWritingMessageHandler, HttpRequestExecutingMessageHandler, AbstractMqttMessageHandler, and others) are also MessageHandler implementations. When you develop Spring Integration applications with Java configuration, you should look into the Spring Integration module to find an appropriate MessageHandler implementation to use for the @ServiceActivator\ configuration. For example, to send an XMPP message (see Chapter 39, XMPP Support) you should configure something like the following:

@Bean
@ServiceActivator(inputChannel = "input")
public MessageHandler sendChatMessageHandler(XMPPConnection xmppConnection) {
    ChatMessageSendingMessageHandler handler = new ChatMessageSendingMessageHandler(xmppConnection);

    DefaultXmppHeaderMapper xmppHeaderMapper = new DefaultXmppHeaderMapper();
    xmppHeaderMapper.setRequestHeaderNames("*");
    handler.setHeaderMapper(xmppHeaderMapper);

    return handler;
}

The MessageHandler implementations represent the outbound and processing part of the message flow.

The inbound message flow side has its own components, which are divided into polling and listening behaviors. The listening (message-driven) components are simple and typically require only one target class implementation to be ready to produce messages. Listening components can be one-way MessageProducerSupport implementations, (such as AbstractMqttMessageDrivenChannelAdapter and ImapIdleChannelAdapter) or request-reply MessagingGatewaySupport implementations (such as AmqpInboundGateway and AbstractWebServiceInboundGateway).

Polling inbound endpoints are for those protocols that do not provide a listener API or are not intended for such a behavior, including any file based protocol (such as FTP), any data bases (RDBMS or NoSQL), and others.

These inbound endpoints consist of two components: the poller configuration, to initiate the polling task periodically, and a message source class to read data from the target protocol and produce a message for the downstream integration flow. The first class for the poller configuration is a SourcePollingChannelAdapter. It is one more AbstractEndpoint implementation, but especially for polling to initiate an integration flow. Typically, with the messaging annotations or Java DSL, you should not worry about this class. The Framework produces a bean for it, based on the @InboundChannelAdapter configuration or a Java DSL builder spec.

Message source components are more important for the target application development, and they all implement the MessageSource interface (for example, MongoDbMessageSource and AbstractTwitterMessageSource). With that in mind, our config for reading data from an RDBMS table with JDBC could resemble the following:

@Bean
@InboundChannelAdapter(value = "fooChannel", poller = @Poller(fixedDelay="5000"))
public MessageSource<?> storedProc(DataSource dataSource) {
    return new JdbcPollingChannelAdapter(dataSource, "SELECT * FROM foo where status = 0");
}

You can find all the required inbound and outbound classes for the target protocols in the particular Spring Integration module (in most cases, in the respective package). For example, the spring-integration-websocket adapters are:

If you are familiar with Spring Integration XML configuration, starting with version 4.3, we provide information in the XSD element definitions about which target classes are used to declare beans for the adapter or gateway, as the following example shows:

<xsd:element name="outbound-async-gateway">
    <xsd:annotation>
		<xsd:documentation>
Configures a Consumer Endpoint for the 'o.s.i.amqp.outbound.AsyncAmqpOutboundGateway'
that will publish an AMQP Message to the provided Exchange and expect a reply Message.
The sending thread returns immediately; the reply is sent asynchronously; uses 'AsyncRabbitTemplate.sendAndReceive()'.
       </xsd:documentation>
	</xsd:annotation>