Namespace Support

You can configure Spring Integration components with XML elements that map directly to the terminology and concepts of enterprise integration. In many cases, the element names match those of the Enterprise Integration Patterns book.

To enable Spring Integration’s core namespace support within your Spring configuration files, add the following namespace reference and schema mapping in your top-level 'beans' element:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:int="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
           https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
           http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration
           https://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration.xsd">

(We have emphasized the lines that are particular to Spring Integration.)

You can choose any name after "xmlns:". We use int (short for Integration) for clarity, but you might prefer another abbreviation. On the other hand, if you use an XML editor or IDE support, the availability of auto-completion may convince you to keep the longer name for clarity. Alternatively, you can create configuration files that use the Spring Integration schema as the primary namespace, as the following example shows:

<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
           https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
           http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration
           https://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration.xsd">

(We have emphasized the lines that are particular to Spring Integration.)

When using this alternative, no prefix is necessary for the Spring Integration elements. On the other hand, if you define a generic Spring bean within the same configuration file, the bean element requires a prefix (<beans:bean …/>). Since it is generally a good idea to modularize the configuration files themselves (based on responsibility or architectural layer), you may find it appropriate to use the latter approach in the integration-focused configuration files, since generic beans are seldom necessary within those files. For the purposes of this documentation, we assume the integration namespace is the primary.

Spring Integration provides many other namespaces. In fact, each adapter type (JMS, file, and so on) that provides namespace support defines its elements within a separate schema. In order to use these elements, add the necessary namespaces with an xmlns entry and the corresponding schemaLocation mapping. For example, the following root element shows several of these namespace declarations:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xmlns:int="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration"
  xmlns:int-file="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/file"
  xmlns:int-jms="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jms"
  xmlns:int-mail="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/mail"
  xmlns:int-ws="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/ws"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
    https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration
    https://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/file
    https://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/file/spring-integration-file.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jms
    https://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jms/spring-integration-jms.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/mail
    https://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/mail/spring-integration-mail.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/ws
    https://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/ws/spring-integration-ws.xsd">
 ...
</beans>

This reference manual provides specific examples of the various elements in their corresponding chapters. Here, the main thing to recognize is the consistency of the naming for each namespace URI and schema location.