Loop

The Loop EIP allows for processing a message a number of times, possibly in a different way for each iteration.

Options

The Loop eip supports 4 options, which are listed below.

Name Description Default Type

description

Sets the description of this node.

String

disabled

Whether to disable this EIP from the route during build time. Once an EIP has been disabled then it cannot be enabled later at runtime.

false

Boolean

expression

Required Expression to define how many times we should loop. Notice the expression is only evaluated once, and should return a number as how many times to loop. A value of zero or negative means no looping. The loop is like a for-loop fashion, if you want a while loop, then the dynamic router may be a better choice.

ExpressionDefinition

copy

If the copy attribute is true, a copy of the input Exchange is used for each iteration. That means each iteration will start from a copy of the same message. By default loop will loop the same exchange all over, so each iteration may have different message content.

false

Boolean

doWhile

Enables the while loop that loops until the predicate evaluates to false or null.

false

Boolean

breakOnShutdown

If the breakOnShutdown attribute is true, then the loop will not iterate until it reaches the end when Camel is shut down.

false

Boolean

outputs

Required

List

Exchange properties

For each iteration two exchange properties are set on the Exchange. Processors can rely on these properties to process the message in different ways.

Property Type Description

CamelLoopSize

int

Total number of loops. This is not available if running the loop in while loop mode.

CamelLoopIndex

int

Index of the current iteration (0 based).

Looping modes

The Loop EIP can run in three modes: default, copy, or while mode.

In default mode the Loop EIP uses the same Exchange instance throughout the looping. So the result from the previous iteration will be used for the next iteration.

In the copy mode, then the Loop EIP uses a copy of the original Exchange in each iteration. So the result from the previous iteration will not be used for the next iteration.

In the while mode, then the Loop EIP will keep looping until the expression evaluates to false or null.

Example

The following example shows how to take a request from the direct:x endpoint, then send the message repetitively to mock:result.

The number of times the message is sent is either passed as an argument to loop, or determined at runtime by evaluating an expression.

The Expression must evaluate to an int, otherwise a RuntimeCamelException is thrown.

Pass loop count as an argument:

  • Java

  • XML

from("direct:a")
    .loop(8)
        .to("mock:result");
<route>
  <from uri="direct:a"/>
  <loop>
    <constant>8</constant>
    <to uri="mock:result"/>
  </loop>
</route>

Use expression to determine loop count:

  • Java

  • XML

from("direct:b")
    .loop(header("loop"))
        .to("mock:result");
<route>
  <from uri="direct:b"/>
  <loop>
    <header>loop</header>
    <to uri="mock:result"/>
  </loop>
</route>

And with the XPath language:

from("direct:c")
    .loop(xpath("/hello/@times"))
        .to("mock:result");

Using copy mode

Now suppose we send a message to direct:start endpoint containing the letter A. The output of processing this route will be that, each mock:loop endpoint will receive AB as message.

  • Java

  • XML

from("direct:start")
    // instruct loop to use copy mode, which mean it will use a copy of the input exchange
    // for each loop iteration, instead of keep using the same exchange all over
    .loop(3).copy()
        .transform(body().append("B"))
        .to("mock:loop")
    .end() // end loop
    .to("mock:result");
<route>
  <from uri="direct:start"/>
  <!-- enable copy mode for loop eip -->
  <loop copy="true">
    <constant>3</constant>
    <transform>
      <simple>${body}B</simple>
    </transform>
    <to uri="mock:loop"/>
  </loop>
  <to uri="mock:result"/>
</route>

However, if we do not enable copy mode then mock:loop will receive "AB", "ABB", "ABBB", etc. messages.

Looping using while

The loop can act like a while loop that loops until the expression evaluates to false or null.

For example the route below loops while the length of the message body is 5 or fewer characters. Notice that the DSL uses loopDoWhile.

  • Java

  • XML

from("direct:start")
    .loopDoWhile(simple("${body.length} <= 5"))
        .to("mock:loop")
        .transform(body().append("A"))
    .end() // end loop
    .to("mock:result");
<route>
  <from uri="direct:start"/>
  <loop doWhile="true">
    <simple>${body.length} &lt;= 5</simple>
    <to uri="mock:loop"/>
    <transform>
      <simple>A${body}</simple>
    </transform>
  </loop>
  <to uri="mock:result"/>
</route>

Notice that the while loop is turned on using the doWhile attribute.