Files
spring-integration/spring-integration-reference/src/file.xml
Mark Fisher 604b7e9075 INT-676
2009-07-03 23:17:50 +00:00

196 lines
10 KiB
XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd">
<chapter id="files">
<title>File Support</title>
<section id="file-intro">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>
Spring Integration's File support extends the Spring Integration Core with
a dedicated vocabulary to deal with reading, writing, and transforming files.
It provides a namespace that enables elements defining Channel Adapters dedicated
to files and support for Transformers that can read file contents into strings or
byte arrays.
</para>
<para>
This section will explain the workings of <classname>FileReadingMessageSource</classname>
and <classname>FileWritingMessageHandler</classname> and how to configure them as
<emphasis>beans</emphasis>. Also the support for dealing with files through file specific
implementations of <interfacename>Transformer</interfacename> will be discussed. Finally the
file specific namespace will be explained.
</para>
</section>
<section id="file-reading">
<title>Reading Files</title>
<para>
A <classname>FileReadingMessageSource</classname> can be used to consume files from the filesystem.
This is an implementation of <interfacename>MessageSource</interfacename> that creates messages from
a file system directory. <programlisting language="xml"><![CDATA[<bean id="pollableFileSource"
class="org.springframework.integration.file.FileReadingMessageSource"
p:inputDirectory="file:${input.directory}"/>]]></programlisting>
</para>
<para>
To prevent creating messages for certain files, you may supply a
<interfacename>FileListFilter</interfacename>. By default, an
<classname>AcceptOnceFileListFilter</classname> is used. This filter
ensures files are picked up only once from the directory.
<programlisting language="xml"><![CDATA[<bean id="pollableFileSource"
class="org.springframework.integration.file.FileReadingMessageSource"
p:inputDirectory="file:${input.directory}"
p:filter-ref="customFilterBean"/>]]></programlisting>
</para>
<para>
A common problem with reading files is that a file may be detected before
it is ready. The default <classname>AcceptOnceFileListFilter</classname>
does not prevent this. In most cases, this can be prevented if the
file-writing process renames each file as soon as it is ready for
reading. A pattern-matching filter that accepts only files that are
ready (e.g. based on a known suffix), composed with the default
<classname>AcceptOnceFileListFilter</classname> allows for this.
The <classname>CompositeFileListFilter</classname> enables the
composition.
<programlisting language="xml"><![CDATA[<bean id="pollableFileSource"
class="org.springframework.integration.file.FileReadingMessageSource"
p:inputDirectory="file:${input.directory}"
p:filter-ref="compositeFilter"/>
<bean id="compositeFilter" class="org.springframework.integration.file.CompositeFileListFilter">
<constructor-arg>
<list>
<bean class="org.springframework.integration.file.AcceptOnceFileListFilter" />
<bean class="org.springframework.integration.file.PatternMatchingFileListFilter">
<constructor-arg value="^test.*$"/>
</bean>
</list>
</constructor-arg>
</bean>]]></programlisting>
</para>
<para>
The configuration can be simplified using the file specific namespace. To do
this use the following template.
<programlisting language="xml"><![CDATA[<?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:integration="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration"
xmlns:file="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/file"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration
http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration-1.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/file
http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/file/spring-integration-file-1.0.xsd">
</beans>]]></programlisting>
Within this namespace you can reduce the FileReadingMessageSource and wrap
it in an inbound Channel Adapter like this:
<programlisting language="xml"><![CDATA[ <file:inbound-channel-adapter id="filesIn"
directory="file:${input.directory}"/>
<file:inbound-channel-adapter id="filesIn"
directory="file:${input.directory}"
filter="customFilterBean" />
<file:inbound-channel-adapter id="filesIn"
directory="file:${input.directory}"
filename-pattern="^test.*$" /> ]]></programlisting>
The first channel adapter is relying on the default filter that just prevents
duplication, the second is using a custom filter, and the third is using the
<emphasis>filename-pattern</emphasis> attribute to add a <classname>Pattern</classname>
based filter to the <classname>FileReadingMessageSource</classname>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="file-writing">
<title>Writing files</title>
<para>
To write messages to the file system you can use a
<classname>FileWritingMessageHandler</classname>. This class can deal with
File, String, or byte array payloads. In its simplest form the
<classname>FileWritingMessageHandler </classname> only requires a
destination directory for writing the files. The name of the file to be
written is determined by the handler's <classname>FileNameGenerator</classname>.
The default implementation looks for a Message header whose key matches
the constant defined as <code>FileHeaders.FILENAME</code>.
</para>
<para>
Additionally, you can configure the encoding and the charset that
will be used in case of a String payload.
</para>
<para>
To make things easier you can configure the FileWritingMessageHandler as
part of an outbound channel adapter using the namespace.
<programlisting language="xml"><![CDATA[ <file:outbound-channel-adapter id="filesOut" directory="file:${input.directory.property}"/>]]></programlisting>
</para>
<para>
The namespace based configuration also supports a <code>delete-source-files</code> attribute.
If set to <code>true</code>, it will trigger deletion of the original source files after writing
to a destination. The default value for that flag is <code>false</code>.
<programlisting language="xml"><![CDATA[ <file:outbound-channel-adapter id="filesOut"
directory="file:${output.directory}"
delete-source-files="true"/>]]></programlisting>
<note>
<para>
The <code>delete-source-files</code> attribute will only have an effect if the inbound
Message has a File payload or if the <classname>FileHeaders.ORIGINAL_FILE</classname> header
value contains either the source File instance or a String representing the original file path.
</para>
</note>
</para>
<para>
In cases where you want to continue processing messages based on the written File you can use
the <code>outbound-gateway</code> instead. It plays a very similar role as the
<code>outbound-channel-adapter</code>. However after writing the File, it will also send it
to the reply channel as the payload of a Message.
<programlisting language="xml"><![CDATA[ <file:outbound-gateway id="mover" request-channel="moveInput"
reply-channel="output"
directory="${output.directory}"
delete-source-files="true"/>]]></programlisting>
</para>
<note>
The 'outbound-gateway' works well in cases where you want to first move a File and then send it
through a processing pipeline. In such cases, you may connect the file namespace's
'inbound-channel-adapter' element to the 'outbound-gateway' and then connect that gateway's
reply-channel to the beginning of the pipeline.
</note>
<para>
If you have more elaborate requirements or need to support additional payload types as input
to be converted to file content you could extend the FileWritingMessageHandler, but a much
better option is to rely on a <classname>Transformer</classname>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="file-transforming">
<title>File Transformers</title>
<para>
To transform data read from the file system to objects and the other way around you need
to do some work. Contrary to <classname>FileReadingMessageSource</classname> and to a
lesser extent <classname>FileWritingMessageHandler</classname>, it is very likely that you
will need your own mechanism to get the job done. For this you can implement the
<interfacename>Transformer</interfacename> interface. Or extend the
<classname>AbstractFilePayloadTransformer</classname> for inbound messages. Some obvious
implementations have been provided.
</para>
<para>
<classname>FileToByteArrayTransformer</classname> transforms Files into byte[]s using
Spring's <classname>FileCopyUtils</classname>. It is often better to use a sequence of
transformers than to put all transformations in a single class. In that case the File to
byte[] conversion might be a logical first step.
</para>
<para>
<classname>FileToStringTransformer</classname> will convert Files to Strings as the name
suggests. If nothing else, this can be useful for debugging (consider using with a Wire Tap).
</para>
<para>
To configure File specific transformers you can use the appropriate elements from the file namespace.
<programlisting language="xml"><![CDATA[ <file-to-bytes-transformer input-channel="input" output-channel="output"
delete-files="true"/>
<file:file-to-string-transformer input-channel="input" output-channel="output
delete-files="true" charset="UTF-8"/>]]></programlisting>
The <emphasis>delete-files</emphasis> option signals to the transformer that it should delete
the inbound File after the transformation is complete. This is in no way a replacement for using the
<classname>AcceptOnceFileListFilter</classname> when the FileReadingMessageSource is being used in a
multi-threaded environment (e.g. Spring Integration in general).
</para>
</section>
</chapter>