How do I import routes from other XML files

Available as of Camel 2.3

When defining routes in Camel using Xml Configuration you may want to define some routes in other XML files. For example you may have many routes and it may help to maintain the application if some of the routes are in separate XML files. You may also want to store common and reusable routes in other XML files, which you can simply import when needed.

In Camel 2.3 it is now possible to define routes outside <camelContext/> which you do in a new <routeContext/>

For example we could have a file named myCoolRoutes.xml


myCoolRoutes.xml 



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

    <!-- this is an included XML file where we only the the routeContext -->
    <routeContext id="myCoolRoutes" xmlns="http://camel.apache.org/schema/spring">
        <!-- we can have a route -->
        <route id="cool">
            <from uri="direct:start"/>
            <to uri="mock:result"/>
        </route>
        <!-- and another route, you can have as many your like -->
        <route id="bar">
            <from uri="direct:bar"/>
            <to uri="mock:bar"/>
        </route>
    </routeContext>

</beans>


Then in your XML file which contains the CamelContext you can use Spring to import the myCoolRoute.xml file.
And then inside <camelContext/> you can refer to the <routeContext/>


<!-- import the routes from another XML file -->
<import resource="myCoolRoutes.xml"/>

<camelContext xmlns="http://camel.apache.org/schema/spring">

    <!-- refer to a given route to be used -->
    <routeContextRef ref="myCoolRoutes"/>

    <!-- we can of course still use routes inside camelContext -->
    <route id="inside">
        <from uri="direct:inside"/>
        <to uri="mock:inside"/>
    </route>
</camelContext>


Also notice that you can mix and match, having routes inside CamelContext and also externalized in RouteContext.

You can have as many <routeContextRef/>