Mock

Since Camel 1.0

Only producer is supported

Testing of distributed and asynchronous processing is notoriously difficult. The Mock, Test and DataSet endpoints work great with the Camel Testing Framework to simplify your unit and integration testing using Enterprise Integration Patterns and Camel’s large range of Components together with the powerful Bean Integration.

The Mock component provides a powerful declarative testing mechanism, which is similar to jMock in that it allows declarative expectations to be created on any Mock endpoint before a test begins. Then the test is run, which typically fires messages to one or more endpoints, and finally the expectations can be asserted in a test case to ensure the system worked as expected.

This allows you to test various things like:

  • The correct number of messages are received on each endpoint,

  • The correct payloads are received, in the right order,

  • Messages arrive on an endpoint in order, using some Expression to create an order testing function,

  • Messages arrive match some kind of Predicate such as that specific headers have certain values, or that parts of the messages match some predicate, such as by evaluating an XPath or XQuery Expression.

There is also the Test endpoint which is a Mock endpoint, but which uses a second endpoint to provide the list of expected message bodies and automatically sets up the Mock endpoint assertions. In other words, it’s a Mock endpoint that automatically sets up its assertions from some sample messages in a File or database, for example.

Mock endpoints keep received Exchanges in memory indefinitely.

Remember that Mock is designed for testing. When you add Mock endpoints to a route, each Exchange sent to the endpoint will be stored (to allow for later validation) in memory until explicitly reset or the JVM is restarted. If you are sending high volume and/or large messages, this may cause excessive memory use. If your goal is to test deployable routes inline, consider using NotifyBuilder or AdviceWith in your tests instead of adding Mock endpoints to routes directly. There are two new options retainFirst, and retainLast that can be used to limit the number of messages the Mock endpoints keep in memory.

URI format

mock:someName[?options]

Where someName can be any string that uniquely identifies the endpoint.

You can append query options to the URI in the following format, ?option=value&option=value&…​

Options

The Mock component supports 2 options, which are listed below.

Name Description Default Type

lazyStartProducer (producer)

Whether the producer should be started lazy (on the first message). By starting lazy you can use this to allow CamelContext and routes to startup in situations where a producer may otherwise fail during starting and cause the route to fail being started. By deferring this startup to be lazy then the startup failure can be handled during routing messages via Camel’s routing error handlers. Beware that when the first message is processed then creating and starting the producer may take a little time and prolong the total processing time of the processing.

false

boolean

basicPropertyBinding (advanced)

Whether the component should use basic property binding (Camel 2.x) or the newer property binding with additional capabilities

false

boolean

The Mock endpoint is configured using URI syntax:

mock:name

with the following path and query parameters:

Path Parameters (1 parameters):

Name Description Default Type

name

Required Name of mock endpoint

String

Query Parameters (13 parameters):

Name Description Default Type

assertPeriod (producer)

Sets a grace period after which the mock endpoint will re-assert to ensure the preliminary assertion is still valid. This is used for example to assert that exactly a number of messages arrives. For example if expectedMessageCount(int) was set to 5, then the assertion is satisfied when 5 or more message arrives. To ensure that exactly 5 messages arrives, then you would need to wait a little period to ensure no further message arrives. This is what you can use this method for. By default this period is disabled.

0

long

expectedCount (producer)

Specifies the expected number of message exchanges that should be received by this endpoint. Beware: If you want to expect that 0 messages, then take extra care, as 0 matches when the tests starts, so you need to set a assert period time to let the test run for a while to make sure there are still no messages arrived; for that use setAssertPeriod(long). An alternative is to use NotifyBuilder, and use the notifier to know when Camel is done routing some messages, before you call the assertIsSatisfied() method on the mocks. This allows you to not use a fixed assert period, to speedup testing times. If you want to assert that exactly n’th message arrives to this mock endpoint, then see also the setAssertPeriod(long) method for further details.

-1

int

failFast (producer)

Sets whether assertIsSatisfied() should fail fast at the first detected failed expectation while it may otherwise wait for all expected messages to arrive before performing expectations verifications. Is by default true. Set to false to use behavior as in Camel 2.x.

false

boolean

lazyStartProducer (producer)

Whether the producer should be started lazy (on the first message). By starting lazy you can use this to allow CamelContext and routes to startup in situations where a producer may otherwise fail during starting and cause the route to fail being started. By deferring this startup to be lazy then the startup failure can be handled during routing messages via Camel’s routing error handlers. Beware that when the first message is processed then creating and starting the producer may take a little time and prolong the total processing time of the processing.

false

boolean

reportGroup (producer)

A number that is used to turn on throughput logging based on groups of the size.

int

resultMinimumWaitTime (producer)

Sets the minimum expected amount of time (in millis) the assertIsSatisfied() will wait on a latch until it is satisfied

0

long

resultWaitTime (producer)

Sets the maximum amount of time (in millis) the assertIsSatisfied() will wait on a latch until it is satisfied

0

long

retainFirst (producer)

Specifies to only retain the first n’th number of received Exchanges. This is used when testing with big data, to reduce memory consumption by not storing copies of every Exchange this mock endpoint receives. Important: When using this limitation, then the getReceivedCounter() will still return the actual number of received Exchanges. For example if we have received 5000 Exchanges, and have configured to only retain the first 10 Exchanges, then the getReceivedCounter() will still return 5000 but there is only the first 10 Exchanges in the getExchanges() and getReceivedExchanges() methods. When using this method, then some of the other expectation methods is not supported, for example the expectedBodiesReceived(Object…​) sets a expectation on the first number of bodies received. You can configure both setRetainFirst(int) and setRetainLast(int) methods, to limit both the first and last received.

-1

int

retainLast (producer)

Specifies to only retain the last n’th number of received Exchanges. This is used when testing with big data, to reduce memory consumption by not storing copies of every Exchange this mock endpoint receives. Important: When using this limitation, then the getReceivedCounter() will still return the actual number of received Exchanges. For example if we have received 5000 Exchanges, and have configured to only retain the last 20 Exchanges, then the getReceivedCounter() will still return 5000 but there is only the last 20 Exchanges in the getExchanges() and getReceivedExchanges() methods. When using this method, then some of the other expectation methods is not supported, for example the expectedBodiesReceived(Object…​) sets a expectation on the first number of bodies received. You can configure both setRetainFirst(int) and setRetainLast(int) methods, to limit both the first and last received.

-1

int

sleepForEmptyTest (producer)

Allows a sleep to be specified to wait to check that this endpoint really is empty when expectedMessageCount(int) is called with zero

0

long

copyOnExchange (producer)

Sets whether to make a deep copy of the incoming Exchange when received at this mock endpoint. Is by default true.

true

boolean

basicPropertyBinding (advanced)

Whether the endpoint should use basic property binding (Camel 2.x) or the newer property binding with additional capabilities

false

boolean

synchronous (advanced)

Sets whether synchronous processing should be strictly used, or Camel is allowed to use asynchronous processing (if supported).

false

boolean

Simple Example

Here’s a simple example of Mock endpoint in use. First, the endpoint is resolved on the context. Then we set an expectation, and then, after the test has run, we assert that our expectations have been met:

MockEndpoint resultEndpoint = context.getEndpoint("mock:foo", MockEndpoint.class);

// set expectations
resultEndpoint.expectedMessageCount(2);

// send some messages

// now lets assert that the mock:foo endpoint received 2 messages
resultEndpoint.assertIsSatisfied();

You typically always call the assertIsSatisfied() method to test that the expectations were met after running a test.

Camel will by default wait 10 seconds when the assertIsSatisfied() is invoked. This can be configured by setting the setResultWaitTime(millis) method.

Using assertPeriod

When the assertion is satisfied then Camel will stop waiting and continue from the assertIsSatisfied method. That means if a new message arrives on the mock endpoint, just a bit later, that arrival will not affect the outcome of the assertion. Suppose you do want to test that no new messages arrives after a period thereafter, then you can do that by setting the setAssertPeriod method, for example:

MockEndpoint resultEndpoint = context.getEndpoint("mock:foo", MockEndpoint.class);
resultEndpoint.setAssertPeriod(5000);
resultEndpoint.expectedMessageCount(2);

// send some messages

// now lets assert that the mock:foo endpoint received 2 messages
resultEndpoint.assertIsSatisfied();

Setting expectations

You can see from the Javadoc of MockEndpoint the various helper methods you can use to set expectations. The main methods are as follows:

Method Description

expectedMessageCount(int)

To define the expected message count on the endpoint.

expectedMinimumMessageCount(int)

To define the minimum number of expected messages on the endpoint.

expectedBodiesReceived(…​)

To define the expected bodies that should be received (in order).

expectedHeaderReceived(…​)

To define the expected header that should be received

expectsAscending(Expression)

To add an expectation that messages are received in order, using the given Expression to compare messages.

expectsDescending(Expression)

To add an expectation that messages are received in order, using the given Expression to compare messages.

expectsNoDuplicates(Expression)

To add an expectation that no duplicate messages are received; using an Expression to calculate a unique identifier for each message. This could be something like the JMSMessageID if using JMS, or some unique reference number within the message.

Here’s another example:

resultEndpoint.expectedBodiesReceived("firstMessageBody", "secondMessageBody", "thirdMessageBody");

Adding expectations to specific messages

In addition, you can use the message(int messageIndex) method to add assertions about a specific message that is received.

For example, to add expectations of the headers or body of the first message (using zero-based indexing like java.util.List), you can use the following code:

resultEndpoint.message(0).header("foo").isEqualTo("bar");

There are some examples of the Mock endpoint in use in the camel-core processor tests.

Mocking existing endpoints

Camel now allows you to automatically mock existing endpoints in your Camel routes.

How it works The endpoints are still in action. What happens differently is that a Mock endpoint is injected and receives the message first and then delegates the message to the target endpoint. You can view this as a kind of intercept and delegate or endpoint listener.

Suppose you have the given route below:

Route
    @Override
    protected RouteBuilder createRouteBuilder() throws Exception {
        return new RouteBuilder() {
            @Override
            public void configure() throws Exception {
                from("direct:start").to("direct:foo").to("log:foo").to("mock:result");

                from("direct:foo").transform(constant("Bye World"));
            }
        };
    }

You can then use the adviceWith feature in Camel to mock all the endpoints in a given route from your unit test, as shown below:

adviceWith mocking all endpoints
    @Test
    public void testAdvisedMockEndpoints() throws Exception {
        // advice the first route using the inlined AdviceWith route builder
        // which has extended capabilities than the regular route builder
        RouteReifier.adviceWith(context.getRouteDefinitions().get(0), context, new AdviceWithRouteBuilder() {
            @Override
            public void configure() throws Exception {
                // mock all endpoints
                mockEndpoints();
            }
        });

        getMockEndpoint("mock:direct:start").expectedBodiesReceived("Hello World");
        getMockEndpoint("mock:direct:foo").expectedBodiesReceived("Hello World");
        getMockEndpoint("mock:log:foo").expectedBodiesReceived("Bye World");
        getMockEndpoint("mock:result").expectedBodiesReceived("Bye World");

        template.sendBody("direct:start", "Hello World");

        assertMockEndpointsSatisfied();

        // additional test to ensure correct endpoints in registry
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("direct:start"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("direct:foo"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("log:foo"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("mock:result"));
        // all the endpoints was mocked
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("mock:direct:start"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("mock:direct:foo"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("mock:log:foo"));
    }

Notice that the mock endpoints is given the URI mock:<endpoint>, for example mock:direct:foo. Camel logs at INFO level the endpoints being mocked:

INFO  Adviced endpoint [direct://foo] with mock endpoint [mock:direct:foo]
Mocked endpoints are without parameters
Endpoints which are mocked will have their parameters stripped off. For example the endpoint log:foo?showAll=true will be mocked to the following endpoint mock:log:foo. Notice the parameters have been removed.

Its also possible to only mock certain endpoints using a pattern. For example to mock all log endpoints you do as shown:

adviceWith mocking only log endpoints using a pattern
    @Test
    public void testAdvisedMockEndpointsWithPattern() throws Exception {
        // advice the first route using the inlined AdviceWith route builder
        // which has extended capabilities than the regular route builder
        RouteReifier.adviceWith(context.getRouteDefinitions().get(0), context, new AdviceWithRouteBuilder() {
            @Override
            public void configure() throws Exception {
                // mock only log endpoints
                mockEndpoints("log*");
            }
        });

        // now we can refer to log:foo as a mock and set our expectations
        getMockEndpoint("mock:log:foo").expectedBodiesReceived("Bye World");

        getMockEndpoint("mock:result").expectedBodiesReceived("Bye World");

        template.sendBody("direct:start", "Hello World");

        assertMockEndpointsSatisfied();

        // additional test to ensure correct endpoints in registry
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("direct:start"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("direct:foo"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("log:foo"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("mock:result"));
        // only the log:foo endpoint was mocked
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("mock:log:foo"));
        assertNull(context.hasEndpoint("mock:direct:start"));
        assertNull(context.hasEndpoint("mock:direct:foo"));
    }

The pattern supported can be a wildcard or a regular expression. See more details about this at Intercept as its the same matching function used by Camel.

Mind that mocking endpoints causes the messages to be copied when they arrive on the mock.
That means Camel will use more memory. This may not be suitable when you send in a lot of messages.

Mocking existing endpoints using the camel-test component

Instead of using the adviceWith to instruct Camel to mock endpoints, you can easily enable this behavior when using the camel-test Test Kit.

The same route can be tested as follows. Notice that we return "*" from the isMockEndpoints method, which tells Camel to mock all endpoints.

If you only want to mock all log endpoints you can return "log*" instead.

isMockEndpoints using camel-test kit
public class IsMockEndpointsJUnit4Test extends CamelTestSupport {

    @Override
    public String isMockEndpoints() {
        // override this method and return the pattern for which endpoints to mock.
        // use * to indicate all
        return "*";
    }

    @Test
    public void testMockAllEndpoints() throws Exception {
        // notice we have automatic mocked all endpoints and the name of the endpoints is "mock:uri"
        getMockEndpoint("mock:direct:start").expectedBodiesReceived("Hello World");
        getMockEndpoint("mock:direct:foo").expectedBodiesReceived("Hello World");
        getMockEndpoint("mock:log:foo").expectedBodiesReceived("Bye World");
        getMockEndpoint("mock:result").expectedBodiesReceived("Bye World");

        template.sendBody("direct:start", "Hello World");

        assertMockEndpointsSatisfied();

        // additional test to ensure correct endpoints in registry
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("direct:start"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("direct:foo"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("log:foo"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("mock:result"));
        // all the endpoints was mocked
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("mock:direct:start"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("mock:direct:foo"));
        assertNotNull(context.hasEndpoint("mock:log:foo"));
    }

    @Override
    protected RouteBuilder createRouteBuilder() throws Exception {
        return new RouteBuilder() {
            @Override
            public void configure() throws Exception {
                from("direct:start").to("direct:foo").to("log:foo").to("mock:result");

                from("direct:foo").transform(constant("Bye World"));
            }
        };
    }
}

Mocking existing endpoints with XML DSL

If you do not use the camel-test component for unit testing (as shown above) you can use a different approach when using XML files for routes.
The solution is to create a new XML file used by the unit test and then include the intended XML file which has the route you want to test.

Suppose we have the route in the camel-route.xml file:

camel-route.xml
    <!-- this camel route is in the camel-route.xml file -->
    <camelContext xmlns="http://camel.apache.org/schema/spring">

        <route>
            <from uri="direct:start"/>
            <to uri="direct:foo"/>
            <to uri="log:foo"/>
            <to uri="mock:result"/>
        </route>

        <route>
            <from uri="direct:foo"/>
            <transform>
                <constant>Bye World</constant>
            </transform>
        </route>

    </camelContext>

Then we create a new XML file as follows, where we include the camel-route.xml file and define a spring bean with the class org.apache.camel.impl.InterceptSendToMockEndpointStrategy which tells Camel to mock all endpoints:

test-camel-route.xml
    <!-- the Camel route is defined in another XML file -->
    <import resource="camel-route.xml"/>

    <!-- bean which enables mocking all endpoints -->
    <bean id="mockAllEndpoints" class="org.apache.camel.impl.engine.InterceptSendToMockEndpointStrategy"/>

Then in your unit test you load the new XML file (test-camel-route.xml) instead of camel-route.xml.

To only mock all Log endpoints you can define the pattern in the constructor for the bean:

<bean id="mockAllEndpoints" class="org.apache.camel.impl.InterceptSendToMockEndpointStrategy">
    <constructor-arg index="0" value="log*"/>
</bean>

Mocking endpoints and skip sending to original endpoint

Sometimes you want to easily mock and skip sending to a certain endpoints. So the message is detoured and send to the mock endpoint only. You can now use the mockEndpointsAndSkip method using AdviceWith. The example below will skip sending to the two endpoints "direct:foo", and "direct:bar".

adviceWith mock and skip sending to endpoints
    @Test
    public void testAdvisedMockEndpointsWithSkip() throws Exception {
        // advice the first route using the inlined AdviceWith route builder
        // which has extended capabilities than the regular route builder
        RouteReifier.adviceWith(context.getRouteDefinitions().get(0), context, new AdviceWithRouteBuilder() {
            @Override
            public void configure() throws Exception {
                // mock sending to direct:foo and direct:bar and skip send to it
                mockEndpointsAndSkip("direct:foo", "direct:bar");
            }
        });

        getMockEndpoint("mock:result").expectedBodiesReceived("Hello World");
        getMockEndpoint("mock:direct:foo").expectedMessageCount(1);
        getMockEndpoint("mock:direct:bar").expectedMessageCount(1);

        template.sendBody("direct:start", "Hello World");

        assertMockEndpointsSatisfied();

        // the message was not send to the direct:foo route and thus not sent to
        // the seda endpoint
        SedaEndpoint seda = context.getEndpoint("seda:foo", SedaEndpoint.class);
        assertEquals(0, seda.getCurrentQueueSize());
    }

The same example using the Test Kit

isMockEndpointsAndSkip using camel-test kit
public class IsMockEndpointsAndSkipJUnit4Test extends CamelTestSupport {

    @Override
    public String isMockEndpointsAndSkip() {
        // override this method and return the pattern for which endpoints to mock,
        // and skip sending to the original endpoint.
        return "direct:foo";
    }

    @Test
    public void testMockEndpointAndSkip() throws Exception {
        // notice we have automatic mocked the direct:foo endpoints and the name of the endpoints is "mock:uri"
        getMockEndpoint("mock:result").expectedBodiesReceived("Hello World");
        getMockEndpoint("mock:direct:foo").expectedMessageCount(1);

        template.sendBody("direct:start", "Hello World");

        assertMockEndpointsSatisfied();

        // the message was not send to the direct:foo route and thus not sent to the seda endpoint
        SedaEndpoint seda = context.getEndpoint("seda:foo", SedaEndpoint.class);
        assertEquals(0, seda.getCurrentQueueSize());
    }

    @Override
    protected RouteBuilder createRouteBuilder() throws Exception {
        return new RouteBuilder() {
            @Override
            public void configure() throws Exception {
                from("direct:start").to("direct:foo").to("mock:result");

                from("direct:foo").transform(constant("Bye World")).to("seda:foo");
            }
        };
    }
}

Limiting the number of messages to keep

The Mock endpoints will by default keep a copy of every Exchange that it received. So if you test with a lot of messages, then it will consume memory.
We have introduced two options retainFirst and retainLast that can be used to specify to only keep N’th of the first and/or last Exchanges.

For example in the code below, we only want to retain a copy of the first 5 and last 5 Exchanges the mock receives.

  MockEndpoint mock = getMockEndpoint("mock:data");
  mock.setRetainFirst(5);
  mock.setRetainLast(5);
  mock.expectedMessageCount(2000);

  mock.assertIsSatisfied();

Using this has some limitations. The getExchanges() and getReceivedExchanges() methods on the MockEndpoint will return only the retained copies of the Exchanges. So in the example above, the list will contain 10 Exchanges; the first five, and the last five.
The retainFirst and retainLast options also have limitations on which expectation methods you can use. For example the expectedXXX methods that work on message bodies, headers, etc. will only operate on the retained messages. In the example above they can test only the expectations on the 10 retained messages.

Testing with arrival times

The Mock endpoint stores the arrival time of the message as a property on the Exchange.

Date time = exchange.getProperty(Exchange.RECEIVED_TIMESTAMP, Date.class);

You can use this information to know when the message arrived on the mock. But it also provides foundation to know the time interval between the previous and next message arrived on the mock. You can use this to set expectations using the arrives DSL on the Mock endpoint.

For example to say that the first message should arrive between 0-2 seconds before the next you can do:

mock.message(0).arrives().noLaterThan(2).seconds().beforeNext();

You can also define this as that 2nd message (0 index based) should arrive no later than 0-2 seconds after the previous:

mock.message(1).arrives().noLaterThan(2).seconds().afterPrevious();

You can also use between to set a lower bound. For example suppose that it should be between 1-4 seconds:

mock.message(1).arrives().between(1, 4).seconds().afterPrevious();

You can also set the expectation on all messages, for example to say that the gap between them should be at most 1 second:

mock.allMessages().arrives().noLaterThan(1).seconds().beforeNext();

Time units

In the example above we use seconds as the time unit, but Camel offers milliseconds, and minutes as well.

Spring Boot Auto-Configuration

When using mock with Spring Boot make sure to use the following Maven dependency to have support for auto configuration:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.camel.springboot</groupId>
  <artifactId>camel-mock-starter</artifactId>
  <version>x.x.x</version>
  <!-- use the same version as your Camel core version -->
</dependency>

The component supports 3 options, which are listed below.

Name Description Default Type

camel.component.mock.autowired-enabled

Whether autowiring is enabled. This is used for automatic autowiring options (the option must be marked as autowired) by looking up in the registry to find if there is a single instance of matching type, which then gets configured on the component. This can be used for automatic configuring JDBC data sources, JMS connection factories, AWS Clients, etc.

true

Boolean

camel.component.mock.enabled

Whether to enable auto configuration of the mock component. This is enabled by default.

Boolean

camel.component.mock.lazy-start-producer

Whether the producer should be started lazy (on the first message). By starting lazy you can use this to allow CamelContext and routes to startup in situations where a producer may otherwise fail during starting and cause the route to fail being started. By deferring this startup to be lazy then the startup failure can be handled during routing messages via Camel’s routing error handlers. Beware that when the first message is processed then creating and starting the producer may take a little time and prolong the total processing time of the processing.

false

Boolean
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