Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.4 is a versatile toolkit for enterprise integration that simplifies and standardizes how applications connect diverse systems. This release provides support for new tools, components and environments as well as new resources focusing on modernizing enterprise integration applications. In this article, you'll learn about some highlights of this recent release.
Apache Camel enhancements
Red Hat refined and added support for the following components:
- Jasypt security, JSONPath, JT400, Kudu (Hadoop), Splunk and Splunk HEC (HTTP Event collector), Olingo4 (OData v4 alternative to SAP component), SMB to receive files from SMB (Server Message Block) shares., Flink
- BeanIO for flat file (e.g. CSV) mapping
- XJ - Convert between XML and JSON without intermediate objects
- Saga EIP with LRA - Long running activity Saga binding
- CXF (SOAP WS) OpenTelemetry tracing integration
- Groovy expressions in message filters and other predicates
- CICS (IBM Z CICS Transaction gateway) with connection pooling, and 2 types of connectivity - Commarea and Channel
- setHeaders EIP to make it easier and less verbose to set multiple headers from the same EIP.
- convertHeaderTo EIP to make it easy to convert header value to a specific type.
Several improvements were also made to already supported components such as:
- Kafka batch consumer - consume and handle a set of Kafka consumer records as one Camel Exchange
- camel-platform-http-vertx now supports streaming big HTTP payloads directly if useStreaming=true
- camel-opentelemetry provides OpenTelemetryTracingStrategy that allows fine-grained tracing of every step a message is routed by Camel
- camel-aws-s3 producer can now upload big payloads without reading stream into memory
- Throttle EIP now has 2 different modes of throttling - TotalRequests and ConcurrentRequests (instead of Sliding Window).
The team made great progress in completely rewriting the ElasticSearch component, camel-elasticsearch-rest-client, which is available in tech-preview state and is currently being thoroughly tested, targeting the next Q4 product release.
For ease, Simple language now provides new inline functions for JQ, JsonPath and XPath expressions.
${jq(.customer.name)}
${jsonpath($.customer.name)}
${xpath(/order/@id)}Apache Camel 4.4 introduces a new feature called "Variables" that enhances data management across different scopes within Camel routes. Variables are key/value pairs that can be defined at various levels—locally per Exchange, per route, or globally across the entire CamelContext. This flexibility allows for more organized and accessible data handling, where variables can be set, modified, and accessed much like variables in programming, but specifically tailored to the integration workflows in Camel. The introduction of variables aims to streamline the process of handling data within Camel routes, reducing the need to use headers and message bodies for passing data, which can help maintain cleaner and more maintainable route definitions.
For the full list of supported components check the reference guides in the product documentation.
Kaoto visual designer GA
For those seeking a more intuitive no-code/low-code approach to designing integration routes, Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.4 now supports the Kaoto visual designer in VS Code and OpenShift Dev Spaces. To install and get started with Kaoto, follow the product documentation.
HawtIO diagnostic console GA
HawtIO is a diagnostic console which can be used for troubleshooting, managing and debugging Camel routes. For a deeper understanding of Hawtio and its functionalities, refer to the product documentation.
Migrations from Red Hat Fuse to Red Hat build of Apache Camel
Red Hat published additional resources describing migration path from Red Hat Fuse to Red Hat build of Apache Camel. It also lists the Fuse to Camel solution pattern introduced in this article.
For users who need assistance with the Fuse to Red Hat build of Apache Camel migration, Red Hat offers professional services that can help you every step of the way. Please contact your Red Hat Sales representative in order to discuss the Fuse-to-Camel offering.
Camel CLI
With the introduction of the HawtIO diagnostic console, Camel CLI now supports Jolokia 2.x with HawtIO 4.
Since the last Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.0, Camel CLI now enables debugging camel routes using the ’debug’ command.
Camel CLI also becomes a powerful tool for migration and transformation of integration routes from older XML configurations to the latest Camel formats. The ‘transform route’ command is particularly useful for converting from traditional Spring XML or OSGi blueprint XML files, commonly found in Fuse projects, into newer DSL formats like YAML or XML IO. The command streamlines the transformation process, taking as input the old XML file paths and outputting them in the desired format, thus facilitating easier upgrades and integration with modern Camel environments.
Newly certified and supported environments
JDK 21 Support: In the Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.4, Java 21 is now the recommended version with continued support of Java 17 as well.
Updated runtimes: Quarkus 3.8 and Spring Boot 3.2
- Added support for plain quarkus-cxf extension
- Added support for Spring beans using @Primary for auto-wiring
Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.4 is now certified and supported on OpenShift ppc64Ie (IBM Power) and s390x (IBM Z) architectures.
Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.4 for Quarkus 3.8 (JVM-only) is now supported on aarch64 architecture.
Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.4 for Spring Boot 3.2 is now supported on Red Hat Device Edge - Microshift 4.15
Easily build Camel Spring Boot applications in air-gapped (offline) environments using a new offline Maven builder.
Learn more about the newly supported configurations here.
New content
This release includes several new examples and quickstarts such as HTTP SSL, AMQP with connection pooling, HawtIO examples and Kaoto examples.
The product documentation was extended by a new Transaction Guide, instructions for Setting up Maven locally and XML IO DSL guide.
Edge to Core data pipelines solution
The published article presents a video demonstration illustrating an opinionated solution capable of automating a continuous cycle for releasing and deploying new AI/ML models.
Next step
- Try Camel in Developer Sandbox
- Watch on-demand webinar Optimizing Enterprise Integration Strategies in a World of the Hybrid Cloud
Resources
- What’s new in Apache Camel 4.4 (community)
- What’s new in Apache Camel 4.3 (community)
- What’s new in Apache Camel 4.2 (community)
- What’s new in Apache Camel 4.1 (community)
