Available as of Camel 2.8

The ahc: component provides HTTP based endpoints for consuming external HTTP resources (as a client to call external servers using HTTP). The component uses the Async Http Client library.

Maven users will need to add the following dependency to their pom.xml for this component:

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

ahc:http://hostname[:port][/resourceUri][?options]
ahc:https://hostname[:port][/resourceUri][?options]

Will by default use port 80 for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS.

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

Notice that setting any of the options on the AhcComponent will propagate those options to AhcEndpoints being created. However the AhcEndpoint can also configure/override a custom option. Options set on endpoints will always take precedence over options from the AhcComponent.

Camel will store the HTTP response from the external server on the OUT body. All headers from the IN message will be copied to the OUT message, so headers are preserved during routing. Additionally Camel will add the HTTP response headers as well to the OUT message headers.

Camel will handle according to the HTTP response code:

This exception contains the following information:

The following algorithm is used to determine if either GET or POST HTTP method should be used: 1. Use method provided in header. 2. GET if query string is provided in header. 3. GET if endpoint is configured with a query string. 4. POST if there is data to send (body is not null). 5. GET otherwise.

You can set the HTTP producer's URI directly form the endpoint URI. In the route below, Camel will call out to the external server, oldhost, using HTTP.

from("direct:start")
	    .to("ahc:http://oldhost");

And the equivalent Spring sample:

<camelContext xmlns="http://activemq.apache.org/camel/schema/spring">
  <route>
    <from uri="direct:start"/>
    <to uri="ahc:http://oldhost"/>
  </route>
</camelContext>

You can override the HTTP endpoint URI by adding a header with the key, Exchange.HTTP_URI, on the message.

from("direct:start")
    .setHeader(Exchange.HTTP_URI, constant("http://newhost"))
    .to("ahc:http://oldhost");

The ahc producer supports URI parameters to be sent to the HTTP server. The URI parameters can either be set directly on the endpoint URI or as a header with the key Exchange.HTTP_QUERY on the message.

from("direct:start")
	    .to("ahc:http://oldhost?order=123&detail=short");

Or options provided in a header:

from("direct:start")
            .setHeader(Exchange.HTTP_QUERY, constant("order=123&detail=short"))
	    .to("ahc:http://oldhost");

The HTTP component provides a way to set the HTTP request method by setting the message header. Here is an example;

from("direct:start")
            .setHeader(Exchange.HTTP_METHOD, constant("POST"))
	    .to("ahc:http://www.google.com")
            .to("mock:results");

And the equivalent Spring sample:

<camelContext xmlns="http://activemq.apache.org/camel/schema/spring">
  <route>
    <from uri="direct:start"/>
    <setHeader headerName="CamelHttpMethod">
        <constant>POST</constant>
    </setHeader>
    <to uri="ahc:http://www.google.com"/>
    <to uri="mock:results"/>
  </route>
</camelContext>

If you are using POST to send data you can configure the charset using the Exchange property:

exchange.setProperty(Exchange.CHARSET_NAME, "iso-8859-1");

In this sample we have the complete URI endpoint that is just what you would have typed in a web browser. Multiple URI parameters can of course be set using the & character as separator, just as you would in the web browser. Camel does no tricks here.

// we query for Camel at the Google page
template.sendBody("ahc:http://www.google.com/search?q=Camel", null);

Map headers = new HashMap();
headers.put(Exchange.HTTP_QUERY, "q=Camel&lr=lang_en");
// we query for Camel and English language at Google
template.sendBody("ahc:http://www.google.com/search", null, headers);

In the header value above notice that it should not be prefixed with ? and you can separate parameters as usual with the & char.

You can get the HTTP response code from the AHC component by getting the value from the Out message header with Exchange.HTTP_RESPONSE_CODE.

Exchange exchange = template.send("ahc:http://www.google.com/search", new Processor() {
            public void process(Exchange exchange) throws Exception {
                exchange.getIn().setHeader(Exchange.HTTP_QUERY, constant("hl=en&q=activemq"));
            }
   });
   Message out = exchange.getOut();
   int responseCode = out.getHeader(Exchange.HTTP_RESPONSE_CODE, Integer.class);

The AsyncHttpClient client uses a AsyncHttpClientConfig to configure the client. See the documentation at Async Http Client for more details.

The example below shows how to use a builder to create the AsyncHttpClientConfig which we configure on the AhcComponent.

// create a client config builder
AsyncHttpClientConfig.Builder builder = new AsyncHttpClientConfig.Builder();
// use the builder to set the options we want, in this case we want to follow redirects and try
// at most 3 retries to send a request to the host
AsyncHttpClientConfig config = builder.setFollowRedirects(true).setMaxRequestRetry(3).build();

// lookup AhcComponent
AhcComponent component = context.getComponent("ahc", AhcComponent.class);
// and set our custom client config to be used
component.setClientConfig(config);

The AsyncHttpClientConfig doesn't support getters/setters so its not easy to create/configure using a Spring bean style (eg the <bean> tag in the XML file).

As of Camel 2.9, the AHC component supports SSL/TLS configuration through the Camel JSSE Configuration Utility.  This utility greatly decreases the amount of component specific code you need to write and is configurable at the endpoint and component levels. The following examples demonstrate how to use the utility with the AHC component.

KeyStoreParameters ksp = new KeyStoreParameters();
ksp.setResource("/users/home/server/keystore.jks");
ksp.setPassword("keystorePassword");

KeyManagersParameters kmp = new KeyManagersParameters();
kmp.setKeyStore(ksp);
kmp.setKeyPassword("keyPassword");

SSLContextParameters scp = new SSLContextParameters();
scp.setKeyManagers(kmp);

AhcComponent component = context.getComponent("ahc", AhcComponent.class);
component.setSslContextParameters(scp));

...
  <camel:sslContextParameters
      id="sslContextParameters">
    <camel:keyManagers
        keyPassword="keyPassword">
      <camel:keyStore
          resource="/users/home/server/keystore.jks"
          password="keystorePassword"/>
    </camel:keyManagers>
  </camel:sslContextParameters>...
...
  <to uri="ahc:https://localhost/foo?sslContextParameters=#sslContextParameters"/>
...