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Mule 3:Simplifying SOA

By John D’Emic

ABOUT MULE

Mule is the world’s most widely used open-source integration platform and Enterprise Services Bus (ESB). Mule is designed to support high-performance, multi-protocol transactions between heterogeneous systems and services. It provides the basis for service-oriented architecture. It is lightweight and can run standalone or embedded directly in your application.

This Refcard covers the use of Mule 3. If you are a new user, it will serve as a handy reference when building your integration flows in Mule. If you are an existing user, especially of Mule 2, it will help ease your transition into using Mule 3.

MULE XML

The programming model for Mule is XML using namespaces that provide a DSL authoring environment to orchestrate your integration applications. The diagram below demonstrates the structure of a typical Mule configuration.

<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”UTF-8”?>
<mule xmlns=”http://www.mulesoft.org/schema/mule/core”
	xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance”
	xmlns:vm=”http://www.mulesoft.org/schema/mule/vm”
	xmlns:jms=”http://www.mulesoft/org/schema/mule/jms”
	xmlns:file=”http://www.mulesoft.org/schema/mule/file”
	xsi:schemaLocation=”
		http://www.mulesoft.org/schema/mule/core
		http://www.mulesoft.org/schema/mule/core/3.1/mule.xsd
		http://www.mulesoft.org/schema/mule/vm
		http://www.mulesoft.org/schema/mule/vm/3.1/mule-vm.xsd
		http://www.mulesoft.org/schema/mule/jms
		http://www.mulesoft.org/schema/mule/jms/3.1/mule-jms.xsd
		http://www.mulesoft.org/schema/mule/file
		http://www.mulesoft.org/schema/mule/file/3.1/mule-file.xsd
		“>
		
<description>Demonstrate Mule Configuration Elements</description>

<jms:connector name=”jmsConnector”
			connectionFactory-ref=”connectionFactory”
			username=”guest”
			password=”guest”/>

<file:connector name=”fileConnector” streaming=”true”/>

<flow name=”Route messages dynamically using a message property”>
  <vm:inbound-endpoint path=”input”/>
  <vm:outbound-endpoint path=”#[header:INBOUND:destination-queue]”/>
</flow>

<simple-service name=”random-number-service”
			address=”http://localhost:8080/rest”
			component-class=”com.mulesoft.refcard.
RandomNumberResource”
			type=”jax-rs”/>
</mule>

Mule XML consists of the following:

• An opening mule element containing the namespaces used in the configuration.
• A description of the purpose of the configuration.
• Connector definitions.
• Global configuration elements like endpoints, transformers and notification listeners.
• Flows, patterns and services.

Flows

Flows, new to Mule 3, provide a free-form method of orchestrating message processing in Mule. A flow consists of a message source, typically an inbound-endpoint, followed by a sequence of message processors.

Message Processor

Message Processors are used in flows to route, transform, filter and perform business logic on messages. MessageProcessor is a single method interface implemented by almost everything in a Flow.

Exception Strategy

An exception strategy can be added to the end of the flow to route errors that occur during the flow’s execution.

Sending a JMS Message with a Flow

Sending a JMS message is easy with a flow. Here’s how you can use a flow to read files from a directory and send their payload to a JMS queue.

<flow name=”File to JMS Message”>
	<file:inbound-endpoint path=”data/files”>
		<byte-array-to-string-transformer/>
	</file:inbound-endpoint>
	<jms:outbound-endpoint queue=”output”/>
</flow>

The file:inbound-endpoint will read files from the given path, transforming their contents into Strings. The content is then passed as JMS TextMessages to the “output” queue.

Using Patterns

Mule Configuration Patterns, extending the Enterprise Integration Patterns, encapsulate common integration paradigms in a compact configuration format.

Creating a RESTful Web Service

A RESTful web service can be quickly created using the simpleservice pattern.

<simple-service name=”random-number-service”
		address=”http://localhost:8080/rest”
		componentclass=”org.refcard.RandomNumberResource”
		type=”jax-rs”/>

In this case, we are using the simple-service pattern to expose a JAX-RS resource that returns a random number from an HTTP GET request.

MESSAGES

Messages encapsulate data entering and leaving Mule. The content of a message is called its payload. The payload is typically a Serializable Java class, an InputStream or an array of bytes.

Attachments

A message can have zero or more mime attachments in addition to the payload. These can be used to associate files, documents and images with the message.

Properties

Properties, also called headers, are metadata associated with a message. Mule, the various transports and you the developer can add properties to a message. Examples of message properties are JMS message headers, HTTP response headers or Mule-specific headers like MULE_MESSAGE_ID. The following table contains examples of message properties set by Mule.

Scopes

Properties are scoped differently depending on when they’re set or accessed during message processing. The following table contains the available scopes.

CONNECTIVITY

Mule connects to over 100 applications, protocols and APIs. Mule endpoints enable connectivity to protocols such as JMS, HTTP and JDBC. Cloud Connectors enable connectivity to applications and social media like SalesForce and Twitter.

Endpoints

Messages can be received with an inbound endpoint and sent with an outbound endpoint. Inbound and outbound endpoints are configured using the XML namespace prefix of the transport.

Connectors

A connector is used to configure connection properties for an endpoint. Most endpoints don’t require a connector. However, some (like JDBC or JMS) do require connector configuration, as we’ll see below.

Configuring an SMTP connector

The following example illustrates how an SMTP connector is configured.

<smtp:connector name=”smtpConnector”
	fromAddress=”user@foo.com”
	bccAddresses=”admins@foo.com”
	subject=”A Message from Mule” />

The SMTP connector allows you to specify properties that will be shared across SMTP endpoints. In this case, the connector sets the “from” and “bcc” addresses as well as the subject of the messages. A connector is referenced by its name, allowing you to define multiple connectors for the same transport.

Endpoints can be generically referenced using an endpoint URI as well as having specific XML configuration elements.

The following table describes some common endpoints supplied by Mule.

The full list of transports is available in the Mule documentation.

Cloud Connectors

Cloud connectors enable easy access to SaaS, social media and infrastructure services such as Amazon WS and Facebook.

These connectors can be used anywhere in a flow to invoke a remote service. A cloud connector usually has a ‘config’ element where service credentials are set and then one or more elements that invoke service methods. The following demonstrates how the Twitter cloud connector can be used to post a tweet:

curl –-data “status=go mule!” http://localhost
<twitter:config name=”twitter” format=”JSON”
	consumerKey=”${twitter.consumer.key}”
	consumerSecret=”${twitter.consumer.secret}”
	oauthToken=”${twitter.access.token}”
	oauthTokenSecret=”${twitter.access.secret}” />

<flow name=”updateStatusFlow”>
	<http:inbound-endpoint host=”localhost” port=”80”/>
	<twitter:update-status
		status=”#[header:INBOUND:status]”/>

</flow>

We can now post a tweet to the inbound-endpoint with curl:

curl –-data “status=go mule!” http://localhost

Polling

Mule has a poll tag that allows data from a remote service to be received periodically. To get updates from a Twitter timeline:

<flow name=”getStatusFlow”>
	<poll>
		<twitter:public-timeline />
	</poll>
</flow>

MODULES

Modules extend Mule’s functionality by providing namespace support for a certain set of message processors. The following table contains some of the modules provided by Mule.

The full list of available modules is available in the official Mule documentation. Additional modules are available on MuleForge.

Bridging REST to SOAP

The following demonstrates how the CXF module can be used to bridge a RESTful service to a SOAP service.

The inbound-endpoint accepts HTTP POST requests to http://localhost:8080/service. The POST data is then sent to the SOAP service defined by the CXF jaxws-client.

Routers

Routers implement the Enterprise Integration patterns (EIP) and determine how messages are directed in a flow.

The following table contains commonly used routers

Transformers

Transformers modify the message and pass it to the next message in the chain.

The following table contains commonly used transformers.

Components

Components allow business logic to be executed in a flow. Any Java object or script can be used as a component. Components are configured by either identifying the class or providing a reference to a Spring bean for dependency injection.

The following snippet shows how a class called MyService can be configured as a component using a class and via dependencyinjection via Spring.

<bean class=”com.acmesoft.service.MyService”/>

<flow name=”test”>
	<http:inbound-endpoint host=”foo.com”>
	<component>
		<spring-object bean=”myService”/>
	</component>
</flow>

Mule will use the type of the payload of the message being processed to determine what method to invoke. It’s often necessary, however, to explicitly specify the method to invoke. Entry point resolvers are used for this purpose. The following table contains a list of available resolvers.

The use of entry point resolvers allows you to use POJO’s as components, decoupling your code from Mule. Sometimes, you will want access to the MuleMessage or MuleContext when processing a message. In cases like this, you can implement the org.mule.api.lifecycle.Callable interface. Callable includes a single method, onCall, to implement that provides direct access to the MuleMessage when the method is invoked.

In addition to custom components, Mule provides the following utility components.

Filters

Filters selectively pass messages to the next processor in the chain.
The following table contains commonly used filters.

Using Filters with XPath

The following example demonstrates how the xpath-filter can be used to only pass certain XML documents. In this case, only order XML documents containing a certain ZIP code are allowed to pass.

<flow name=”Filter messages using the XPath filter”>
		<vm:inbound-endpoint path=”input”/>
		<mulexml:xpath-filter pattern=”/order/zipCode”
				expectedValue=”11209”/>
		<vm:outbound-endpoint path=”output”/>
</flow>

EXPRESSIONS

Mule provides a rich expression language to evaluate data at runtime using the message currently being processed.

Evaluators

The following are commonly used expression evaluators.

Routing Messages Dynamically

The following illustrates how a message can be dynamically routed to a JMS queue passed on a message header.

<flow>
	<vm:inbound-endpoint path=”input”/>
	<jms:outbound-endpoint
		queue=”#[header:INBOUND:destination-queue]”/>
</flow>

This example accepts a message off the given VM queue. The outbound-endpoint uses the header evaluator to dynamically route the message to the queue defined by an inbound message property called “destination-queue”.

ANNOTATIONS

Annotation support, introduced in Mule 3, further simplifies Mule configuration by reducing or eliminating the XML needed to configure components and transformers.

The following table contains a list of commonly used annotations.

You can use the Mule 3 annotation support to quickly implement transformers and components.

Implementing a Transformer with Annotations

Here’s an example of a transformer that lowercases a message’s payload.

@ContainsTransformerMethods
public class LowercaseTransformer {

	@Transformer
	public String toLowercase(String string) {
		return string.toLowerCase();
	}
}

This class can be used a message source in a flow to generate a timestamp every minute.

Implementing a Component with Annotations

Components can also be implemented with annotations. The following class demonstrates how the @Schedule annotation can be used to periodically generate data.

public class HeartbeatMessageSource {
	@Schedule(interval = 60000)
	public long pulse() {
		return new Date().getTime();
	}
}

This class can be used as a message source in a flow to generate a timestamp every minute.

HANDLING ERRORS

Exceptions thrown during message processing are handled by exception strategies. The default-exception-strategy, configured at the end of the flow, allows you to route the exception to another endpoint for handling.

Sending Messages to a DLQ

Messages that can’t be delivered, for instance if an exception is thown during their processing, it can be sent to a Dead Letter Queue (DLQ). The following example will send any errors that occur in the flow to the “dlq” VM queue.

<flow>
	<vm:inbound-endpoint path=”input”/>
	<vm:outbound-endpoint
		path=”#[header:INBOUND:destination-queue]”/>
	<default-exception-strategy>
		<vm:outbound-endpoint path=”dlq”/>
	</default-exception-strategy>
</flow>

Building upon the previous example, the default-exceptionstrategy will route messaging failures (for example, when the destination-queue inbound header is null) to the VM queue named “dlq”.

FUNCTIONAL TESTING

Functional testing is an important part of testing Mule applications. Mule provides a helper class, org.mule.tck. FunctionalTestCase, which you can extend to simplify setting up a TestCase.

Functionally Testing a Flow

public class XPathFilterFunctionalTestCase extends FunctionalTestCase
{
	@Override
	protected String getConfigResources() {
		return “xpath-filter-config.xml”;
	}

	public void testMessageNotFiltered() throws Exception {
		String xml = “<order><zipCode>11209</zipCode></order>”;
		
		MuleClient client = new MuleClient(muleContext);
		client.dispatch(“vm://input”, xml, null);

	assertNotNull(client.request(“vm://output”, 15000).
		getPayloadAsString());
	}

	public void testMessageIsFiltered() throws Exception {
		String xml = “<order><zipCode>11210</zipCode></order>”;

		MuleClient client = new MuleClient(muleContext);
		client.dispatch(“vm://input”, xml, null);

		assertNull(client.request(“vm://output”, 5000));
	}
}

CONCLUSION

This Refcard is just a glimpse into what you can do with Mule 3. Consult the full documentation on the MuleSoft website. The full code and test cases for the examples used in this Refcard are available on GitHub:

About The Authors

John D’Emic is a software developer and author. He has used Mule extensively since 2006 and is the “despot” of the MongoDB transport. He also co-authored Mule in Action with David Dossot in 2009. You can read about what he’s up to in his blog: johndemic.blogspot.com.

Recommended Book

Mule in Action covers Mule fundamentals and best practices. It is a comprehensive tutorial that starts with a quick ESB overview and then gets Mule to work. It dives into core concepts like sending, receiving, routing and transforming data. Next, it gives you a close look at Mule’s standard components and how to roll out custom ones. You’ll pick up techniques for testing, performance tuning, BPM orchestration and even a touch of Groovy scripting.