Avro

Since Camel 2.14

This component provides a dataformat for avro, which allows serialization and deserialization of messages using Apache Avro’s binary dataformat. Since Camel 3.2 rpc functionality was moved into separate camel-avro-rpc component.

There is also camel-jackson-avro which is a more powerful Camel dataformat for using Avro.

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

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

You can easily generate classes from a schema, using maven, ant etc. More details can be found at the Apache Avro documentation.

Avro Dataformat Options

The Avro dataformat supports the following options which are listed below.

Name Default Java Type Description

instanceClassName (common)

String

Class name to use for marshal and unmarshalling.

serializablePackages (security)

String

Comma-separated list of additional packages that contain trusted Avro model classes. Avro 1.12 validates classes resolved from schemas; Camel automatically trusts packages derived from the configured schema or instance class.

Examples

Avro Data Format usage

Using the avro data format is as easy as specifying that the class that you want to marshal or unmarshal in your route.

Java-only: programmatic AvroDataFormat with schema
AvroDataFormat format = new AvroDataFormat(Value.SCHEMA$);

from("direct:in").marshal(format).to("direct:marshal");
from("direct:back").unmarshal(format).to("direct:unmarshal");

Where Value is an Avro Maven Plugin Generated class.

The same route can be expressed in XML or YAML:

  • Java

  • XML

  • YAML

from("direct:in")
    .marshal().avro("org.apache.camel.dataformat.avro.Message")
    .to("log:out");
<route>
    <from uri="direct:in"/>
    <marshal>
        <avro instanceClass="org.apache.camel.dataformat.avro.Message" library="ApacheAvro"/>
    </marshal>
    <to uri="log:out"/>
</route>
- route:
    from:
      uri: direct:in
      steps:
        - marshal:
            avro:
              instanceClass: org.apache.camel.dataformat.avro.Message
              library: ApacheAvro
        - to:
            uri: log:out

An alternative can be to specify the dataformat inside the context and reference it from your route.

XML-only: Spring XML data format configuration
<camelContext id="camel" xmlns="http://camel.apache.org/schema/spring">
     <dataFormats>
        <avro id="avro" instanceClass="org.apache.camel.dataformat.avro.Message" library="ApacheAvro"/>
    </dataFormats>
    <route>
        <from uri="direct:in"/>
        <marshal><custom ref="avro"/></marshal>
        <to uri="log:out"/>
    </route>
</camelContext>

In the same manner, you can unmarshal using the avro data format.

Back to top