Bindy

Since Camel 2.0

The goal of this component is to allow the parsing/binding of non-structured data (or to be more precise non-XML data)
to/from Java Beans that have binding mappings defined with annotations. Using Bindy, you can bind data from sources such as :

  • CSV records,

  • Fixed-length records,

  • FIX messages,

  • or almost any other non-structured data

to one or many Plain Old Java Object (POJO). Bindy converts the data according to the type of the java property. POJOs can be linked together with one-to-many relationships available in some cases. Moreover, for data type like Date, Double, Float, Integer, Short, Long and BigDecimal, you can provide the pattern to apply during the formatting of the property.

For the BigDecimal numbers, you can also define the precision and the decimal or grouping separators.

Type Format Type Pattern example Link

Date

DateFormat

dd-MM-yyyy

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

Decimal*

DecimalFormat

##.###.###

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/text/DecimalFormat.html

*Decimal = Double, Integer, Float, Short, Long

Format supported

This first release only support comma separated values fields and key value pair fields (e.g. : FIX messages).

To work with camel-bindy, you must first define your model in a package (e.g. com.acme.model) and for each model class (e.g. Order, Client, Instrument, …​) add the required annotations (described hereafter) to the Class or field.

Multiple models

As you configure bindy using class names instead of package names you can put multiple models in the same package.

Options

The Bindy dataformat supports 5 options, which are listed below.

Name Default Java Type Description

type

Csv

Enum

Required Whether to use Csv, Fixed, or KeyValue.

Enum values:

  • Csv

  • Fixed

  • KeyValue

classType

String

Name of model class to use.

allowEmptyStream

false

Boolean

Whether to allow empty streams in the unmarshal process. If true, no exception will be thrown when a body without records is provided.

unwrapSingleInstance

true

Boolean

When unmarshalling should a single instance be unwrapped and returned instead of wrapped in a java.util.List.

locale

String

To configure a default locale to use, such as us for united states. To use the JVM platform default locale then use the name default.

Annotations

The annotations created allow to map different concept of your model to the POJO like:

  • Type of record (CSV, key value pair (e.g. FIX message), fixed length …​),

  • Link (to link object in another object),

  • DataField and their properties (int, type, …​),

  • KeyValuePairField (for key = value format like we have in FIX financial messages),

  • Section (to identify header, body and footer section),

  • OneToMany,

  • BindyConverter,

  • FormatFactories

This section will describe them.

1. CsvRecord

The CsvRecord annotation is used to identified the root class of the model. It represents a record = "a line of a CSV file" and can be linked to several children model classes.

Annotation name Record type Level

CsvRecord

CSV

Class
Parameter name Type Required Default value Info

separator

String

✓

Separator used to split a record in tokens (mandatory) - can be ',' or ';' or 'anything'. The only whitespace character supported is tab (\t). No other whitespace characters (spaces) are not supported. This value is interpreted as a regular expression. If you want to use a sign which has a special meaning in regular expressions, e.g. the '|' sign, then you have to mask it, like '|'

allowEmptyStream

boolean

false

The allowEmptyStream parameter will allow to prcoess the unavaiable stream for CSV file.

autospanLine

boolean

false

Last record spans rest of line (optional) - if enabled then the last column is auto spanned to end of line, for example if its a comment, etc this allows the line to contain all characters, also the delimiter char.

crlf

String

WINDOWS

Character to be used to add a carriage return after each record (optional) - allow to define the carriage return character to use. If you specify a value other than the three listed before, the value you enter (custom) will be used as the CRLF character(s). Three values can be used : WINDOWS, UNIX, MAC, or custom.

endWithLineBreak

boolean

true

The endWithLineBreak parameter flags if the CSV file should end with a line break or not (optional)

generateHeaderColumns

boolean

false

The generateHeaderColumns parameter allow to add in the CSV generated the header containing names of the columns

isOrdered

boolean

false

Indicates if the message must be ordered in output

name

String

Name describing the record (optional)

quote

String

"

Whether to marshal columns with the given quote character (optional) - allow to specify a quote character of the fields when CSV is generated. This annotation is associated to the root class of the model and must be declared one time.

quoting

boolean

false

Indicate if the values (and headers) must be quoted when marshaling (optional)

quotingEscaped

boolean

false

Indicate if the values must be escaped when quoting (optional)

removeQuotes

boolean

true

The remove quotes parameter flags if unmarshalling should try to remove quotes for each field

skipField

boolean

false

The skipField parameter will allow to skip fields of a CSV file. If some fields are not necessary, they can be skipped.

skipFirstLine

boolean

false

The skipFirstLine parameter will allow to skip or not the first line of a CSV file. This line often contains columns definition

case 1 : separator = ','

The separator used to segregate the fields in the CSV record is , :

10, J, Pauline, M, XD12345678, Fortis Dynamic 15/15, 2500, USD, 08-01-2009
@CsvRecord( separator = "," )
public Class Order {

}

case 2 : separator = ';'

Compare to the previous case, the separator here is ; instead of , :

10; J; Pauline; M; XD12345678; Fortis Dynamic 15/15; 2500; USD; 08-01-2009
@CsvRecord( separator = ";" )
public Class Order {

}

case 3 : separator = '|'

Compare to the previous case, the separator here is | instead of ; :

10| J| Pauline| M| XD12345678| Fortis Dynamic 15/15| 2500| USD| 08-01-2009
@CsvRecord( separator = "\\|" )
public Class Order {

}

case 4 : separator = '\",\"'

Applies for Camel 2.8.2 or older

When the field to be parsed of the CSV record contains , or ; which is also used as separator, we should find another strategy to tell camel bindy how to handle this case. To define the field containing the data with a comma, you will use single or double quotes as delimiter (e.g : '10', 'Street 10, NY', 'USA' or "10", "Street 10, NY", "USA").

In this case, the first and last character of the line which are a single or double quotes will be removed by bindy. 
"10","J","Pauline"," M","XD12345678","Fortis Dynamic 15,15","2500","USD","08-01-2009"
@CsvRecord( separator = "\",\"" )
public Class Order {

}

Bindy automatically detects if the record is enclosed with either single or double quotes and automatic remove those quotes when unmarshalling from CSV to Object. Therefore do not include the quotes in the separator, but simply do as below:

"10","J","Pauline"," M","XD12345678","Fortis Dynamic 15,15","2500","USD","08-01-2009"
@CsvRecord( separator = "," )
public Class Order {

}

Notice that if you want to marshal from Object to CSV and use quotes, then you need to specify which quote character to use, using the quote attribute on the @CsvRecord as shown below:

@CsvRecord( separator = ",", quote = "\"" )
public Class Order {

}

case 5 : separator & skipFirstLine

The feature is interesting when the client wants to have in the first line of the file, the name of the data fields :

order id, client id, first name, last name, isin code, instrument name, quantity, currency, date

To inform bindy that this first line must be skipped during the parsing process, then we use the attribute :

@CsvRecord(separator = ",", skipFirstLine = true)
public Class Order {

}

case 6 : generateHeaderColumns

To add at the first line of the CSV generated, the attribute generateHeaderColumns must be set to true in the annotation like this :

@CsvRecord( generateHeaderColumns = true )
public Class Order {

}

As a result, Bindy during the unmarshaling process will generate CSV like this :

order id, client id, first name, last name, isin code, instrument name, quantity, currency, date
10, J, Pauline, M, XD12345678, Fortis Dynamic 15/15, 2500, USD, 08-01-2009

case 7 : carriage return

If the platform where camel-bindy will run is not Windows but Macintosh or Unix, then you can change the crlf property like this. Three values are available : WINDOWS, UNIX or MAC

@CsvRecord(separator = ",", crlf="MAC")
public Class Order {

}

Additionally, if for some reason you need to add a different line ending character, you can opt to specify it using the crlf parameter. In the following example, we can end the line with a comma followed by the newline character:

@CsvRecord(separator = ",", crlf=",\n")
public Class Order {

}

case 8 : isOrdered

Sometimes, the order to follow during the creation of the CSV record from the model is different from the order used during the parsing. Then, in this case, we can use the attribute isOrdered = true to indicate this in combination with attribute position of the DataField annotation.

@CsvRecord(isOrdered = true)
public Class Order {

   @DataField(pos = 1, position = 11)
   private int orderNr;

   @DataField(pos = 2, position = 10)
   private String clientNr;

}
pos is used to parse the file stream, while position is used to generate the CSV.

2. Link

The link annotation will allow to link objects together.

Annotation name Record type Level

Link

all

Class & Property
Parameter name Type Required Default value Info

linkType

LinkType

OneToOne

Type of link identifying the relation between the classes

Only one-to-one relation is allowed as of the current version.

E.g : If the model class Client is linked to the Order class, then use annotation Link in the Order class like this :

Property Link

@CsvRecord(separator = ",")
public class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1)
    private int orderNr;

    @Link
    private Client client;
}

And for the class Client :

Class Link

@Link
public class Client {

}

3. DataField

The DataField annotation defines the property of the field. Each datafield is identified by its position in the record, a type (string, int, date, …​) and optionally of a pattern.

Annotation name Record type Level

DataField

all

Property
Parameter name Type Required Default value Info

pos

int

✓

Position of the data in the input record, must start from 1 (mandatory). See the position parameter.

align

String

R

Align the text to the right or left. Use values <tt>R</tt> or <tt>L</tt>.

clip

boolean

false

Indicates to clip data in the field if it exceeds the allowed length when using fixed length.

columnName

String

Name of the header column (optional). Uses the name of the property as default. Only applicable when CsvRecord has generateHeaderColumns = true

decimalSeparator

String

Decimal Separator to be used with BigDecimal number

defaultValue

String

Field’s default value in case no value is set

delimiter

String

Optional delimiter to be used if the field has a variable length

groupingSeparator

String

Grouping Separator to be used with BigDecimal number when we would like to format/parse to number with grouping e.g. 123,456.789

impliedDecimalSeparator

boolean

false

Indicates if there is a decimal point implied at a specified location

length

int

0

Length of the data block (number of characters) if the record is set to a fixed length

lengthPos

int

0

Identifies a data field in the record that defines the expected fixed length for this field

method

String

Method name to call to apply such customization on DataField. This must be the method on the datafield itself or you must provide static fully qualified name of the class’s method e.g: see unit test org.apache.camel.dataformat.bindy.csv.BindySimpleCsvFunctionWithExternalMethodTest.replaceToBar

name

String

Name of the field (optional)

paddingChar

char

The char to pad with if the record is set to a fixed length

pattern

String

Pattern that the Java formatter (SimpleDateFormat by example) will use to transform the data (optional). If using pattern, then setting locale on bindy data format is recommended. Either set to a known locale such as "us" or use "default" to use platform default locale.

position

int

0

Position of the field in the output message generated (should start from 1). Must be used when the position of the field in the CSV generated (output message) must be different compare to input position (pos). See the pos parameter.

precision

int

0

precision of the {@link java.math.BigDecimal} number to be created

required

boolean

false

Indicates if the field is mandatory

rounding

String

CEILING

Round mode to be used to round/scale a BigDecimal Values : UP, DOWN, CEILING, FLOOR, HALF_UP, HALF_DOWN,HALF_EVEN, UNNECESSARY e.g : Number = 123456.789, Precision = 2, Rounding = CEILING Result : 123456.79

timezone

String

Timezone to be used.

trim

boolean

false

Indicates if the value should be trimmed

case 1 : pos

This parameter/attribute represents the position of the field in the CSV record.

Position

@CsvRecord(separator = ",")
public class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 5)
    private String isinCode;

}

As you can see in this example the position starts at 1 but continues at 5 in the class Order. The numbers from 2 to 4 are defined in the class Client (see here after).

Position continues in another model class

public class Client {

    @DataField(pos = 2)
    private String clientNr;

    @DataField(pos = 3)
    private String firstName;

    @DataField(pos = 4)
    private String lastName;
}

case 2 : pattern

The pattern allows to enrich or validates the format of your data

Pattern

@CsvRecord(separator = ",")
public class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 5)
    private String isinCode;

    @DataField(name = "Name", pos = 6)
    private String instrumentName;

    @DataField(pos = 7, precision = 2)
    private BigDecimal amount;

    @DataField(pos = 8)
    private String currency;

    // pattern used during parsing or when the date is created
    @DataField(pos = 9, pattern = "dd-MM-yyyy")
    private Date orderDate;
}

case 3 : precision

The precision is helpful when you want to define the decimal part of your number.

Precision

@CsvRecord(separator = ",")
public class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1)
    private int orderNr;

    @Link
    private Client client;

    @DataField(pos = 5)
    private String isinCode;

    @DataField(name = "Name", pos = 6)
    private String instrumentName;

    @DataField(pos = 7, precision = 2)
    private BigDecimal amount;

    @DataField(pos = 8)
    private String currency;

    @DataField(pos = 9, pattern = "dd-MM-yyyy")
    private Date orderDate;
}

case 4 : Position is different in output

The position attribute will inform bindy how to place the field in the CSV record generated. By default, the position used corresponds to the position defined with the attribute pos. If the position is different (that means that we have an asymetric processus comparing marshaling from unmarshaling) then we can use position to indicate this.

Here is an example:

Position is different in output

@CsvRecord(separator = ",", isOrdered = true)
public class Order {

    // Positions of the fields start from 1 and not from 0

    @DataField(pos = 1, position = 11)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 2, position = 10)
    private String clientNr;

    @DataField(pos = 3, position = 9)
    private String firstName;

    @DataField(pos = 4, position = 8)
    private String lastName;

    @DataField(pos = 5, position = 7)
    private String instrumentCode;

    @DataField(pos = 6, position = 6)
    private String instrumentNumber;
}

This attribute of the annotation @DataField must be used in combination with attribute isOrdered = true of the annotation @CsvRecord.

case 5 : required

If a field is mandatory, simply use the attribute required set to true.

Required

@CsvRecord(separator = ",")
public class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 2, required = true)
    private String clientNr;

    @DataField(pos = 3, required = true)
    private String firstName;

    @DataField(pos = 4, required = true)
    private String lastName;
}

If this field is not present in the record, then an error will be raised by the parser with the following information :

Some fields are missing (optional or mandatory), line :

case 6 : trim

If a field has leading and/or trailing spaces which should be removed before they are processed, simply use the attribute trim set to true.

Trim

@CsvRecord(separator = ",")
public class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1, trim = true)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 2, trim = true)
    private Integer clientNr;

    @DataField(pos = 3, required = true)
    private String firstName;

    @DataField(pos = 4)
    private String lastName;
}

case 7 : defaultValue

If a field is not defined then uses the value indicated by the defaultValue attribute.

Default value

@CsvRecord(separator = ",")
public class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 2)
    private Integer clientNr;

    @DataField(pos = 3, required = true)
    private String firstName;

    @DataField(pos = 4, defaultValue = "Barin")
    private String lastName;
}

case 8 : columnName

Specifies the column name for the property only if @CsvRecord has annotation generateHeaderColumns = true.

Column Name

@CsvRecord(separator = ",", generateHeaderColumns = true)
public class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 5, columnName = "ISIN")
    private String isinCode;

    @DataField(name = "Name", pos = 6)
    private String instrumentName;
}

This attribute is only applicable to optional fields.

4. FixedLengthRecord

The FixedLengthRecord annotation is used to identified the root class of the model. It represents a record = "a line of a file/message containing data fixed length (number of characters) formatted" and can be linked to several children model classes. This format is a bit particular because data of a field can be aligned to the right or to the left.

When the size of the data does not fill completely the length of the field, we can then add 'pad' characters.

Annotation name Record type Level

FixedLengthRecord

fixed

Class
Parameter name Type Required Default value Info

countGrapheme

boolean

false

Indicates how chars are counted

crlf

String

WINDOWS

Character to be used to add a carriage return after each record (optional). Possible values: WINDOWS, UNIX, MAC, or custom. This option is used only during marshalling, whereas unmarshalling uses system default JDK provided line delimiter unless eol is customized.

eol

String

Character to be used to process considering end of line after each record while unmarshalling (optional - default: "", which help default JDK provided line delimiter to be used unless any other line delimiter provided) This option is used only during unmarshalling, where marshalling uses system default provided line delimiter as "WINDOWS" unless any other value is provided.

footer

Class

void

Indicates that the record(s) of this type may be followed by a single footer record at the end of the file

header

Class

void

Indicates that the record(s) of this type may be preceded by a single header record at the beginning of in the file

ignoreMissingChars

boolean

false

Indicates whether too short lines will be ignored

ignoreTrailingChars

boolean

false

Indicates that characters beyond the last mapped filed can be ignored when unmarshalling / parsing. This annotation is associated to the root class of the model and must be declared one time.

length

int

0

The fixed length of the record (number of characters). It means that the record will always be that long padded with {#paddingChar()}'s

name

String

Name describing the record (optional)

paddingChar

char

The char to pad with.

skipFooter

boolean

false

Configures the data format to skip marshalling / unmarshalling of the footer record. Configure this parameter on the primary record (e.g., not the header or footer).

skipHeader

boolean

false

Configures the data format to skip marshalling / unmarshalling of the header record. Configure this parameter on the primary record (e.g., not the header or footer).

A record may not be both a header/footer and a primary fixed-length record.

case 1 : Simple fixed length record

This simple example shows how to design the model to parse/format a fixed message

10A9PaulineMISINXD12345678BUYShare2500.45USD01-08-2009

Fixed-simple

@FixedLengthRecord(length=54, paddingChar=' ')
public static class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1, length=2)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 3, length=2)
    private String clientNr;

    @DataField(pos = 5, length=7)
    private String firstName;

    @DataField(pos = 12, length=1, align="L")
    private String lastName;

    @DataField(pos = 13, length=4)
    private String instrumentCode;

    @DataField(pos = 17, length=10)
    private String instrumentNumber;

    @DataField(pos = 27, length=3)
    private String orderType;

    @DataField(pos = 30, length=5)
    private String instrumentType;

    @DataField(pos = 35, precision = 2, length=7)
    private BigDecimal amount;

    @DataField(pos = 42, length=3)
    private String currency;

    @DataField(pos = 45, length=10, pattern = "dd-MM-yyyy")
    private Date orderDate;
}

case 2 : Fixed length record with alignment and padding

This more elaborated example show how to define the alignment for a field and how to assign a padding character which is ' ' here:

10A9 PaulineM ISINXD12345678BUYShare2500.45USD01-08-2009

Fixed-padding-align

@FixedLengthRecord(length=60, paddingChar=' ')
public static class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1, length=2)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 3, length=2)
    private String clientNr;

    @DataField(pos = 5, length=9)
    private String firstName;

    @DataField(pos = 14, length=5, align="L")   // align text to the LEFT zone of the block
    private String lastName;

    @DataField(pos = 19, length=4)
    private String instrumentCode;

    @DataField(pos = 23, length=10)
    private String instrumentNumber;

    @DataField(pos = 33, length=3)
    private String orderType;

    @DataField(pos = 36, length=5)
    private String instrumentType;

    @DataField(pos = 41, precision = 2, length=7)
    private BigDecimal amount;

    @DataField(pos = 48, length=3)
    private String currency;

    @DataField(pos = 51, length=10, pattern = "dd-MM-yyyy")
    private Date orderDate;
}

case 3 : Field padding

Sometimes, the default padding defined for record cannnot be applied to the field as we have a number format where we would like to pad with '0' instead of ' '. In this case, you can use in the model the attribute paddingChar on @DataField to set this value.

10A9 PaulineM ISINXD12345678BUYShare000002500.45USD01-08-2009

Fixed-padding-field

@FixedLengthRecord(length = 65, paddingChar = ' ')
public static class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1, length = 2)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 3, length = 2)
    private String clientNr;

    @DataField(pos = 5, length = 9)
    private String firstName;

    @DataField(pos = 14, length = 5, align = "L")
    private String lastName;

    @DataField(pos = 19, length = 4)
    private String instrumentCode;

    @DataField(pos = 23, length = 10)
    private String instrumentNumber;

    @DataField(pos = 33, length = 3)
    private String orderType;

    @DataField(pos = 36, length = 5)
    private String instrumentType;

    @DataField(pos = 41, precision = 2, length = 12, paddingChar = '0')
    private BigDecimal amount;

    @DataField(pos = 53, length = 3)
    private String currency;

    @DataField(pos = 56, length = 10, pattern = "dd-MM-yyyy")
    private Date orderDate;
}

case 4: Fixed length record with delimiter

Fixed-length records sometimes have delimited content within the record. The firstName and lastName fields are delimited with the ^ character in the following example:

10A9Pauline^M^ISINXD12345678BUYShare000002500.45USD01-08-2009

Fixed-delimited

@FixedLengthRecord
public static class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1, length = 2)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 2, length = 2)
    private String clientNr;

    @DataField(pos = 3, delimiter = "^")
    private String firstName;

    @DataField(pos = 4, delimiter = "^")
    private String lastName;

    @DataField(pos = 5, length = 4)
    private String instrumentCode;

    @DataField(pos = 6, length = 10)
    private String instrumentNumber;

    @DataField(pos = 7, length = 3)
    private String orderType;

    @DataField(pos = 8, length = 5)
    private String instrumentType;

    @DataField(pos = 9, precision = 2, length = 12, paddingChar = '0')
    private BigDecimal amount;

    @DataField(pos = 10, length = 3)
    private String currency;

    @DataField(pos = 11, length = 10, pattern = "dd-MM-yyyy")
    private Date orderDate;
}

The pos value(s) in a fixed-length record may optionally be defined using ordinal, sequential values instead of precise column numbers.

case 5 : Fixed length record with record-defined field length

Occasionally a fixed-length record may contain a field that define the expected length of another field within the same record. In the following example the length of the instrumentNumber field value is defined by the value of instrumentNumberLen field in the record.

10A9Pauline^M^ISIN10XD12345678BUYShare000002500.45USD01-08-2009

Fixed-delimited

@FixedLengthRecord
public static class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1, length = 2)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 2, length = 2)
    private String clientNr;

    @DataField(pos = 3, delimiter = "^")
    private String firstName;

    @DataField(pos = 4, delimiter = "^")
    private String lastName;

    @DataField(pos = 5, length = 4)
    private String instrumentCode;

    @DataField(pos = 6, length = 2, align = "R", paddingChar = '0')
    private int instrumentNumberLen;

    @DataField(pos = 7, lengthPos=6)
    private String instrumentNumber;

    @DataField(pos = 8, length = 3)
    private String orderType;

    @DataField(pos = 9, length = 5)
    private String instrumentType;

    @DataField(pos = 10, precision = 2, length = 12, paddingChar = '0')
    private BigDecimal amount;

    @DataField(pos = 11, length = 3)
    private String currency;

    @DataField(pos = 12, length = 10, pattern = "dd-MM-yyyy")
    private Date orderDate;
}

case 6 : Fixed length record with header and footer

Bindy will discover fixed-length header and footer records that are configured as part of the model – provided that the annotated classes exist either in the same package as the primary @FixedLengthRecord class, or within one of the configured scan packages. The following text illustrates two fixed-length records that are bracketed by a header record and footer record.

101-08-2009
10A9 PaulineM ISINXD12345678BUYShare000002500.45USD01-08-2009
10A9 RichN ISINXD12345678BUYShare000002700.45USD01-08-2009
9000000002

Fixed-header-and-footer-main-class

@FixedLengthRecord(header = OrderHeader.class, footer = OrderFooter.class)
public class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1, length = 2)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 2, length = 2)
    private String clientNr;

    @DataField(pos = 3, length = 9)
    private String firstName;

    @DataField(pos = 4, length = 5, align = "L")
    private String lastName;

    @DataField(pos = 5, length = 4)
    private String instrumentCode;

    @DataField(pos = 6, length = 10)
    private String instrumentNumber;

    @DataField(pos = 7, length = 3)
    private String orderType;

    @DataField(pos = 8, length = 5)
    private String instrumentType;

    @DataField(pos = 9, precision = 2, length = 12, paddingChar = '0')
    private BigDecimal amount;

    @DataField(pos = 10, length = 3)
    private String currency;

    @DataField(pos = 11, length = 10, pattern = "dd-MM-yyyy")
    private Date orderDate;
}

@FixedLengthRecord
public  class OrderHeader {
    @DataField(pos = 1, length = 1)
    private int recordType = 1;

    @DataField(pos = 2, length = 10, pattern = "dd-MM-yyyy")
    private Date recordDate;
}

@FixedLengthRecord
public class OrderFooter {

    @DataField(pos = 1, length = 1)
    private int recordType = 9;

    @DataField(pos = 2, length = 9, align = "R", paddingChar = '0')
    private int numberOfRecordsInTheFile;
}

case 7 : Skipping content when parsing a fixed length record

It is common to integrate with systems that provide fixed-length records containing more information than needed for the target use case. It is useful in this situation to skip the declaration and parsing of those fields that we do not need. To accomodate this, Bindy will skip forward to the next mapped field within a record if the pos value of the next declared field is beyond the cursor position of the last parsed field. Using absolute pos locations for the fields of interest (instead of ordinal values) causes Bindy to skip content between two fields.

Similarly, it is possible that none of the content beyond some field is of interest. In this case, you can tell Bindy to skip parsing of everything beyond the last mapped field by setting the ignoreTrailingChars property on the @FixedLengthRecord declaration.

@FixedLengthRecord(ignoreTrailingChars = true)
public static class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1, length = 2)
    private int orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 3, length = 2)
    private String clientNr;

    // any characters that appear beyond the last mapped field will be ignored

}

5. Message

The Message annotation is used to identified the class of your model who will contain key value pairs fields. This kind of format is used mainly in Financial Exchange Protocol Messages (FIX). Nevertheless, this annotation can be used for any other format where data are identified by keys. The key pair values are separated each other by a separator which can be a special character like a tab delimitor (unicode representation : \u0009) or a start of heading (unicode representation : \u0001)

FIX information

More information about FIX can be found on this web site : http://www.fixprotocol.org/. To work with FIX messages, the model must contain a Header and Trailer classes linked to the root message class which could be a Order class. This is not mandatory but will be very helpful when you will use camel-bindy in combination with camel-fix which is a Fix gateway based on quickFix project http://www.quickfixj.org/.
Annotation name Record type Level

Message

key value pair

Class
Parameter name Type Required Default value Info

keyValuePairSeparator

String

✓

Key value pair separator is used to split the values from their keys (mandatory). Can be '\u0001', '\u0009', '#', or 'anything'.

pairSeparator

String

✓

Pair separator used to split the key value pairs in tokens (mandatory). Can be '=', ';', or 'anything'.

crlf

String

WINDOWS

Character to be used to add a carriage return after each record (optional). Possible values = WINDOWS, UNIX, MAC, or custom. If you specify a value other than the three listed before, the value you enter (custom) will be used as the CRLF character(s).

isOrdered

boolean

false

Indicates if the message must be ordered in output. This annotation is associated to the message class of the model and must be declared one time.

name

String

Name describing the message (optional)

type

String

FIX

type is used to define the type of the message (e.g. FIX, EMX, …​) (optional)

version

String

4.1

version defines the version of the message (e.g. 4.1, …​) (optional)

case 1 : separator = 'u0001'

The separator used to segregate the key value pair fields in a FIX message is the ASCII 01 character or in unicode format \u0001. This character must be escaped a second time to avoid a java runtime error. Here is an example :

8=FIX.4.1 9=20 34=1 35=0 49=INVMGR 56=BRKR 1=BE.CHM.001 11=CHM0001-01 22=4 ...

and how to use the annotation:

FIX - message

@Message(keyValuePairSeparator = "=", pairSeparator = "\\u0001", type="FIX", version="4.1")
public class Order {

}

Look at test cases

The ASCII character like tab, …​ cannot be displayed in WIKI page. So, have a look to the test case of camel-bindy to see exactly how the FIX message looks like (src/test/data/fix/fix.txt) and the Order, Trailer, Header classes (src/test/java/org/apache/camel/dataformat/bindy/model/fix/simple/Order.java).

6. KeyValuePairField

The KeyValuePairField annotation defines the property of a key value pair field. Each KeyValuePairField is identified by a tag (= key) and its value associated, a type (string, int, date, …​), optionaly a pattern and if the field is required.

Annotation name Record type Level

KeyValuePairField

Key Value Pair - FIX

Property
Parameter name Type Required Default value Info

tag

int

✓

tag identifying the field in the message (mandatory) - must be unique

impliedDecimalSeparator

boolean

false

<b>Camel 2.11:</b> Indicates if there is a decimal point implied at a specified location

name

String

name of the field (optional)

pattern

String

pattern that the formater will use to transform the data (optional)

position

int

0

Position of the field in the message generated - must be used when the position of the key/tag in the FIX message must be different

precision

int

0

precision of the BigDecimal number to be created

required

boolean

false

Indicates if the field is mandatory

timezone

String

Timezone to be used.

case 1 : tag

This parameter represents the key of the field in the message:

FIX message - Tag

@Message(keyValuePairSeparator = "=", pairSeparator = "\\u0001", type="FIX", version="4.1")
public class Order {

    @Link Header header;

    @Link Trailer trailer;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 1) // Client reference
    private String Account;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 11) // Order reference
    private String ClOrdId;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 22) // Fund ID type (Sedol, ISIN, ...)
    private String IDSource;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 48) // Fund code
    private String SecurityId;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 54) // Movement type ( 1 = Buy, 2 = sell)
    private String Side;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 58) // Free text
    private String Text;
}

case 2 : Different position in output

If the tags/keys that we will put in the FIX message must be sorted according to a predefine order, then use the attribute position of the annotation @KeyValuePairField.

FIX message - Tag - sort

@Message(keyValuePairSeparator = "=", pairSeparator = "\\u0001", type = "FIX", version = "4.1", isOrdered = true)
public class Order {

    @Link Header header;

    @Link Trailer trailer;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 1, position = 1) // Client reference
    private String account;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 11, position = 3) // Order reference
    private String clOrdId;
}

7. Section

In FIX message of fixed length records, it is common to have different sections in the representation of the information : header, body and section. The purpose of the annotation @Section is to inform bindy about which class of the model represents the header (= section 1), body (= section 2) and footer (= section 3)

Only one attribute/parameter exists for this annotation.

Annotation name Record type Level

Section

FIX

Class
Parameter name Type Required Default value Info

number

int

✓

Number of the section

case 1 : Section

Definition of the header section:

FIX message - Section - Header

@Section(number = 1)
public class Header {

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 8, position = 1) // Message Header
    private String beginString;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 9, position = 2) // Checksum
    private int bodyLength;
}

Definition of the body section:

FIX message - Section - Body

@Section(number = 2)
@Message(keyValuePairSeparator = "=", pairSeparator = "\\u0001", type = "FIX", version = "4.1", isOrdered = true)
public class Order {

    @Link Header header;

    @Link Trailer trailer;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 1, position = 1) // Client reference
    private String account;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 11, position = 3) // Order reference
    private String clOrdId;

Definition of the footer section:

FIX message - Section - Footer

@Section(number = 3)
public class Trailer {

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 10, position = 1)
    // CheckSum
    private int checkSum;

    public int getCheckSum() {
        return checkSum;
    }

8. OneToMany

The purpose of the annotation @OneToMany is to allow to work with a List<?> field defined a POJO class or from a record containing repetitive groups.

Restrictions OneToMany

Be careful, the one to many of bindy does not allow to handle repetitions defined on several levels of the hierarchy

The relation OneToMany ONLY WORKS in the following cases :

  • Reading a FIX message containing repetitive groups (= group of tags/keys)

  • Generating a CSV with repetitive data
Annotation name Record type Level

OneToMany

all

Property
Parameter name Type Required Default value Info

mappedTo

String

Class name associated to the type of the List<Type of the Class>

case 1 : Generating CSV with repetitive data

Here is the CSV output that we want :

Claus,Ibsen,Camel in Action 1,2010,35
Claus,Ibsen,Camel in Action 2,2012,35
Claus,Ibsen,Camel in Action 3,2013,35
Claus,Ibsen,Camel in Action 4,2014,35
The repetitive data concern the title of the book and its publication date while first, last name and age are common.

and the classes used to modeling this. The Author class contains a List of Book.

Generate CSV with repetitive data

@CsvRecord(separator=",")
public class Author {

    @DataField(pos = 1)
    private String firstName;

    @DataField(pos = 2)
    private String lastName;

    @OneToMany
    private List<Book> books;

    @DataField(pos = 5)
    private String Age;
}

public class Book {

    @DataField(pos = 3)
    private String title;

    @DataField(pos = 4)
    private String year;
}

Very simple isn’t it !!!

case 2 : Reading FIX message containing group of tags/keys

Here is the message that we would like to process in our model :

8=FIX 4.19=2034=135=049=INVMGR56=BRKR
1=BE.CHM.00111=CHM0001-0158=this is a camel - bindy test
22=448=BE000124567854=1
22=548=BE000987654354=2
22=648=BE000999999954=3
10=220

Tags 22, 48 and 54 are repeated.

And the code:

Reading FIX message containing group of tags/keys

public class Order {

    @Link Header header;

    @Link Trailer trailer;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 1) // Client reference
    private String account;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 11) // Order reference
    private String clOrdId;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 58) // Free text
    private String text;

    @OneToMany(mappedTo = "org.apache.camel.dataformat.bindy.model.fix.complex.onetomany.Security")
    List<Security> securities;
}

public class Security {

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 22) // Fund ID type (Sedol, ISIN, ...)
    private String idSource;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 48) // Fund code
    private String securityCode;

    @KeyValuePairField(tag = 54) // Movement type ( 1 = Buy, 2 = sell)
    private String side;
}

9. BindyConverter

The purpose of the annotation @BindyConverter is define a converter to be used on field level. The provided class must implement the Format interface.

@FixedLengthRecord(length = 10, paddingChar = ' ')
public static class DataModel {
    @DataField(pos =  1, length = 10, trim = true)
    @BindyConverter(CustomConverter.class)
    public String field1;
}

public static class CustomConverter implements Format<String> {
    @Override
    public String format(String object) throws Exception {
        return (new StringBuilder(object)).reverse().toString();
    }

    @Override
    public String parse(String string) throws Exception {
        return (new StringBuilder(string)).reverse().toString();
    }
}

10. FormatFactories

The purpose of the annotation @FormatFactories is to define a set of converters at record-level. The provided classes must implement the FormatFactoryInterface interface.

@CsvRecord(separator = ",")
@FormatFactories({OrderNumberFormatFactory.class})
public static class Order {

    @DataField(pos = 1)
    private OrderNumber orderNr;

    @DataField(pos = 2)
    private String firstName;
}

public static class OrderNumber {
    private int orderNr;

    public static OrderNumber ofString(String orderNumber) {
        OrderNumber result = new OrderNumber();
        result.orderNr = Integer.valueOf(orderNumber);
        return result;
    }
}

public static class OrderNumberFormatFactory extends AbstractFormatFactory {

    {
        supportedClasses.add(OrderNumber.class);
    }

    @Override
    public Format<?> build(FormattingOptions formattingOptions) {
        return new Format<OrderNumber>() {
            @Override
            public String format(OrderNumber object) throws Exception {
                return String.valueOf(object.orderNr);
            }

            @Override
            public OrderNumber parse(String string) throws Exception {
                return OrderNumber.ofString(string);
            }
        };
    }
}

Supported Datatypes

The DefaultFormatFactory makes formatting of the following datatype available by returning an instance of the interface FormatFactoryInterface based on the provided FormattingOptions:

  • BigDecimal

  • BigInteger

  • Boolean

  • Byte

  • Character

  • Date

  • Double

  • Enums

  • Float

  • Integer

  • LocalDate

  • LocalDateTime

  • LocalTime

  • Long

  • Short

  • String

The DefaultFormatFactory can be overridden by providing an instance of FactoryRegistry in the registry in use (e.g. Spring or JNDI).

Using the Java DSL

The next step instantiates the DataFormat bindy class associated with this record type and providing a class as a parameter.

For example the following uses the class BindyCsvDataFormat (which corresponds to the class associated with the CSV record type) which is configured with com.acme.model.MyModel.class to initialize the model objects configured in this package.

DataFormat bindy = new BindyCsvDataFormat(com.acme.model.MyModel.class);

Setting locale

Bindy supports configuring the locale on the dataformat, such as

BindyCsvDataFormat bindy = new BindyCsvDataFormat(com.acme.model.MyModel.class);

bindy.setLocale("us");

Or to use the platform default locale then use "default" as the locale name.

BindyCsvDataFormat bindy = new BindyCsvDataFormat(com.acme.model.MyModel.class);

bindy.setLocale("default");

Unmarshaling

from("file://inbox")
  .unmarshal(bindy)
  .to("direct:handleOrders");

Alternatively, you can use a named reference to a data format which can then be defined in your Registry e.g. your Spring XML file:

from("file://inbox")
  .unmarshal("myBindyDataFormat")
  .to("direct:handleOrders");

The Camel route will pick-up files in the inbox directory, unmarshall CSV records into a collection of model objects and send the collection
to the route referenced by handleOrders.

The collection returned is a List of Map objects. Each Map within the list contains the model objects that were marshalled out of each line of the CSV. The reason behind this is that each line can correspond to more than one object. This can be confusing when you simply expect one object to be returned per line.

Each object can be retrieve using its class name.

List<Map<String, Object>> unmarshaledModels = (List<Map<String, Object>>) exchange.getIn().getBody();

int modelCount = 0;
for (Map<String, Object> model : unmarshaledModels) {
  for (String className : model.keySet()) {
     Object obj = model.get(className);
     LOG.info("Count : " + modelCount + ", " + obj.toString());
  }
 modelCount++;
}

LOG.info("Total CSV records received by the csv bean : " + modelCount);

Assuming that you want to extract a single Order object from this map for processing in a route, you could use a combination of a Splitter and a Processor as per the following:

from("file://inbox")
    .unmarshal(bindy)
    .split(body())
        .process(new Processor() {
            public void process(Exchange exchange) throws Exception {
                Message in = exchange.getIn();
                Map<String, Object> modelMap = (Map<String, Object>) in.getBody();
                in.setBody(modelMap.get(Order.class.getCanonicalName()));
            }
        })
        .to("direct:handleSingleOrder")
    .end();

Take care of the fact that Bindy uses CHARSET_NAME property or the CHARSET_NAME header as define in the Exchange interface to do a characterset conversion of the inputstream received for unmarshalling. In some producers (e.g. file-endpoint) you can define a characterset. The characterset conversion can already been done by this producer. Sometimes you need to remove this property or header from the exchange before sending it to the unmarshal. If you don’t remove it the conversion might be done twice which might lead to unwanted results.

from("file://inbox?charset=Cp922")
  .removeProperty(Exchange.CHARSET_NAME)
  .unmarshal("myBindyDataFormat")
  .to("direct:handleOrders");

Marshaling

To generate CSV records from a collection of model objects, you create the following route :

from("direct:handleOrders")
   .marshal(bindy)
   .to("file://outbox")

Using Spring XML

This is really easy to use Spring as your favorite DSL language to declare the routes to be used for camel-bindy. The following example shows two routes where the first will pick-up records from files, unmarshal the content and bind it to their model. The result is then send to a pojo (doing nothing special) and place them into a queue.

The second route will extract the pojos from the queue and marshal the content to generate a file containing the CSV record.

Spring DSL

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
       http://camel.apache.org/schema/spring
       http://camel.apache.org/schema/spring/camel-spring.xsd">

    <!-- Queuing engine - ActiveMq - work locally in mode virtual memory -->
    <bean id="activemq" class="org.apache.activemq.camel.component.ActiveMQComponent">
        <property name="brokerURL" value="vm://localhost:61616"/>
    </bean>

    <camelContext xmlns="http://camel.apache.org/schema/spring">
        <dataFormats>
          <bindy id="bindyDataformat" type="Csv" classType="org.apache.camel.bindy.model.Order"/>
        </dataFormats>

        <route>
            <from uri="file://src/data/csv/?noop=true" />
            <unmarshal ref="bindyDataformat" />
            <to uri="bean:csv" />
            <to uri="activemq:queue:in" />
        </route>

        <route>
            <from uri="activemq:queue:in" />
            <marshal ref="bindyDataformat" />
            <to uri="file://src/data/csv/out/" />
        </route>
    </camelContext>
</beans>

Please verify that your model classes implements serializable otherwise the queue manager will raise an error.

Dependencies

To use Bindy in your camel routes you need to add the a dependency on camel-bindy which implements this data format.

If you use maven you could just add the following to your pom.xml, substituting the version number for the latest & greatest release (see the download page for the latest versions).

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.camel</groupId>
  <artifactId>camel-bindy</artifactId>
  <version>x.x.x</version>
</dependency>