Fcrepo Component

The fcrepo: component provides access to an external Fedora4 Object API for use with Apache Camel.

URI format

fcrepo:hostname[:port][/resourceUrl][?options]

By default this endpoint connects to fedora repositories on port 80.

FcrepoEndpoint options

Name	Default Value	Description
contentType	null	Set the Content-Type header
accept	null	Set the Accept header for content negotiation
fixity	false	Whether GET requests should check the fixity of non-RDF content
metadata	true	Whether GET requests should retrieve RDF descriptions of non-RDF content
transform	null	If set, this defines the transform used for the given object. This should be used in the context of GET or POST. For GET requests, the value should be the name of the transform (e.g. default). For POST requests, the value can simply be true. Using this causes the Accept header to be set as application/json.
preferOmit	null	If set, this populates the Prefer: HTTP header with omitted values. For single values, the standard LDP values and the corresponding Fcrepo extensions can be provided in short form (without the namespace).
preferInclude	null	If set, this populates the Prefer: HTTP header with included values. For single values, the standard LDP values and the corresponding Fcrepo extensions can be provided in short form (without the namespace).
throwExceptionOnFailure	true	Option to disable throwing the HttpOperationFailedException in case of failed responses from the remote server. This allows you to get all responses regardless of the HTTP status code.

Examples

A simple example for sending messages to an external Solr service:

XPathBuilder xpath = new XPathBuilder("/rdf:RDF/rdf:Description/rdf:type[@rdf:resource='http://fedora.info/definitions/v4/indexing#Indexable']");
xpath.namespace("rdf", "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#");

from("activemq:topic:fedora")
  .choice()
    .when(header("org.fcrepo.jms.eventType").isEqualTo("http://fedora.info/definitions/v4/repository#NODE_REMOVED"))
      .to("direct:remove")
    .otherwise()
      .to("direct:update");

from("direct:update")
  .to("fcrepo:localhost:8080/rest")
  .choice()
    .when(xpath)
      .to("fcrepo:localhost:8080/rest?transform=mytransform")
      .to("http4:solr-host:8080/solr/core/update")
    .otherwise()
      .to("direct:remove");

from("direct:remove")
  .transform()
    .simple("{\"delete\":{\"id\":\"${header[org.fcrepo.jms.identifier]}\"}}")
  .setHeader(Exchange.CONTENT_TYPE, "application/json")
  .setHeader(Exchange.HTTP_METHOD, "POST")
  .to("http4:solr-host:8080/solr/core/update");

Or, using the Spring DSL:

<route id="solr-router">
  <from uri="activemq:topic:fedora"/>
  <choice>
    <when>
      <simple>${header[org.fcrepo.jms.eventType]} == 'http://fedora.info/definitions/v4/repository#NODE_REMOVED'</simple>
      <to uri="direct:remove"/>
    </when>
    <otherwise>
      <to uri="direct:update"/>
    </otherwise>
  </choice>
</route>

<route id="solr-updater">
  <from uri="direct:update"/>
  <to uri="fcrepo:localhost:8080/rest"/>
  <filter>
    <xpath>/rdf:RDF/rdf:Description/rdf:type[@rdf:resource='http://fedora.info/definitions/v4/indexing#Indexable']</xpath>
    <to uri="fcrepo:localhost:8080/rest?transform=mytransform"/>
    <to uri="http4:solr-host:8080/solr/core/update"/>
  </filter>
</route>

<route id="solr-remover">
  <from uri="direct:remove"/>
  <transform>
    <simple>{"delete":{"id":"${header[org.fcrepo.jms.baseURL]}${header[org.fcrepo.jms.identifier]}"}}</simple>
  </transform>
  <setHeader headerName="Content-Type">
    <constant>application/json</constant>
  </setHeader>
  <setHeader headerName="CamelHttpMethod">
    <constant>POST</constant>
  </setHeader>
  <to uri="http4:solr-host:8080/solr/core/update"/>
</route>

Please Note: as in this example, if you plan to handle NODE_REMOVED events, you should expect any requests back to fedora (via fcrepo:) to respond with a 410 Gone error, so it is recommended that you route your messages accordingly.

Setting basic authentication

Name	Default Value	Description
authUsername	null	Username for authentication
authPassword	null	Password for authentication
authHost	null	The host name for authentication

Configuring the fcrepo component

In addition to configuring the fcrepo component with URI options on each request, it is also sometimes convenient to set up component-wide configurations. This can be done via Spring (or Blueprint), like so:

<bean id="fcrepo" class="org.fcrepo.camel.FcrepoComponent">
  <property name="authUsername" value="${fcrepo.authUsername}"/>
  <property name="authPassword" value="${fcrepo.authPassword}"/>
  <property name="authHost" value="${fcrepo.authHost}"/>
</bean>

Message headers

Name	Type	Description
Exchange.HTTP_METHOD	String	The HTTP method to use
Exchange.CONTENT_TYPE	String	The ContentType of the resource. This sets the Content-Type header, but this value can be overridden directly on the endpoint.
Exchange.ACCEPT_CONTENT_TYPE	String	This sets the Accept header, but this value can be overridden directly on the endpoint.
FcrepoHeaders.FCREPO_PREFER	String	This sets the Prefer header on a repository request. The full header value should be declared here, and it will override any value set directly on an endpoint.
FcrepoHeaders.FCREPO_IDENTIFIER	String	The resource path, appended to the endpoint uri.
FcrepoHeaders.FCREPO_BASE_URL	String	The base url used for accessing Fedora.
FcrepoHeaders.FCREPO_TRANSFORM	String	The named fcr:transform method to use. This value overrides any value set explicitly on the endpoint.
FcrepoHeaders.FCREPO_NAMED_GRAPH	String	Sets a URI for a named graph when used with the processor.Sparql* classes. This may be useful when storing data in an external triplestore.

The fcrepo component will also accept message headers produced directly by fedora, particularly the org.fcrepo.jms.identifier header. It will use that header only when CamelFcrepoIdentifier is not defined.

If these headers are used with the Spring DSL or with the Simple language, the header values can be used directly with the following values:

Name	Value
FcrepoHeaders.FCREPO_BASE_URL	CamelFcrepoBaseUrl
FcrepoHeaders.FCREPO_IDENTIFIER	CamelFcrepoIdentifier
FcrepoHeaders.FCREPO_TRANSFORM	CamelFcrepoTransform
FcrepoHeaders.FCREPO_PREFER	CamelFcrepoPrefer
FcrepoHeaders.FCREPO_NAMED_GRAPH	CamelFcrepoNamedGraph

These headers can be removed as a group like this in the Java DSL: removeHeaders("CamelFcrepo*")

Message body

Camel will store the HTTP response from the Fedora4 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 to the OUT message headers.

Response code

Camel will handle the HTTP response code in the following ways:

• Response code in the range 100..299 is a success.
• Response code in the range 300..399 is a redirection and will throw a FcrepoOperationFailedException with the relevant information.
• Response code is 400+ is regarded as an external server error and will throw an FcrepoOperationFailedException with the relevant information.

Resource path

The path for fcrepo resources can be set in several different ways. If the CamelFcrepoIdentifier header is set, that value will be appended to the endpoint URI. If the CamelFcrepoIdentifier is not set, the path will be populated by the org.fcrepo.jms.identifier header and appended to the endpoint URI. If neither header is set, only the endpoint URI will be used.

It is generally a good idea to set the endpoint URI to fedora's REST API endpoint and then use the appropriate header to set the path of the intended resource.

For example, each of these routes will request the resource at http://localhost:8080/rest/a/b/c/abcdef:

from("direct:start")
  .setHeader("CamelFcrepoIdentifier", "/a/b/c/abcdef")
  .to("fcrepo:localhost:8080/rest");

// org.fcrepo.jms.identifier and CamelFcrepoIdentifier headers are undefined
from("direct:start")
  .to("fcrepo:localhost:8080/rest/a/b/c/abcdef");

// org.fcrepo.jms.identifier is set as '/a/b/c/abcdef'
// and CamelFcrepoIdentifier is not defined
from("direct:start")
  .to("fcrepo:localhost:8080/rest")

FcrepoOperationFailedException

This exception contains the following information:

• The requested URL
• The HTTP status code
• The HTTP status line (text of the status code)

How to set the HTTP method

The endpoint will always use the GET method unless explicitly set in the Exchange.HTTP_METHOD header. Other methods, such as PUT, PATCH, POST, and DELETE are available and will be passed through to the Fedora server. Here is an example:

from("direct:start")
    .setHeader(Exchange.HTTP_METHOD, constant("POST"))
    .to("fcrepo:localhost:8080/fcrepo4/rest")
    .to("mock:results");

And the equivalent Spring sample:

<camelContext xmlns="http://activemq.apache.org/camel/schema/spring">
  <route>
    <from uri="direct:start"/>
    <setHeader headerName="Exchange.HTTP_METHOD">
        <constant>POST</constant>
    </setHeader>
    <to uri="fcrepo:localhost:8080/fcrepo4/rest"/>
    <to uri="mock:results"/>
  </route>
</camelContext>

Getting the response code

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

Transactions

The fcrepo-camel component follows the Transactional Client pattern when using transactions with a Fedora Repository. A route can begin using transactions by simply identifying the route as transacted() like so:

from("direct:foo")
  .transacted()
  .to("fcrepo:localhost:8080/rest")
  .process(new MyProcessor())
  .to("fcrepo:localhost:8080/rest")
  .process(new MyOtherProcessor())
  .to("fcrepo:localhost:8080/rest");

A single transaction can span multiple routes so long as the transaction is run within a single thread. That is, if the direct endpoint is used, a transacted workflow may be divided among multiple routes (do not use seda or vm).

In order to enable a transactional client, a TransactionManager must be added to the Spring configuration: for this to work, the built-in FcrepoTransactionManager needs to know the baseUrl of the underlying repository. Authentication information, if necessary, can also be added in the bean configuration.

<bean id="fcrepoTxManager" class="org.fcrepo.camel.FcrepoTransactionManager">
  <property name="baseUrl" value="http://localhost:8080/rest"/>
</bean>

<bean id="fcrepo" class="org.fcrepo.camel.FcrepoComponent">
  <property name="transactionManager" ref="fcrepoTxManager"/>
</bean>

Like with other transactional clients, if an error is encountered anywhere in the route, all transacted operations will be rolled back.

Building the component

The fcrepo-camel compnent can be built with Maven:

mvn clean install

Fcrepo messaging

Fedora4 uses an internal ActiveMQ message broker to send messages about any updates to the repository content. By default, all events are published to a topic called fedora on the local broker. Each message contains an empty body and up to seven different header values:

• org.fcrepo.jms.baseURL
• org.fcrepo.jms.eventType
• org.fcrepo.jms.identifier
• org.fcrepo.jms.properties
• org.fcrepo.jms.timestamp
• org.fcrepo.jms.user
• org.fcrepo.jms.userAgent

Both eventType and properties are comma-delimited lists of events or properties. The eventType values follow the JCR 2.0 specification and include:

• http://fedora.info/definitions/v4/repository#NODE_ADDED
• http://fedora.info/definitions/v4/repository#NODE_REMOVED
• http://fedora.info/definitions/v4/repository#PROPERTY_ADDED
• http://fedora.info/definitions/v4/repository#PROPERTY_CHANGED
• http://fedora.info/definitions/v4/repository#PROPERTY_REMOVED

The properties field will list the RDF properties that changed with that event. NODE_REMOVED events contain no properties.

Examples and more information

There are several example projects in the examples directory of this distribution.

Furthermore, additional information about designing and deploying fcrepo-based message routes along with configuration options for Fedora's ActiveMQ broker can be found on the fedora project wiki.