Using Filters
Filters specify conditions that must be met for a message to be routed to a external service or continue progressing through a flow. There are several standard filters that come with Mule ESB that you can use, or you can create your own filters.
You can create a global filter and then reference it from your flows. Global filters require the "name" attribute, whereas filters configured on endpoints or routers do not.
<!-- Globally defined filter with name attribute -->
<payload-type-filter name="payloadFilter" expectedType="java.lang.String" />
<flow>
<tcp:inbound-endpoint host="locahost" port="1234">
<!-- Here we reference the filter defined globally using it for this endpoint -->
<filter ref="payloadFilter"/>
</tcp:inbound-endpoint>
<echo-component/>
</flow>For reference to the configuration of each filter, see Filters Configuration Reference.
Using in Flows
Filters return null if the condition is evaluated to false. Otherwise, they return the message. In the case of flows, a condition of false will halt the processing of the flow for that message. If the inbound endpoint defined on a Flow has a request-response exchange-pattern and there are no <response> blocks in your flow then the response used is simply the result from the last Message Processor in the flow, which will be null.
Standard Filters
Mule includes the following standard filters that you can apply to your routers:
Payload Type Filter
Checks the class type of the payload object inside a message.
<payload-type-filter expectedType="java.lang.String"/>Expression Filter
The expression filter evaluates the expression. If the expression’s value is true, the message is let through. Otherwise, the message is discarded.
For more about expressions in Mule, see Mule Expression Language MEL.
RegEx Filter
Applies a regular expression pattern to the message payload. The filter applies toString() to the payload, so you might also want to apply a Payload Type Filter to the message using an And Filter to make sure the payload is a String.
<regex-filter pattern="the quick brown (.*)"/>Wildcard Filter
Applies a wildcard pattern to the message payload. The filter applies toString() to the payload, so you might also want to apply a Payload Type Filter to the message using an And Filter to make sure the payload is a String.
For the string "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog", the following patterns would match:
-
*x jumped over the lazy dog
-
the quick*
-
fox
<wildcard-filter pattern="the quick brown *"/>Exception Type Filter
A filter that matches an exception type.
<exception-type-filter expectedType="java.lang.RuntimeException"/>Message Property Filter
This filter allows you add logic to your routers based on the value of one or more properties of a message. This filter can be very powerful because the message properties are exposed, allowing you to reference any transport-specific or user-defined property. For example, you can match one or more HTTP headers for an HTTP event, match properties in JMS and email messages, and more.
By default, the comparison is case sensitive. You can set the caseSensitive attribute to override this behavior.
<message-property-filter pattern="Content-Type=text/xml" caseSensitive="false"/>The expression is always a key value pair. If you want to use more complex expressions, you can use the Logic Filters. The following example shows two filters :
<and-filter>
<message-property-filter pattern="JMSCorrelationID=1234567890"/>
<message-property-filter pattern="JMSReplyTo=null"/>
</and-filter>Logic Filters
There are three logic filters that can be used with other filters: And, Or, and Not. Logic filters can be nested so that more complex logic can be expressed.
And Filter
An And filter combines two filters and only accepts the message if it matches the criteria of both filters.
<and-filter>
<payload-type-filter expectedType="java.lang.String"/>
<regex-filter pattern="the quick brown (.*)"/>
</and-filter>Transport and Module Filters
Several Mule transports and modules provide their own filters. For example, the XML Module Reference includes a filter to determine if a message is XML. For more information, see Transports Reference and Modules Reference. Also, there are filters in Anypoint Exchange.
Creating Custom Filters
The standard filters handle most filtering requirements, but you can also create your own filter. To create a filter, implement the Filter interface, which has a single method:
public boolean accept(MuleMessage message);
This method returns true if the message matches the criteria that the filter imposes. Otherwise, it returns false.
You can then use this filter with the <custom-filter…> element, using the class attribute to specify the custom filter class you created and specifying any necessary properties using the <spring:property> child element. For example:
<outbound>
<filtering-router>
<http:outbound-endpoint address="http://localhost:65071/services/EnterOrder?method=create" exchange-pattern="request-response"/>
<custom-filter class="org.mule.transport.http.filters.HttpRequestWildcardFilter">
<spring:property name="pattern" value="/services/EnterOrder?wsdl"/>
</custom-filter>
</filtering-router>
</outbound>