ServiceMix on the bleeding edge

Why stable dependencies are cool

ServiceMix (and Fuse ESB as well) are supposed to work with a specific version of Camel. For example ServiceMix 4.4.2 comes with a pre-configured Camel 2.8.5 features repository.

karaf@root> features:listurl | grep camel
  true    mvn:org.apache.camel.karaf/apache-camel/2.8.5/xml/features

The same rule is applied to the ActiveMQ and CXF dedicated for every release of the ServiceMix.

This is pretty cool approach since it guarantees you that sticking to the given version of Camel (ActiveMQ, CXF, ...) will result in a stable ServiceMix installation. ServiceMix team invested pretty lots of effort to make sure that Camel in version X works nicely on ServiceMix in version Y. Fuse ESB is tested even more, to guarantee the highest level of the product.


Why stable dependencies are NOT cool

The downside of such stable versioning strategy is that you need to wait a long time before updating to the latest version of Camel (or CXF or whatever).

For example, if I committed Spring Batch component to the Camel and it has been released in Camel 2.10, then I'll need to wait for ServiceMix to use the higher version of Camel and Karaf. In this particular example Karaf 2.2.4 included in the latest stable version of ServiceMix (i.e. 4.4.2) doesn't support Camel 2.10.

karaf@root> features:install camel-spring-batch/2.10.0
Error executing command: Can not resolve feature:
Unsatisfied requirement(s):
---------------------------
   package:(&(package=jline.console.completer)(version>=2.7.0)(!(version>=3.0.0)))
      camel-karaf-commands

Bleeding edge ServiceMix

What to do if you really need to work with the latest version of the ServiceMix stack? Download the latest version of Apache Karaf and manually add Camel (CXF, ActiveMQ, etc) support into it.

For example to use the latest Camel (i.e. 2.10) I can download the latest Karaf (i.e. 2.2.9) and arm it with the Camel 2.10 features repository.

karaf@root> features:addUrl mvn:org.apache.camel.karaf/apache-camel/2.10.0/xml/features

Then I enable feature responsible for bootstrapping Camel modules backed by Spring.

karaf@root> features:install camel-spring

At last but not least I enjoy the brand new Camel modules.

karaf@root> features:install camel-spring-batch/2.10.0

Now I can drop my integration solution using the latest Camel 2.10 into my hand-made bleeding edge ServiceMix. :)