The Java code for this recipe is located in the org.camelcookbook.monitoring.log package. The Spring XML files are located under src/main/resources/META-INF/spring and prefixed with log.

The format for the Log Component URI is as follows:

log:<log name>[?<query options>]

In the XML DSL, this is written as:

<route>
  <from uri="direct:start"/>
  <to uri="log:myLog"/>
  <to uri="mock:result"/>
</route>

In the Java DSL, the same route is expressed as:

from("direct:start")
  .to("log:myLog")
  .to("mock:result");

The resulting log should look something like the following, assuming a message with the body of "Hello Camel" is passed in:

INFO  myLog   - Exchange[ExchangePattern:InOnly, BodyType:String, Body:Hello Camel]

The Log Component, by default, will log at the INFO logging level, and output the following information to the log system: the MEP (Message Exchange Pattern), the message body data type, and the contents of the message body.

There are a number of formatting options within the Log Component that allow you to output more information. For example, to show the full contents of the message, and nicely format it on multiple log lines (versus one very long line), you could configure the endpoint as follows in the XML DSL:

<route>
  <from uri="direct:start"/>
  <to uri="log:myLog?showAll=true&amp;multiline=true"/>
  <to uri="mock:result"/>
</route>

In the Java DSL, the same configuration is applied as follows:

from("direct:start")
  .to("log:myLog?showAll=true&multiline=true")
  .to("mock:result");

Here is a sample of the type of output you would see from the preceding configuration. Notice how the log entry is broken up across multiple lines by category (properties, headers, body, and so on):

INFO  myLog                          - Exchange[
, Id:ID-grelber-local-65355-1374412338126-1-2
, ExchangePattern:InOnly
, Properties:{CamelToEndpoint=log://myLog?multiline=true&showAll=true, CamelCreatedTimestamp=Sun Jul 21 09:12:18EDT 2013}
, Headers:{breadcrumbId=ID-grelber-local-65355-1374412338126-1-1}
, BodyType:String
, Body:Hello Camel
, Out: null
]