This section provides an overview of what spring-integration is, and why a developer might want to use it.
It should also mention any large subjects within spring-integration, and link out to the related topics. Since the Documentation for spring-integration is new, you may need to create initial versions of those related topics.
| Version | Release Date | 
|---|---|
| 4.3.x | 2016-11-07 | 
| 4.2.x | 2016-11-07 | 
| 4.1.x | 2016-07-25 | 
| 4.0.x | 2016-07-26 | 
| 3.0.x | 2015-10-27 | 
| 2.2.x | 2016-01-27 | 
| 2.1.x | 2013-06-10 | 
| 2.0.x | 2013-04-11 | 
| 1.0.x | 2010-04-16 | 
Channel adapter is one of message endpoints in Spring Integration. It is used for unidirectional message flow. There are two types of channel adapter:
Inbound Adapter: input side of the channel. Listen or actively read message.
Outbound Adapter: output side of the channel. Send message to Java class or external system or protocol.
Source code.
public class Application {
    static class MessageProducer {
        public String produce() {
            String[] array = {"first line!", "second line!", "third line!"};
            return array[new Random().nextInt(3)];
        }
    }
    static class MessageConsumer {
        public void consume(String message) {
            System.out.println(message);
        }
    }
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath:spring/integration/stackoverflow/ioadapter/ioadapter.xml");
    }
}
 XML-style Configuration file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:int="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration.xsd">
    <int:channel id="channel"/>
    <int:inbound-channel-adapter id="inAdapter" channel="channel" method="produce">
        <bean class="spring.integration.stackoverflow.ioadapter.Application$MessageProducer"/>
        <int:poller fixed-rate="1000"/>
    </int:inbound-channel-adapter>
    <int:outbound-channel-adapter id="outAdapter" channel="channel" method="consume">
        <bean class="spring.integration.stackoverflow.ioadapter.Application$MessageConsumer"/>
    </int:outbound-channel-adapter>
</beans>
 Message Flow
inAdapter : an inbound channel adapter. Invoke Application$MessageProducer.produce  method every 1 second (<int:poller fixed-rate="1000"/> ) and send the returned string as message to the channel channel .channel : channel to transfer message.outAdapter : an outbound channel adapter. Once message reached on channel channel , this adapter will receive the message and then send it to Application$MessageConsumer.consume  method which print the message on the console.The best way to get started using Spring-Integration in your project is with a dependency management system, like gradle.
dependencies {
    compile 'org.springframework.integration:spring-integration-core:4.3.5.RELEASE'
}
 Below is a very simple example using the gateway, service-activator message endpoints.
//these annotations will enable Spring integration and scan for components
@Configuration
@EnableIntegration
@IntegrationComponentScan
public class Application {
    //a channel has two ends, this Messaging Gateway is acting as input from one side of inChannel
    @MessagingGateway
    interface Greeting {
        @Gateway(requestChannel = "inChannel")
        String greet(String name);
    }
    @Component
    static class HelloMessageProvider {
        //a service activator act as a handler when message is received from inChannel, in this example, it is acting as the handler on the output side of inChannel
        @ServiceActivator(inputChannel = "inChannel")
        public String sayHello(String name) {
            return "Hi, " + name;
        }
    }
    @Bean
    MessageChannel inChannel() {
        return new DirectChannel();
    }
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ApplicationContext context = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(Application.class);
        Greeting greeting = context.getBean(Greeting.class);
        //greeting.greet() send a message to the channel, which trigger service activitor to process the incoming message
        System.out.println(greeting.greet("Spring Integration!"));
    }
}
 It will display the string Hi, Spring Integration!  in the console.
Of course, Spring Integration also provides xml-style configuration. For the above example, you can write such following xml configuration file.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:int="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration.xsd">
    <int:gateway default-request-channel="inChannel"
                 service-interface="spring.integration.stackoverflow.getstarted.Application$Greeting"/>
    <int:channel id="inChannel"/>
    <int:service-activator input-channel="inChannel" method="sayHello">
        <bean class="spring.integration.stackoverflow.getstarted.Application$HelloMessageProvider"/>
    </int:service-activator>
</beans>
 To run the application using the xml config file, you should change the code new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(Application.class)  in Application  class to new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath:getstarted.xml") . And run this application again, you can see the same output.
Java code:
public class StdioApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath:spring/integration/stackoverflow/stdio/stdio.xml");
    }
}
 Xml config file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:int="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration"
       xmlns:int-stream="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/stream"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/stream
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/stream/spring-integration-stream.xsd
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration.xsd">
    <int:channel id="channel"/>
    <int-stream:stdin-channel-adapter id="stdin" channel="channel">
        <int:poller fixed-rate="1000"/>
    </int-stream:stdin-channel-adapter>
    <int-stream:stdout-channel-adapter id="stdout" channel="channel"/>
</beans>
 This is a echo example. When you run this Java application, you can input some string and then it will be displayed on the console.