The GlobalFilter interface has the same signature as GatewayFilter. These are special filters that are conditionally applied to all routes. (This interface and usage are subject to change in future milestones).
The ForwardRoutingFilter looks for a URI in the exchange attribute ServerWebExchangeUtils.GATEWAY_REQUEST_URL_ATTR. If the url has a forward scheme (ie forward:///localendpoint), it will use the Spring DispatcherHandler to handler the request. The unmodified original url is appended to the list in the ServerWebExchangeUtils.GATEWAY_ORIGINAL_REQUEST_URL_ATTR attribute.
The LoadBalancerClientFilter looks for a URI in the exchange attribute ServerWebExchangeUtils.GATEWAY_REQUEST_URL_ATTR. If the url has a lb scheme (ie lb://myservice), it will use the Spring Cloud LoadBalancerClient to resolve the name (myservice in the previous example) to an actual host and port and replace the URI in the same attribute. The unmodified original url is appended to the list in the ServerWebExchangeUtils.GATEWAY_ORIGINAL_REQUEST_URL_ATTR attribute.
The Netty Routing Filter runs if the url located in the ServerWebExchangeUtils.GATEWAY_REQUEST_URL_ATTR exchange attribute has a http or https scheme. It uses the Netty HttpClient to make the downstream proxy request. The response is put in the ServerWebExchangeUtils.CLIENT_RESPONSE_ATTR exchange attribute for use in a later filter. (There is an experimental WebClientHttpRoutingFilter that performs the same function, but does not require netty)
The NettyWriteResponseFilter runs if there is a Netty HttpClientResponse in the ServerWebExchangeUtils.CLIENT_RESPONSE_ATTR exchange attribute. It is run after all other filters have completed and writes the proxy response back to the gateway client response. (There is an experimental WebClientWriteResponseFilter that performs the same function, but does not require netty)
The RouteToRequestUrlFilter runs if there is a Route object in the ServerWebExchangeUtils.GATEWAY_ROUTE_ATTR exchange attribute. It creates a new URI, based off of the request URI, but updated with the URI attribute of the Route object. The new URI is placed in the `ServerWebExchangeUtils.GATEWAY_REQUEST_URL_ATTR exchange attribute`.