Chapter 16. JCache (JSR-107) provider

In order to start using Red Hat Data Grid JCache implementation, a single dependency needs to be added to the Maven pom.xml file:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.infinispan</groupId>
  <artifactId>infinispan-jcache</artifactId>
  <version>${version.infinispan}</version>
  <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

Replace ${version.infinispan} with the appropriate version of Red Hat Data Grid.

Creating a local cache, using default configuration options as defined by the JCache API specification, is as simple as doing the following:

import javax.cache.*;
import javax.cache.configuration.*;

// Retrieve the system wide cache manager
CacheManager cacheManager = Caching.getCachingProvider().getCacheManager();
// Define a named cache with default JCache configuration
Cache<String, String> cache = cacheManager.createCache("namedCache",
      new MutableConfiguration<String, String>());

Alternatively, JCache can be configured to store data by reference (just like Red Hat Data Grid or JDK Collections work). To do that, simply call:

Cache<String, String> cache = cacheManager.createCache("namedCache",
      new MutableConfiguration<String, String>().setStoreByValue(false));

Creating a remote cache (client-server mode), using default configuration options as defined by the JCache API specification, is as simple as doing the following:

import javax.cache.*;
import javax.cache.configuration.*;

// Retrieve the system wide cache manager via org.infinispan.jcache.remote.JCachingProvider
CacheManager cacheManager = Caching.getCachingProvider("org.infinispan.jcache.remote.JCachingProvider").getCacheManager();
// Define a named cache with default JCache configuration
Cache<String, String> cache = cacheManager.createCache("remoteNamedCache",
      new MutableConfiguration<String, String>());

Even though JCache API does not extend neither java.util.Map not java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentMap, it providers a key/value API to store and retrieve data:

import javax.cache.*;
import javax.cache.configuration.*;

CacheManager cacheManager = Caching.getCacheManager();
Cache<String, String> cache = cacheManager.createCache("namedCache",
      new MutableConfiguration<String, String>());
cache.put("hello", "world"); // Notice that javax.cache.Cache.put(K) returns void!
String value = cache.get("hello"); // Returns "world"

Contrary to standard java.util.Map, javax.cache.Cache comes with two basic put methods called put and getAndPut. The former returns void whereas the latter returns the previous value associated with the key. So, the equivalent of java.util.Map.put(K) in JCache is javax.cache.Cache.getAndPut(K).

Here’s a brief comparison of the data manipulation APIs provided by java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentMap and javax.cache.Cache APIs.

Comparing the two APIs, it’s obvious to see that, where possible, JCache avoids returning the previous value to avoid operations doing expensive network or IO operations. This is an overriding principle in the design of JCache API. In fact, there’s a set of operations that are present in java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentMap , but are not present in the javax.cache.Cache because they could be expensive to compute in a distributed cache. The only exception is iterating over the contents of the cache:

Red Hat Data Grid JCache implementation goes beyond the specification in order to provide the possibility to cluster caches using the standard API. Given a Red Hat Data Grid configuration file configured to replicate caches like this:

<infinispan>
   <cache-container default-cache="namedCache">
      <transport cluster="jcache-cluster" />
      <replicated-cache name="namedCache" />
   </cache-container>
</infinispan>

You can create a cluster of caches using this code:

import javax.cache.*;
import java.net.URI;

// For multiple cache managers to be constructed with the standard JCache API
// and live in the same JVM, either their names, or their classloaders, must
// be different.
// This example shows how to force their classloaders to be different.
// An alternative method would have been to duplicate the XML file and give
// it a different name, but this results in unnecessary file duplication.
ClassLoader tccl = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
CacheManager cacheManager1 = Caching.getCachingProvider().getCacheManager(
      URI.create("infinispan-jcache-cluster.xml"), new TestClassLoader(tccl));
CacheManager cacheManager2 = Caching.getCachingProvider().getCacheManager(
      URI.create("infinispan-jcache-cluster.xml"), new TestClassLoader(tccl));

Cache<String, String> cache1 = cacheManager1.getCache("namedCache");
Cache<String, String> cache2 = cacheManager2.getCache("namedCache");

cache1.put("hello", "world");
String value = cache2.get("hello"); // Returns "world" if clustering is working

// --

public static class TestClassLoader extends ClassLoader {
  public TestClassLoader(ClassLoader parent) {
     super(parent);
  }
}