JCache in Java EE 8

The contents of this post are derieved from conversations on the Java EE 8 mailing lists with regards to JCache integration. There are a couple of threads

• One initiated by Arjan Tjims and is being continued here
• and the other one by Adam Bien

Here are a bunch of points which seemed to have to come out of the discussions so far

JCache & Java EE 8 integration points

Managing Caches

CDI can be used to manage caches with the help of Producers. Containers can also provide portable CDI extensions to make the job a little easier and reduce boilerplate (see TomEE jcache-cdi)

Implementing JCache annotations

JCache ships with annotations meant to be leveraged by DI containers. A Java EE implementation would need to provide support for these annotations which can also be achieved by CDI interceptors (possibly in the form of portable CDI extensions)

Examples

• This is how Payara does it
• In fact, the JCache RI also ships with a default implementation

Other Jaa EE specs leveraging JCache

Different Java EE 8 specs can make use of the presence of JCache standards and make use of its features. One of the most common example would be JPA 2.2 using JCache provider as a (distributed) L2 (Level 2) cache. Payara has this lined up as well

Payara is leading the way with some other use cases in the pipeline

• Hazelcast as ejb timer store: EJB-JCache in tandem
• Hazelcast as a jbatch store: JBatch-JCache in tandem
• Hazelcast as a EclipseLink L1 cache co-ordinator: another JPA-JCache integration point in the works

What’s the bare minimum ?

As Johan Vos stated, just including it in the Java EE 8 Platform would be great!

I’ll stop rambling and open the floor for discussions, inputs and suggestions – over here, on the open Java EE 8 mailings lists or maybe in a blog post of your own ..?

Cheers!