spring-modules-ehcache and ehcache issues you should be aware of

Anyone looking at or currently using spring-modules–ehcache should be aware of a couple of issues:

1. spring-modules is no longer maintained
2. a cache cannot be re-configured after it’s construction. save your-self some headache and use the recommended ehcache.xml method instead of programmatic configuration
3. the HashCodeCacheKey generator in spring-modules-ehcache suffers from inconsistency issues. This is a problem when setting up a distributed cache, or using a disk persistent cache (diskPersistent=”true”). A fix is described in the jira
4. the logging system in ehcache 1.6 has changed from commons logging to JDK logging – currently contrary to what the documentation will tell you. If anyone can tell me how to get the logging working in 1.6, I would be greatly appreciative.
5. the 0.8 and 0.8a pom’s in repo1 have broken pom’s. The fix is under http://jira.springframework.org/browse/MOD-463
6. contrary to what is available in repo1, there is a newer version available – 0.9. A patch and pom files have been posted, but you will have to install it to your company’s repo manually, a-la something along the lines of:

mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=org.springmodules -DartifactId=spring-modules-cache -Dversion=0.9 -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=Downloads/spring-modules-0.9/sources/spring-modules-cache-src.zip  -Dclassifier=sources

mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=org.springmodules -DartifactId=spring-modules-cache -Dversion=0.9 -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=Downloads/spring-modules-0.9/sources/spring-modules-cache.jar  -Dclassifier=sources

mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=org.springmodules -DartifactId=spring-modules -Dversion=0.9 -Dpackaging=jar  -DpomFile=Downloads/spring-modules-0.9-maven2-poms/pom.xml

and on the parent pom spring-modules:

mvn install -N

And just for an example, an ehcache.xml with disk persistent, ever-lasting entries:

<ehcache xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ehcache.sf.net/ehcache.xsd">

    <diskStore path="java.io.tmpdir" /> 

    <cacheManagerEventListenerFactory class="" properties="" />

    <!-- eternal used during development for web services -->
    <defaultCache
            maxElementsInMemory="10000"
            eternal="true"
            timeToIdleSeconds="120"
            timeToLiveSeconds="120"
            overflowToDisk="true"
            diskSpoolBufferSizeMB="5"
            maxElementsOnDisk="10000000"
            diskPersistent="true"
            diskExpiryThreadIntervalSeconds="120"
            memoryStoreEvictionPolicy="LRU"
            />

    <cache name="webservice"
            maxElementsInMemory="10000"
            eternal="true"
            timeToIdleSeconds="1200"
            timeToLiveSeconds="1200"
            overflowToDisk="true"
            diskSpoolBufferSizeMB="1"
            maxElementsOnDisk="10000000"
            diskPersistent="true"
            diskExpiryThreadIntervalSeconds="120"
            memoryStoreEvictionPolicy="LRU"
            />

</ehcache>

And spring-context so you can use declaritive caching:

<bean id="cacheProviderFacade" class="org.springmodules.cache.provider.ehcache.EhCacheFacade">
        <property name="cacheManager" ref="cacheManager" />
    </bean>

    <bean id="cacheManager" class="org.springframework.cache.ehcache.EhCacheManagerFactoryBean">
        <property name="configLocation" value="classpath:ehcache.xml" />
    </bean>

    <bean id="cachingAttributeSource" class="org.springmodules.cache.annotations.AnnotationCachingAttributeSource" />

    <bean id="autoproxy" class="org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy.DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator" />

    <bean id="myKeyGenerator" class="com.componence.mubito.webservices.clients.MyCacheKeyGenerator" />

    <bean id="cachingInterceptor" class="org.springmodules.cache.interceptor.caching.MetadataCachingInterceptor">
        <property name="cacheProviderFacade" ref="cacheProviderFacade" />
        <property name="cachingAttributeSource" ref="cachingAttributeSource" />
        <property name="cachingModels">
            <props>
                <prop key="webservicesCache">cacheName=webservice</prop>
            </props>
        </property>
    </bean>

    <bean id="cachingAttributeSourceAdvisor" class="org.springmodules.cache.interceptor.caching.CachingAttributeSourceAdvisor">
        <constructor-arg ref="cachingInterceptor" />
    </bean>

And annotate the methods you want cached with:

@Cacheable(modelId = "webservicesCache")

Update!

Due to these dificulties and more, I have forked the long dead Spring Modules project!

Check out the project page here:

http://wiki.github.com/astubbs/spring-modules

Discuss it on the google group:

groups.google.com/group/spring-modules-fork/

And submit your patches here:

http://github.com/astubbs/spring-modules/

Happy moduling!