Using EhCache in Spring 4 without XML

Question

Is there a way to initialize EhCache without xml in either Spring 4 or with Spring Boot?

I noticed Spring Boot 1.0.0.RC3 doesn't have any ehcache dependencies but the Spring 4.0GA release post mentioned it has improved support for EhCache. Also, Spring 3 had the class org.springframework.cache.ehcache.EhCacheCacheManager but that's no longer part of the dependencies.

Edit: Spring 4 does have EhCache support. You must add the dependency:

<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-context-support</artifactId>

Edit2: I've tried the following and I think I'm close but I'm getting an error:

@Bean
@Override
public CacheManager cacheManager() {
    CacheConfiguration cacheConfiguration = new CacheConfiguration();
    cacheConfiguration.setName("primary");
    cacheConfiguration.setMemoryStoreEvictionPolicy("LRU");
    cacheConfiguration.setMaxEntriesLocalHeap(0);

    net.sf.ehcache.config.Configuration config = new net.sf.ehcache.config.Configuration();
    config.addCache(cacheConfiguration);

    net.sf.ehcache.CacheManager cacheManager = new net.sf.ehcache.CacheManager(config);
    cacheManager.setName("EhCache");

    return new EhCacheCacheManager(cacheManager);
}

@Bean
public EhCacheManagerFactoryBean factoryBean() {
    return new EhCacheManagerFactoryBean();
}

Error

Caused by: net.sf.ehcache.CacheException: Another unnamed CacheManager already exists in the same VM. Please provide unique names for each CacheManager in the config or do one of following:
1. Use one of the CacheManager.create() static factory methods to reuse same CacheManager with same name or create one if necessary
2. Shutdown the earlier cacheManager before creating new one with same name.
The source of the existing CacheManager is: [Programmatically configured]
    at net.sf.ehcache.CacheManager.assertNoCacheManagerExistsWithSameName(CacheManager.java:590)
    at net.sf.ehcache.CacheManager.init(CacheManager.java:384)
    at net.sf.ehcache.CacheManager.<init>(CacheManager.java:263)
    at org.springframework.cache.ehcache.EhCacheManagerFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(EhCacheManagerFactoryBean.java:166)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1612)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1549)
    ... 15 more

Answer 1

XML-less configuration of EhCache in Spring

@Configuration
@EnableCaching
public class CachingConfig implements CachingConfigurer {
    @Bean(destroyMethod="shutdown")
    public net.sf.ehcache.CacheManager ehCacheManager() {
        CacheConfiguration cacheConfiguration = new CacheConfiguration();
        cacheConfiguration.setName("myCacheName");
        cacheConfiguration.setMemoryStoreEvictionPolicy("LRU");
        cacheConfiguration.setMaxEntriesLocalHeap(1000);

        net.sf.ehcache.config.Configuration config = new net.sf.ehcache.config.Configuration();
        config.addCache(cacheConfiguration);

        return net.sf.ehcache.CacheManager.newInstance(config);
    }

    @Bean
    @Override
    public CacheManager cacheManager() {
        return new EhCacheCacheManager(ehCacheManager());
    }

    @Bean
    @Override
    public KeyGenerator keyGenerator() {
        return new SimpleKeyGenerator();
    }

    @Bean
    @Override
    public CacheResolver cacheResolver()    {
        return new SimpleCacheResolver();
    }

    @Bean
    @Override
    public CacheErrorHandler errorHandler() {
         return new SimpleCacheErrorHandler();
    }
}

Alternatively for testing, you can use a simple ConcurrentMapCache running without XML as below.

@Configuration
@EnableCaching
public class CachingConfig implements CachingConfigurer {
    @Bean
    @Override
    public CacheManager cacheManager() {
        SimpleCacheManager cacheManager = new SimpleCacheManager();

        List<Cache> caches = new ArrayList<Cache>();
        caches.add(new ConcurrentMapCache("myCacheName"));
        cacheManager.setCaches(caches);

        return cacheManager;
    }

    @Bean
    @Override
    public KeyGenerator keyGenerator() {
        return new SimpleKeyGenerator();
    }

    @Bean
    @Override
    public CacheResolver cacheResolver()    {
        return new SimpleCacheResolver();
    }

    @Bean
    @Override
    public CacheErrorHandler errorHandler() {
         return new SimpleCacheErrorHandler();
    }
}

Edit: Updated to add shutdown method on underlying cache

Edit: Added configuration for error handler and cache resolver

Edit: changing constructor call on SimpleCacheResolver which resolves CacheManager must not be null issue (Spring v5.1+)

@Configuration
@EnableCaching
public class CachingConfig implements CachingConfigurer {

    public static final String USER_CACHE_INSTANCE = "my-spring-ehcache";
    private final CacheManager cacheManager;
    private final net.sf.ehcache.CacheManager ehCacheManager;


    public CachingConfig() {
        CacheConfiguration cacheConfiguration = new CacheConfiguration();
        cacheConfiguration.setName(USER_CACHE_INSTANCE);
        cacheConfiguration.setMemoryStoreEvictionPolicy("LRU");
        cacheConfiguration.setMaxEntriesLocalHeap(1000);
        net.sf.ehcache.config.Configuration config
                = new net.sf.ehcache.config.Configuration();
        config.addCache(cacheConfiguration);
        this.ehCacheManager = net.sf.ehcache.CacheManager.newInstance(config);
        this.cacheManager = new EhCacheCacheManager(ehCacheManager);
    }

    @Bean(destroyMethod="shutdown")
    public net.sf.ehcache.CacheManager ehCacheManager() {
        return ehCacheManager;
    }

    @Bean
    @Override
    public CacheManager cacheManager() {
        return cacheManager;
    }

    @Bean
    @Override
    public KeyGenerator keyGenerator() {
        return new SimpleKeyGenerator();
    }

    @Bean
    @Override
    public CacheResolver cacheResolver() {
        return new SimpleCacheResolver(cacheManager);
    }

    @Bean
    @Override
    public CacheErrorHandler errorHandler() {
        return new SimpleCacheErrorHandler();
    }
}