spring-integration/src/reference/docbook/redis.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:id="redis"
    xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">

  <title>Redis Support</title>

  <para>
    Since version 2.1 Spring Integration introduces support for <ulink url="http://redis.io/">Redis</ulink>:
    <emphasis>"an open source advanced key-value store". </emphasis>
    This support comes in the form of a Redis-based MessageStore as well as Publish-Subscribe Messaging adapters that
    are supported by Redis via its <ulink url="http://redis.io/topics/pubsub">PUBLISH, SUBSCRIBE and UNSUBSCRIBE</ulink> commands.
  </para>

  <section id="redis-intro">
    <title>Introduction</title>
    <para>
      To download, install and run Redis please refer to the <ulink url="http://redis.io/download">Redis documentation</ulink>.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="redis-connection">
    <title>Connecting to Redis</title>
    
    <para>To begin interacting with Redis you first need to connect to it. Spring Integration uses support provided by another Spring project,
    <ulink url="https://github.com/SpringSource/spring-data-redis">Spring Data Redis</ulink>, which provides typical Spring constructs:
    <classname>ConnectionFactory</classname> and <classname>Template</classname>. Those abstractions
    simplify integration with several Redis-client Java APIs. Currently Spring-Data-Redis supports 
    <ulink url="https://github.com/xetorthio/jedis">jedis</ulink>, <ulink url="http://code.google.com/p/jredis/">jredis</ulink> and <ulink url="https://github.com/e-mzungu/rjc">rjc</ulink></para>
  
    <para><emphasis>RedisConnectionFactory</emphasis> </para>

    <para>
    To connect to Redis you would use one of the implementations of the <classname>RedisConnectionFactory</classname> interface:

      <programlisting lang="java"><![CDATA[public interface RedisConnectionFactory extends PersistenceExceptionTranslator {

	/**
	 * Provides a suitable connection for interacting with Redis.
	 *
	 * @return connection for interacting with Redis.
	 */
	RedisConnection getConnection();
}]]></programlisting>
    </para>
    
    <para>The example below shows how to create a <classname>JedisConnectionFactory</classname>.</para>
    
    <para>In Java:
    <programlisting lang="java"><![CDATA[JedisConnectionFactory jcf = new JedisConnectionFactory();
jcf.afterPropertiesSet();]]></programlisting>
    </para>
    
    <para>Or in Spring's XML configuration:
    <programlisting lang="xml"><![CDATA[<bean id="redisConnectionFactory" class="org.springframework.data.redis.connection.jedis.JedisConnectionFactory">
	<property name="port" value="7379" />
</bean>]]></programlisting>
    </para>
    
    <para>
    The implementations of RedisConnectionFactory provide a set of properties such as port and host that can be set if needed.
    Once an instance of RedisConnectionFactory is created, you can create an instance of RedisTemplate and inject it with the RedisConnectionFactory.
    </para>

    <para><emphasis>RedisTemplate</emphasis> </para>
     
    <para>
    As with other template classes in Spring (e.g., <classname>JdbcTemplate</classname>, <classname>JmsTemplate</classname>)
    <classname>RedisTemplate</classname> is a helper class that simplifies Redis data access code.
    For more information about <classname>RedisTemplate</classname> and its variations (e.g., <classname>StringRedisTemplate</classname>)
    please refer to the <ulink url="http://static.springsource.org/spring-data/data-redis/docs/current/reference/">Spring-Data-Redis documentation</ulink>
    </para>

    <para>The code below shows how to create an instance of <classname>RedisTemplate</classname>:</para>

    <para>In Java:
    <programlisting lang="java"><![CDATA[RedisTemplate rt = new RedisTemplate<String, Object>();
rt.setConnectionFactory(redisConnectionFactory);]]></programlisting>
    </para>
    
    <para>Or in Spring's XML configuration::
    <programlisting lang="xml"><![CDATA[<bean id="redisTemplate" class="org.springframework.data.redis.core.RedisTemplate">
	<property name="connectionFactory" ref="redisConnectionFactory"/>
</bean>]]></programlisting>
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="redis-messages">
    <title>Messaging with Redis</title>

    <para>
    As mentioned in the introduction Redis provides support for Publish-Subscribe messaging via its PUBLISH, SUBSCRIBE and UNSUBSCRIBE 
    commands. As with JMS and AMQP, Spring Integration provides Message Channels and adapters for sending and receiving messages via Redis.
    </para>

    <section id="redis-pub-sub-channel">
      <title>Redis Publish/Subscribe channel</title>

      <para>
      Similar to the JMS there are cases where both the producer and consumer are intended to be part of the same application, running 
      within the same process. This could be accomplished by using a pair of inbound and outbound Channel Adapters, 
      however just like with Spring Integration's JMS support, there is a simpler approach to address this use case.
      <programlisting lang="xml"><![CDATA[<int-redis:publish-subscribe-channel id="redisChannel" topic-name="si.test.topic"/>]]></programlisting>
      </para>

      <para>
      The publish-subscribe-channel (above) will behave much like a normal <code>&lt;publish-subscribe-channel/&gt;</code> element from the 
      main Spring Integration namespace. It can be referenced by both <code>input-channel</code> and <code>output-channel</code> attributes of
      any endpoint. The difference is that this channel is backed by a Redis topic name - a String value specified by the <code>topic-name</code>
      attribute. However unlike JMS this topic doesn't have to be created in advance or even auto-created by Redis. In Redis topics are simple
      String values that play the role of an address, and all the producer and consumer need to do to communicate is use the same String value
      as their topic name. A simple subscription to this channel means that asynchronous pub-sub messaging is possible between the producing and
      consuming endpoints, but unlike the asynchronous Message Channels created by adding a <code> &lt;queue/&gt;</code> sub-element within
      a simple Spring Integration <code>&lt;channel/&gt;</code> element, the Messages are not just stored in an in-memory queue. Instead those
      Messages are passed through Redis allowing you to rely on its support for persistence and clustering as well as its interoperability with
      other non-java platforms.
      </para>
    </section>

    <section id="redis-inbound-channel-adapter">
      <title>Redis Inbound Channel Adapter</title>
      <para>
      The Redis-based Inbound Channel Adapter adapts incoming Redis messages into Spring Integration Messages in the same way as other
      inbound adapters. It receives platform-specific messages (Redis in this case) and converts them to Spring Integration Messages using  
      a <classname>MessageConverter</classname> strategy.

      <programlisting lang="xml"><![CDATA[<int-redis:inbound-channel-adapter id="redisAdapter"
       topics="foo, bar"
       channel="receiveChannel"
       error-channel="testErrorChannel"
       message-converter="testConverter" />

<bean id="redisConnectionFactory" class="org.springframework.data.redis.connection.jedis.JedisConnectionFactory">
    <property name="port" value="7379" />
</bean>

<bean id="testConverter" class="foo.bar.SampleMessageConverter" />]]></programlisting>
      </para>

      <para>
      Above is a simple but complete configuration of a Redis Inbound Channel Adapter. Note that the above configuration relies on the 
      familiar Spring paradigm of auto-discovering certain beans. In this case the <code>redisConnectionFactory</code> is implicitly
      injected into the adapter. You can of course specify it explicitly using the <code>connection-factory</code> attribute instead.
      </para>

      <para>
      Also, note that the above configuration injects the adapter with a custom <code>MessageConverter</code>.
      The approach is similar to JMS where <code>MessageConverters</code> are used to convert between 
      Redis Messages and the Spring Integration Message payloads. The default is a <code>SimpleMessageConverter</code>.
      </para>

      <para>Inbound adapters can subscribe to multiple topic names hence the comma-delimited set of values in the
      <code>topics</code> attribute.</para>
    </section>
 
    <section id="redis-outbound-channel-adapter">
      <title>Redis Outbound Channel Adapter</title>
      <para>
      The Redis-based Outbound Channel Adapter adapts outgoing Spring Integration messages into Redis messages in the same way as 
      other outbound adapters. It receives Spring Integration messages and converts them to platform-specific messages (Redis in this case)
      using a <classname>MessageConverter</classname> strategy.

     <programlisting lang="xml"><![CDATA[<int-redis:outbound-channel-adapter id="outboundAdapter"
			channel="sendChannel"
			topic="foo"
			message-converter="testConverter"/>

<bean id="redisConnectionFactory" class="org.springframework.data.redis.connection.jedis.JedisConnectionFactory">
	<property name="port" value="7379"/>
</bean>

<bean id="testConverter" class="foo.bar.SampleMessageConverter" />]]></programlisting>
      </para>
      <para>
      As you can see the configuration is similar to the Redis Inbound Channel Adapter. The adapter is implicitly injected with
      a <classname>RedisConnectionFactory</classname> which was defined with '<code>redisConnectionFactory</code>' as its bean name.
      This example also includes the optional, custom <classname>MessageConverter</classname> (the '<code>testConverter</code>' bean). 
      </para>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section id="redis-message-store">
    <title>Redis Message Store</title>
	
	<para>
    As described in EIP, a <ulink url="http://www.eaipatterns.com/MessageStore.html">Message Store</ulink> allows you to persist Messages.
    This can be very useful when dealing with components that have a capability to buffer messages
    (<emphasis>QueueChannel, Aggregator, Resequencer</emphasis>, etc.) if reliability is a concern.
    In Spring Integration, the MessageStore strategy also provides the foundation for the 
	<ulink url="http://www.eaipatterns.com/StoreInLibrary.html">ClaimCheck</ulink> pattern, which is described in EIP as well.
	</para>

	<para>
    Spring Integration's Redis module provides the <classname>RedisMessageStore</classname> which is an implementation of both the
    the <classname>MessageStore</classname> strategy (mainly used by the <emphasis>QueueChannel</emphasis> and <emphasis>ClaimCheck</emphasis>
    patterns) and the <classname>MessageGroupStore</classname> strategy (mainly used by the <emphasis>Aggregator</emphasis> and
    <emphasis>Resequencer</emphasis> patterns).
    </para>

	<para>
	<programlisting lang="xml"><![CDATA[<bean id="redisMessageStore" class="org.springframework.integration.redis.store.RedisMessageStore">
    <constructor-arg ref="redisConnectionFactory"/>
</bean>

<int:channel id="somePersistentQueueChannel">
    <int:queue message-store="redisMessageStore"/>
<int:channel>

<int:aggregator input-channel="inputChannel" output-channel="outputChannel"
         message-store="redisMessageStore"/>]]></programlisting>
    </para>

    <para>
    Above is a sample <classname>RedisMessageStore</classname> configuration that shows its usage by a <emphasis>QueueChannel</emphasis>
    and an <emphasis>Aggregator</emphasis>. As you can see it is a simple bean configuration, and it expects a
    <classname>RedisConnectionFactory</classname> as a constructor argument.
    </para>

    <para>By default the <classname>RedisMessageStore</classname> will use Java serialization to serialize the Message.
    However if you want to use a different serialization technique (e.g., JSON), you can provide your own serializer via
    the <code>valueSerializer</code> property of the <classname>RedisMessageStore</classname>.
    </para>
  </section>

</chapter>