spring_boot_starter_cache 0.1.4

Cache starter for spring_boot_dart: @Cacheable, @CachePut, @CacheEvict and @Caching on bean methods, SpEL keys, a CacheManager with TTL and size limits.

spring_boot_starter_cache

Caching for spring_boot_dart applications, like spring-boot-starter-cache: put @Cacheable on a bean method and repeated calls with the same arguments return the stored result instead of running the method again.

@Service()
class Books {
  Books(this.api);
  final CatalogApi api;

  @Cacheable('books')
  Future<Book> find(String isbn) => api.load(isbn); // slow: called once per isbn

  @CacheEvict('books', key: '#isbn')
  Future<void> delete(String isbn) => api.delete(isbn);
}

Setup

Add the dependency and run the generator again. The starter is found and switched on automatically — no @EnableCaching.

dependencies:
  spring_boot_dart: ^0.1.0
  spring_boot_starter_cache: ^0.1.0

dev_dependencies:
  build_runner: ^2.17.0
  spring_core_dart_generator: ^0.1.0   # required: generates the proxies caching runs on

dart run build_runner build

One import is enough: package:spring_boot_starter_cache/spring_boot_starter_cache.dart re-exports spring_boot_dart.

How it works: the generator writes an AOP proxy for each bean (option aop_proxies, all by default), and the starter registers an advisor that wraps every method with a cache annotation. So, exactly as in Spring:

• the cache applies to calls from other beans (through the proxy);
• a call through this inside the same class skips the cache. To call a cached method of your own class, inject the bean into itself with @Lazy():

@Service()
class Books implements BookService {
  Books(@Lazy() this._self);
  final BookService _self;

  @Cacheable('books')
  @override
  Book find(String isbn) => ...;

  List<Book> findAll(List<String> isbns) =>
      [for (final isbn in isbns) _self.find(isbn)]; // cached; find(isbn) is not
}

Annotations

Annotation	What it does
@Cacheable('books')	Returns the cached result when there is one; otherwise runs the method and stores the result.
@CachePut('books', key: '#isbn')	Always runs the method and stores the result (refreshes the entry).
@CacheEvict('books', key: '#isbn')	Removes the entry after the method returned. allEntries: true clears the cache, beforeInvocation: true evicts before the call (also when it throws).
@Caching(cacheable: [...], put: [...], evict: [...])	Several operations on one method. Repeating an annotation works too.
@CacheConfig(cacheNames: ['books'])	On the class: default cache names, keyGenerator, cacheManager for its methods.

@Cacheable('books') names one cache. For several caches, or to take them from @CacheConfig, use .of: @Cacheable.of(cacheNames: ['books', 'isbn']), @Cacheable.of(key: '#isbn') (same for CachePut.of and CacheEvict.of).

Options of @Cacheable (and, where they make sense, of the others):

Option	Meaning
key	SpEL computing the key. Default: the arguments (see below).
condition	SpEL; the cache is used only when it is true.
unless	SpEL with #result; the result is not stored when it is true.
sync	For Future methods: concurrent calls with the same key share one call.
keyGenerator	Name of a KeyGenerator bean computing the key.
cacheManager	Name of the CacheManager bean to use.

Keys

Without key, the key is made of the arguments, like Spring's SimpleKeyGenerator: no arguments → SimpleKey.empty, one argument → the argument itself, several → SimpleKey([...]), which compares by content (lists, sets and maps inside too).

key, condition and unless are SpEL expressions — plain, without #{}:

Expression	Value
#isbn	the argument named isbn
#p0, #a0	the first argument
#result	the result (unless; key and condition of @CachePut; @CacheEvict after the call)
#root.methodName	find
#root.args	all arguments, #root.args[1]
#root.target	the bean
#root.targetClass	the bean class name, Books
#root.caches	the cache names of the operation
@region	the bean named region

Examples:

@Cacheable('books', key: '#isbn')                         // ignore the other arguments
Book find(String isbn, bool includeReviews) => ...;

@Cacheable('books', key: "#isbn + '-' + #lang")            // a combined key
Book translated(String isbn, String lang) => ...;

@Cacheable('books', condition: '#isbn.length() == 13')     // cache 13-digit ISBNs only
Book findIsbn(String isbn) => ...;

@Cacheable('books', unless: '#result == null')            // do not remember misses
Book? maybe(String isbn) => ...;

@CachePut('books', key: '#result.isbn')                   // Book is @Introspected
Book save(Book book) => ...;

Reading properties or calling methods of your own objects (#book.isbn, #result.isbn, @clock.zone()) needs @Introspected() on their class, because Dart has no reflection: the generator then writes the accessors SpEL uses. Strings, numbers, lists and maps work as they are (#isbn.length(), #tags.size()).

Async methods

Methods returning a Future cache the value, not the future: the value is stored when the future completes, a hit returns an already completed Future, and errors are never cached (the next call tries again).

@Cacheable('prices', sync: true)
Future<double> price(String isbn) => api.price(isbn);

With sync: true, calls that arrive while the first one is still running wait for it instead of calling api.price again. Like in Spring, a sync operation must be the only cache annotation of the method, use one cache and no unless.

The default: caches in memory

Without any setup the starter creates the cacheManager bean, an InMemoryCacheManager (Spring's ConcurrentMapCacheManager):

• each cache is an InMemoryCache, a map in the memory of the running app, created the first time an annotation names it ('books', ...);
• entries are lost when the app stops, and after a restart of the context (also a hot reload that changes beans): the cache starts empty;
• nothing expires and there is no size limit unless you set them (below); expired entries are dropped when they are read;
• null results are stored too (a stored null is a hit, like in Spring);
• one app, one isolate: the cache is not shared between processes, isolates or devices.

That is right for most caches: results of slow calls that are cheap to recompute after a restart.

Properties

The default manager is built from spring.cache.* (only when the application declares no CacheManager of its own):

Property	Default	Meaning
spring.cache.type	simple	simple: caches in memory; none: cache nothing (annotations stay, methods always run)
spring.cache.cache-names	—	A fixed set of caches, e.g. books,authors; an unknown name is then an error. Without it caches are created on first use.
spring.cache.simple.time-to-live	none	How long entries live: 10m, 30s, PT1H, or milliseconds.
spring.cache.simple.max-size	none	Maximum entries per cache; the least recently used go first.
spring.cache.simple.caches.<name>.time-to-live	—	The same for one cache.
spring.cache.simple.caches.<name>.max-size	—	The same for one cache.

# lib/resources/application.properties
spring.cache.simple.time-to-live=10m
spring.cache.simple.max-size=1000
spring.cache.simple.caches.prices.time-to-live=30s

Inject the manager to look at or clear caches by hand:

@Component()
class CacheAdmin {
  CacheAdmin(this.caches);
  final CacheManager caches;

  void clearBooks() => caches.getCache('books')?.clear();
}

Your own cache or manager

The annotations only talk to two interfaces, so anything can stand behind them:

Type	What it does	Built in
CacheManager	finds a cache by name (getCache('books'))	InMemoryCacheManager, SimpleCacheManager, NoOpCacheManager
Cache	one cache: get, put, evict, clear, ...	InMemoryCache, NoOpCache

Declare a CacheManager bean and the starter's one steps aside (it is created only when there is none). The spring.cache.* properties then no longer apply: your bean decides.

1. The default, configured in code

@Configuration()
class CacheSetup {
  @Bean()
  CacheManager cacheManager() => InMemoryCacheManager(
    cacheNames: ['books', 'prices'],                     // only these two
    defaultSpec: const CacheSpec(timeToLive: Duration(minutes: 10)),
    specs: {'prices': const CacheSpec(timeToLive: Duration(seconds: 30))},
  );
}

2. Your own storage

Implement Cache. With the CacheDefaults mixin four methods are enough (putIfAbsent, evictIfPresent and invalidate are derived from them). Then hand your caches to a SimpleCacheManager (Spring's SimpleCacheManager), alone or mixed with in-memory ones:

import 'dart:convert';

/// Any synchronous key-value storage: a file, a key-value database, ...
abstract interface class KeyValueStore {
  String? read(String key);
  void write(String key, String value);
  void delete(String key);
  void deleteAll({required String prefix});
}

/// Entries kept in the store as JSON, so they survive a restart.
final class StoreCache with CacheDefaults implements Cache {
  StoreCache(this.name, this.store);

  @override
  final String name;
  final KeyValueStore store;

  String _key(Object? key) => '$name:$key';

  @override
  ValueWrapper? get(Object? key) => switch (store.read(_key(key))) {
    null => null,                               // a miss: the method runs
    final json => ValueWrapper(jsonDecode(json)), // a hit (also a stored null)
  };

  @override
  void put(Object? key, Object? value) =>
      store.write(_key(key), jsonEncode(value));

  @override
  void evict(Object? key) => store.delete(_key(key));

  @override
  void clear() => store.deleteAll(prefix: '$name:');
}

@Configuration()
class CacheSetup {
  @Bean()
  CacheManager cacheManager(KeyValueStore store) => SimpleCacheManager([
    StoreCache('books', store),   // kept in the store
    InMemoryCache('prices'),      // in memory
  ]);
}

What to keep in mind:

• Return ValueWrapper for a hit and null for a miss. ValueWrapper(null) is a cached null; returning plain null makes the method run again.

• Keys are the method arguments (one argument: the argument itself; several: a SimpleKey), or what key: computes. A store that needs strings must turn them into strings: '$key' works for strings, numbers and SimpleKey; for your own classes override toString, or set key: '#isbn' so the key is a string anyway.

• Values are whatever the methods return. A store outside memory must serialize them: JSON for maps, lists, strings and numbers; your classes need toJson / fromJson (decode in get into the right type).

• The Cache interface is synchronous, as in Spring. For an asynchronous store (SQLite, shared_preferences in Flutter, a server), keep the entries in memory, load the stored ones in the background (until then calls are misses: the methods simply run) and write changes back in the background:

  import 'dart:async'; // unawaited
  
  final class WriteBehindCache with CacheDefaults implements Cache {
    WriteBehindCache(this.name, this.store) {
      unawaited(
        store.readAll(prefix: '$name:').then((entries) {
          entries.forEach((key, json) => _memory.putIfAbsent(
            key.substring(name.length + 1),
            () => jsonDecode(json),
          ));
        }),
      );
    }
  
    @override
    final String name;
    final AsyncStore store;               // Future-based API
    final _memory = <String, Object?>{};
  
    @override
    ValueWrapper? get(Object? key) =>
        _memory.containsKey('$key') ? ValueWrapper(_memory['$key']) : null;
  
    @override
    void put(Object? key, Object? value) {
      _memory['$key'] = value;
      unawaited(store.write('$name:$key', jsonEncode(value)));
    }
  
    @override
    void evict(Object? key) {
      _memory.remove('$key');
      unawaited(store.delete('$name:$key'));
    }
  
    @override
    void clear() {
      _memory.clear();
      unawaited(store.deleteAll(prefix: '$name:'));
    }
  }
  

• Errors thrown by your cache reach the caller of the cached method (Spring's default too); catch them inside the cache if a broken store should only mean "no cache".

3. Caches created on demand

SimpleCacheManager knows only the caches it was given (@Cacheable('other') then fails with "Cannot find cache named 'other'"). To create caches when they are first named, implement CacheManager:

final class StoreCacheManager implements CacheManager {
  StoreCacheManager(this.store);
  final KeyValueStore store;
  final _caches = <String, Cache>{};

  @override
  Cache? getCache(String name) =>
      _caches.putIfAbsent(name, () => StoreCache(name, store));

  @override
  Iterable<String> get cacheNames => _caches.keys;
}

4. Several managers

Keep the starter's manager (or your main one) for most methods and use another one for some: give it a name, hide it from injection by type (autowireCandidate: false), and name it in the annotation:

@Configuration()
class CacheSetup {
  @Bean(autowireCandidate: false)
  CacheManager sessionCaches(KeyValueStore store) =>
      SimpleCacheManager([StoreCache('sessions', store)]);
}

@Cacheable('sessions', cacheManager: 'sessionCaches')
Session load(String token) => ...;

5. Your own keys

Implement KeyGenerator, declare it as a bean and name it in the annotation:

final class IsbnKeys implements KeyGenerator {
  const IsbnKeys();

  @override
  Object? generate(Object target, MethodSignature method, List<Object?> args) =>
      (args.first! as String).replaceAll('-', '');
}

@Configuration()
class Keys {
  @Bean()
  KeyGenerator isbnKeys() => const IsbnKeys();
}

@Cacheable('books', keyGenerator: 'isbnKeys')
Book find(String isbn) => ...;

Testing

Cached results carry over between calls, which can hide behavior in tests. Switch caching off with a property:

final app = springBootTest(
  springApplication,
  properties: {'spring.cache.type': 'none'},
);

Or keep it on and check the cache through the CacheManager bean (app.getBean<CacheManager>().getCache('books')!.get('978-0')).

Differences from Spring

• No @EnableCaching: adding the starter turns caching on; spring.cache.type=none turns it off.
• @Cacheable('books') takes one name; several names go to @Cacheable.of(cacheNames: [...]) (Dart cannot mix an optional positional parameter with named ones).
• #root.caches holds cache names, #root.targetClass the class name.
• Future results are cached by value (Spring 6.1 does the same for CompletableFuture).
• Built-in store: memory, with time to live and size limit (Spring's ConcurrentMapCacheManager has neither; it needs Caffeine for that).
• Errors thrown by a cache propagate to the caller (Spring's default SimpleCacheErrorHandler); there is no CacheErrorHandler yet.