jimmcslim / ehcache.net

A .Net assembly that wraps around the Ehcache REST server API using .Net idioms and interfaces.

##INTRODUCTION##

This is an attempt at a .Net idiomatic wrapper around the REST interface provided by the Ehcache Server component of Ehcache. In other words, if you want a .Net application to act as a client to the Ehcache Server then this will provide you access to such functionality using patterns and classes that should be familiar to you as a .Net developer. It is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 1.1 .

FEATURES

• An implementation of the non-generic System.Collections.IDictionary interface in AgileWallaby.Ehcache.EhcacheServerDictionary.
• An extension of the new System.Runtime.Caching.ObjectCache class, AgileWallaby.Ehcache.EhcacheServerCache that has been introduced in the .Net 4.0 platform. However I was hoping that this API would be the same as that implemented by the new AppFabric caching service (formerly known as 'Velocity') a la the Java platform's JCache API however it appears they are different.

STRUCTURE

The following project structure is in effect:

• AgileWallaby.Ehcache.Net2: A project that targets the .Net 2.0 platform. This contains the implementation of AgileWallaby.Ehcache.EhcacheServerDictionary and related classes. In particular it contains the core code that interfaces with the Ehcache Server REST API. This core code is reused by the other projects directly.
• AgileWallaby.Ehcache.Net4: A project that targets the .Net 4.0 platform. This contains the implementation of AgileWallaby.Ehcache.EhcacheServerCache. Much of the rest of the code is referenced from AgileWallaby.Ehcache.Net2 via inter-project links, so as to obtain code reuse without requiring multiple assemblies to be referenced.
• AgileWallaby.Ehcache.Silverlight: A project that targets the Silverlight 4 platform. This is very much a work-in-progress and the project does not currently compile. In fact, the solution currently includes but does not load this project.
• AgileWallaby.Ehcache.Test: MSTest project that tests both AgileWallaby.Ehcache.EhcacheServerDictionary and AgileWallaby.Ehcache.EhcacheServerCache. These tests are mostly functional in nature and require an instance of the Ehcache Server to be running.

USAGE

• At the moment no binaries are available. The solution is for Visual Studio 2010 only.
• Compile the solution.
• Once you have referenced the assemblies in your own project, instantiate either the AgileWallaby.Ehcache.EhcacheServerDictionary or AgileWallaby.Ehcache.EhcacheServerCache providing it with the URL to the approrpiate Ehcache Server endpoint.

TESTING

• Most (if not all) of the tests that have currently been written expect that an instance of the Ehcache Server is running, with the default configuration (e.g. sampleCache1 and sampleCache2 are referenced extensively).
• At the moment the URL is hardcoded to the machine name and port for my own development environment so you will need to change this to run the tests yourself.

TODO

1. Complete the Silverlight project.
2. Support generic System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary<T>.
3. Finish the extension of System.Runtime.Caching.CacheItem that has been begun with AgileWallaby.Ehcache.EhcacheItem<T>.
4. Use Ehcache Server's support for MIME Types to differentiate between JSON and XML encoded cache values. This would tie in #2 and #3.
5. Make changes to Ehcache Server itself:
6. Such that REST clients can query the endpoint to get a list of all the keys in a particular cache. This will enable this wrapper to implement the various enumeration methods which currently throw NotImplementException.
7. Such that alternative serialization mechanisms to JSON and XML are supported, such as Protocol Buffers or Fudge.
8. Maybe some sort of Comet or Websocket support such that REST clients (in addition to this .Net one) can subscribe to changes made to cache values.
9. More documentation.
10. Whatever else comes up!