Spring Data

Foreword

Rod Johnson

Creator, Spring Framework

We live in interesting times. New business processes are driving new requirements. Familiar assumptions are under threat—among them, that the relational database should be the default choice for persistence. While this is now widely accepted, it is far from clear how to proceed effectively into the new world.

A proliferation of data store choices creates fragmentation. Many newer stores require more developer effort than Java developers are used to regarding data access, pushing into the application things customarily done in a relational database.

This book helps you make sense of this new reality. It provides an excellent overview of today’s storage world in the context of today’s hardware, and explains why NoSQL stores are important in solving modern business problems.

Because of the language’s identification with the often-conservative enterprise market (and perhaps also because of the sophistication of Java object-relational mapping [ORM] solutions), Java developers have traditionally been poorly served in the NoSQL space. Fortunately, this is changing, making this an important and timely book. Spring Data is an important project, with the potential to help developers overcome new challenges.

Many of the values that have made Spring the preferred platform for enterprise Java developers deliver particular benefit in a world of fragmented persistence solutions. Part of the value of Spring is how it brings consistency (without descending to a lowest common denominator) in its approach to different technologies with which it integrates. A distinct “Spring way” helps shorten the learning curve for developers and simplifies code maintenance. If you are already familiar with Spring, you will find that Spring Data eases your exploration and adoption of unfamiliar stores. If you aren’t already familiar with Spring, this is a good opportunity to see how Spring can simplify your code and make it more consistent.

The authors are uniquely qualified to explain Spring Data, being the project leaders. They bring a mix of deep Spring knowledge and involvement and intimate experience with a range of modern data stores. They do a good job of explaining the motivation of Spring Data and how it continues the mission Spring has long pursued regarding data access. There is valuable coverage of how Spring Data works with other parts of Spring, such as Spring Integration and Spring Batch. The book also provides much value that goes beyond Spring—for example, the discussions of the repository concept, the merits of type-safe querying, and why the Java Persistence API (JPA) is not appropriate as a general data access solution.

While this is a book about data access rather than working with NoSQL, many of you will find the NoSQL material most valuable, as it introduces topics and code with which you are likely to be less familiar. All content is up to the minute, and important topics include document databases, graph databases, key/value stores, Hadoop, and the Gemfire data fabric.

We programmers are practical creatures and learn best when we can be hands-on. The book has a welcome practical bent. Early on, the authors show how to get the sample code working in the two leading Java integrated development environments (IDEs), including handy screenshots. They explain requirements around database drivers and basic database setup. I applaud their choice of hosting the sample code on GitHub, making it universally accessible and browsable. Given the many topics the book covers, the well-designed examples help greatly to tie things together.

The emphasis on practical development is also evident in the chapter on Spring Roo, the rapid application development (RAD) solution from the Spring team. Most Roo users are familiar with how Roo can be used with a traditional JPA architecture; the authors show how Roo’s productivity can be extended beyond relational databases.

When you’ve finished this book, you will have a deeper understanding of why modern data access is becoming more specialized and fragmented, the major categories of NoSQL data stores, how Spring Data can help Java developers operate effectively in this new environment, and where to look for deeper information on individual topics in which you are particularly interested. Most important, you’ll have a great start to your own exploration in code!