Hazelcast and JCache: Custom serializers without using XML

Question

Here is what I have:

• I am using Hazelcast v4.0.1
• I am using JCache v1.1.1
• I have several custom Serializers that I want to use.

Here is my problem:

• My Serializers have constructor dependencies so it's not possible to declare them via the .xml.
• JCache "automagically" binds itself to Hazelcast on startup using the .xml.
• Configuring the Config afterwards (i. e. adding the Serializers to the config) does not result in the Serializers being registred.

Solutions that I am looking for / that I have tried so far:

• Configuring the constructor dependencies into the .xml (can't be possible as these are specific runtime objects)
• Preventing the "automagical" bind from JCache, setting up the HazelcastInstance manually and the bind it to JCache somehow (don't know how to achieve this, don't even know if it's possible)
• Adding the Serializers to the existing HazelcastInstance/Config (as said before, seems not to work)

Question(s):

Is there any way to get it work? Am I missing something completely obvious? Am I using the frameworks wrong?

Answer 1

Assuming you build your Hazelcast Config with custom Serializers programmatically, here is one way to start a named Hazelcast embedded member and reference it by name:

    Config config = new Config();
    // apart from your config, setup the instance name
    config.setInstanceName("jcache-test");

    HazelcastInstance hz = Hazelcast.newHazelcastInstance(config);

    // request the server-side caching provider
    // same method to bind by instance name also applies to client-side caching provider
    CachingProvider cachingProvider = Caching.getCachingProvider(HazelcastCachingProvider.SERVER_CACHING_PROVIDER);

    // request the default CacheManager(url = null & ClassLoader = null)
    // indicating it should be bound to the named HazelcastInstance
    CacheManager cacheManager = cachingProvider.getCacheManager(null, null,
            HazelcastCachingProvider.propertiesByInstanceName("jcache-test"));

    // use the CacheManager as usual
    Cache<String, String> cache = cacheManager.createCache("cache", new MutableConfiguration<>());
    cache.put("1", "a");
    System.out.println(cache.get("1"));

There are more ways to achieve binding a CacheManager to an explicitly configured HazelcastInstance, you can have a look at the examples in this reference manual section.

As a sidenote, in general Hazelcast expects that the Config it is started with is final on startup. Mutations to the Config object after Hazelcast is started are not taken into account, except for specific data structure configuration that can be added after startup as discussed here.