Using JetCache for Multi‑Level Caching in Spring Boot Applications

In real‑world scenarios, developers often combine local caches with Redis remote caches to meet different business requirements; JetCache, an open‑source Java caching framework from Alibaba, offers a seamless way to implement such multi‑level caching.

1. JetCache Overview

JetCache supports multiple cache types—local, distributed, and multi‑level—providing high performance, easy integration with Spring Cache, and features such as cache warming and key prefixes. Official repository: https://github.com/alibaba/jetcache and documentation: https://github.com/alibaba/jetcache/tree/master/docs/CN .

2. Using JetCache

2.1 Add Maven dependencies

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.alicp.jetcache</groupId>
    <artifactId>jetcache-starter-redis</artifactId>
    <version>2.7.0</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
    <groupId>redis.clients</groupId>
    <artifactId>jedis</artifactId>
    <version>4.3.1</version>
</dependency>

Configure application.yml (or application.properties ) to set Redis address, thread pool, and cache types:

jetcache:
  statIntervalMinutes: 15
  areaInCacheName: false
  local:
    default:
      type: linkedhashmap
      keyConvertor: fastjson
  remote:
    default:
      type: redis
      keyConvertor: fastjson
      broadcastChannel: projectA
      valueEncoder: java
      valueDecoder: java
      poolConfig:
        minIdle: 5
        maxIdle: 20
        maxTotal: 50
      host: 127.0.0.1
      port: 6379

2.2 Enable caching annotations

@EnableCreateCacheAnnotation
@EnableMethodCache(basePackages = "com.example.jetcachedemo")

2.3 Define cacheable methods (AOP mode)

@RestController
@RequestMapping("user")
public class UserController {
    @GetMapping("getRemote")
    @Cached(name="userCache:", key="#id", expire=3600, timeUnit=TimeUnit.SECONDS, cacheType=CacheType.REMOTE)
    public User getRemote(Long id) { /* ... */ }

    @GetMapping("getLocal")
    @Cached(name="userCache:", key="#id", expire=3600, timeUnit=TimeUnit.SECONDS, cacheType=CacheType.LOCAL)
    public User getLocal(Long id) { /* ... */ }

    @GetMapping("getBoth")
    @Cached(name="userCache:", key="#id", expire=3600, timeUnit=TimeUnit.SECONDS, cacheType=CacheType.BOTH)
    public User getBoth(Long id) { /* ... */ }

    @PostMapping("updateUser")
    @CacheUpdate(name="userCache:", key="#user.id", value="#user")
    public Boolean updateUser(@RequestBody User user) { return true; }

    @PostMapping("deleteUser")
    @CacheInvalidate(name="userCache:", key="#id")
    public Boolean deleteUser(Long id) { return true; }
}

Entity User must implement Serializable :

@Data
public class User implements Serializable {
    private Long id;
    private String name;
    private Integer age;
    private Integer sex;
}

2.4 Alternative API mode (using @CreateCache ) and 2.5 Advanced API mode (using CacheManager ) are also demonstrated with corresponding code snippets.

3. Testing

Three testing methods are shown: accessing /user/getRemote?id=1 , /user/getLocal?id=1 , and similar endpoints for the API and advanced API modes, verifying that data is stored in Redis, local cache, or both as configured.

4. Common Errors

Typical class‑not‑found problems such as ClassNotFoundException: com.alibaba.fastjson.JSON and NoClassDefFoundError: redis/clients/jedis/UnifiedJedis are resolved by adding the appropriate fastjson and jedis dependencies or downgrading JetCache version.

Source: Juejin article