Best Practices For A Spring Boot-Ready Maven Library
Best Practices For A Spring Boot-Ready Maven Library
Library
This report outlines guidelines for designing a Maven library (with Spring Boot auto-configuration) that
periodically fetches and caches a large JSON payload of game data. We cover library architecture, efficient
parsing/deduplication, in-memory caching, consumer integration, thread safety, and testability.
• Expose interfaces and domain classes. Define clean interfaces (e.g. GameService ,
MarketService ) and domain model classes ( Game , Market , SubVendor ). The service
interface might offer methods like List<Game> getGames() . Provide default implementations in
the library but allow clients to supply their own via @ConditionalOnMissingBean . Encapsulate
data access behind these interfaces so consumers don’t depend on internal details.
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• Streaming JSON parsing. Given the ~19 MB payload, use Jackson’s streaming API ( JsonParser ) or
ObjectMapper.readerForListOf(Game.class).readValue(...) to avoid loading the entire
JSON tree at once. For example, one can create a JsonParser , move it to the START_ARRAY , and
then loop:
• Avoid unnecessary fields. If the JSON contains extraneous data, annotate your classes with
@JsonIgnoreProperties(ignoreUnknown=true) or use @JsonInclude to skip nulls,
reducing in-memory footprint. Consider mapping to lightweight DTOs if there are many fields you
don’t need.
• Memory efficiency. This approach is effectively the Flyweight pattern: sharing immutable (or
treated-as-immutable) objects to save memory 4 . It reduces duplication especially if many games
reference the same market or vendor. Because the payload is large and memory-constrained,
deduplication can significantly cut memory usage.
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• Use Spring Cache abstraction. Alternatively, annotate the getter method with
@Cacheable("games") and trigger an update via @CachePut or cache eviction. Spring Boot will
auto-configure a suitable cache manager if @EnableCaching is on 5 . For a simple in-memory
store, you can use caffeine or ConcurrentHashMap.
• Cache consistency. Ensure that readers accessing cached data don’t see partially-built state. For
example, build new data off of local maps, then do a single assignment (e.g.
gamesCache.set(newList) ). Using AtomicReference or marking the cache field volatile
ensures changes are safely published 8 .
• Override points. Document how clients can override behavior: e.g., they could provide their own
GameService bean or configure a different RestTemplate . Use
@ConditionalOnMissingBean in your config so client beans take precedence.
• Externalizing parameters. Key parameters (REST URL, time interval, cache settings) should be
externalized into properties. For example:
games:
fetch:
url: http://internal/api/games
interval-ms: 21600000 # 6 hours by default
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Thread Safety and Concurrency
• Immutable or thread-safe data. After constructing the deduplicated game/market/subvendor
objects, treat them as effectively immutable (do not modify them). This ensures any thread can
safely read the cached list concurrently.
• Atomic updates. When the scheduler fetches new data, build the new structures (games list, maps)
in a local scope. Then replace the old cache in one atomic step (e.g.
atomicReference.set(newData) ). This avoids partially updated states. As noted, an
AtomicReference provides volatile-like semantics for thread-safe publication 8 .
• Concurrent collections if needed. If you allow in-place updates or incremental refresh, use
concurrent collections (e.g. ConcurrentHashMap ) for storing objects. In our scheduled-refresh
model, simple replacement is cleaner and usually sufficient.
• Avoid blocking. Since the fetch runs infrequently, it can take locks or do I/O without impacting
normal operation. But ensure the fetch method catches exceptions so a failed fetch won’t break the
scheduler or leave the cache empty.
Testability
• Unit tests for parsing and dedupe. Write plain unit tests for the JSON-to-objects mapping and
deduplication logic. Mock JSON strings (with duplicate IDs) and verify the output contains unique
Market / SubVendor objects (by comparing object references or using identity maps).
• Mocking REST calls. Use Spring’s MockRestServiceServer to test the HTTP fetch logic. For
example, configure a RestTemplate and bind a MockRestServiceServer to it, then simulate
the JSON response. This lets you test the fetch-and-parse without real HTTP 9 .
• Integration tests with Spring context. Create a test that loads the auto-config (e.g. using
@SpringBootTest or @ContextConfiguration ), sets the fetch URL to a local stub server or
uses MockRestServiceServer , and verifies that the scheduled update populates the cache
correctly. Ensure test coverage of conditional loading (e.g. behavior when a bean is overridden).
• Thread-safety tests. For multithreading, tests can be harder, but at least confirm that after refresh,
concurrent readers see a consistent snapshot. A simple test: while one thread triggers fetch() ,
another calls getGames() repeatedly and assert no exceptions or partial data.
By following these practices—clear modular design, Spring Boot auto-configuration, efficient streaming/
deduplication, robust caching, and solid testing—you ensure the library is easy to integrate, performant
under memory constraints, and maintainable.
Sources: Spring Boot auto-configuration guide 1 2 ; Jackson streaming example 3 ; Flyweight design
pattern (object sharing) 4 ; Spring caching documentation 5 ; Caffeine cache overview 6 ; concurrency
(AtomicReference) 8 ; Spring MockRestServiceServer testing 9 .
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1 2 Creating Your Own Auto-configuration :: Spring Boot
https://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/reference/features/developing-auto-configuration.html