How to configure Hibernate Second Level Cache using EHCache?

EHCache is the best choice for utilizing a hibernate second-level cache. 

How to configure Hibernate Second Level Cache using EHCache?

The following steps are required to enable EHCache in hibernate application.

Step 1: Add the hibernate-Ehcache dependency in your maven project, if it’s not maven then add corresponding jars.

<dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-ehcache</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.5.Final</version>
</dependency>

Step 2: Add below properties in the hibernate configuration file.

<property name="hibernate.cache.region.factory_class">org.hibernate.cache.ehcache.EhCacheRegionFactory</property>
         
<!-- For singleton factory -->
<!-- <property name="hibernate.cache.region.factory_class">org.hibernate.cache.ehcache.SingletonEhCacheRegionFactory</property>
-->
          
<!-- enable second level cache and query cache -->
<property name="hibernate.cache.use_second_level_cache">true</property>
<property name="hibernate.cache.use_query_cache">true</property>
<property name="net.sf.ehcache.configurationResourceName">/myehcache.xml</property>

Step 3: Create an EHCache configuration file, a sample file myehcache.xml would look like below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ehcache xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="ehcache.xsd" updateCheck="true"
    monitoring="autodetect" dynamicConfig="true">
 
    <diskStore path="java.io.tmpdir/ehcache" />
 
    <defaultCache maxEntriesLocalHeap="10000" eternal="false"
        timeToIdleSeconds="120" timeToLiveSeconds="120" diskSpoolBufferSizeMB="30"
        maxEntriesLocalDisk="10000000" diskExpiryThreadIntervalSeconds="120"
        memoryStoreEvictionPolicy="LRU" statistics="true">
        <persistence strategy="localTempSwap" />
    </defaultCache>
 
    <cache name="employee" maxEntriesLocalHeap="10000" eternal="false"
        timeToIdleSeconds="5" timeToLiveSeconds="10">
        <persistence strategy="localTempSwap" />
    </cache>
 
    <cache name="org.hibernate.cache.internal.StandardQueryCache"
        maxEntriesLocalHeap="5" eternal="false" timeToLiveSeconds="120">
        <persistence strategy="localTempSwap" />
    </cache>
 
    <cache name="org.hibernate.cache.spi.UpdateTimestampsCache"
        maxEntriesLocalHeap="5000" eternal="true">
        <persistence strategy="localTempSwap" />
    </cache>
</ehcache>

Step 4: Annotate entity beans with @Cache annotation and caching strategy to use. 

For example:

import org.hibernate.annotations.Cache;
import org.hibernate.annotations.CacheConcurrencyStrategy;

@Entity
@Table(name = "ADDRESS")
@Cache(usage=CacheConcurrencyStrategy.READ_ONLY, region="employee")
public class Address {

}

That’s it, we are done. Hibernate will use the EHCache for second-level caching, read Hibernate EHCache Example for a complete example with an explanation.

Complete Example

Hibernate EHCache Example for a complete example with an explanation.