Item Reader and Writer Implementations

In this section, we will introduce you to readers and writers that have not already been discussed in the previous sections.

Decorators

In some cases, a user needs specialized behavior to be appended to a pre-existing ItemReader. Spring Batch offers some out of the box decorators that can add additional behavior to to your ItemReader and ItemWriter implementations.

Spring Batch includes the following decorators:

SynchronizedItemStreamReader

When using an ItemReader that is not thread safe, Spring Batch offers the SynchronizedItemStreamReader decorator, which can be used to make the ItemReader thread safe. Spring Batch provides a SynchronizedItemStreamReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the SynchronizedItemStreamReader.

For example, the FlatFileItemReader is not thread-safe and cannot be used in a multi-threaded step. This reader can be decorated with a SynchronizedItemStreamReader in order to use it safely in a multi-threaded step. Here is an example of how to decorate such a reader:

@Bean
public SynchronizedItemStreamReader<Person> itemReader() {
	FlatFileItemReader<Person> flatFileItemReader = new FlatFileItemReaderBuilder<Person>()
			// set reader properties
			.build();

	return new SynchronizedItemStreamReaderBuilder<Person>()
			.delegate(flatFileItemReader)
			.build();
}

SingleItemPeekableItemReader

Spring Batch includes a decorator that adds a peek method to an ItemReader. This peek method lets the user peek one item ahead. Repeated calls to the peek returns the same item, and this is the next item returned from the read method. Spring Batch provides a SingleItemPeekableItemReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the SingleItemPeekableItemReader.

SingleItemPeekableItemReader’s peek method is not thread-safe, because it would not be possible to honor the peek in multiple threads. Only one of the threads that peeked would get that item in the next call to read.

SynchronizedItemStreamWriter

When using an ItemWriter that is not thread safe, Spring Batch offers the SynchronizedItemStreamWriter decorator, which can be used to make the ItemWriter thread safe. Spring Batch provides a SynchronizedItemStreamWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the SynchronizedItemStreamWriter.

For example, the FlatFileItemWriter is not thread-safe and cannot be used in a multi-threaded step. This writer can be decorated with a SynchronizedItemStreamWriter in order to use it safely in a multi-threaded step. Here is an example of how to decorate such a writer:

@Bean
public SynchronizedItemStreamWriter<Person> itemWriter() {
	FlatFileItemWriter<Person> flatFileItemWriter = new FlatFileItemWriterBuilder<Person>()
			// set writer properties
			.build();

	return new SynchronizedItemStreamWriterBuilder<Person>()
			.delegate(flatFileItemWriter)
			.build();
}

MultiResourceItemWriter

The MultiResourceItemWriter wraps a ResourceAwareItemWriterItemStream and creates a new output resource when the count of items written in the current resource exceeds the itemCountLimitPerResource. Spring Batch provides a MultiResourceItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the MultiResourceItemWriter.

ClassifierCompositeItemWriter

The ClassifierCompositeItemWriter calls one of a collection of ItemWriter implementations for each item, based on a router pattern implemented through the provided Classifier. The implementation is thread-safe if all delegates are thread-safe. Spring Batch provides a ClassifierCompositeItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the ClassifierCompositeItemWriter.

ClassifierCompositeItemProcessor

The ClassifierCompositeItemProcessor is an ItemProcessor that calls one of a collection of ItemProcessor implementations, based on a router pattern implemented through the provided Classifier. Spring Batch provides a ClassifierCompositeItemProcessorBuilder to construct an instance of the ClassifierCompositeItemProcessor.

Messaging Readers And Writers

Spring Batch offers the following readers and writers for commonly used messaging systems:

AmqpItemReader

The AmqpItemReader is an ItemReader that uses an AmqpTemplate to receive or convert messages from an exchange. Spring Batch provides a AmqpItemReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the AmqpItemReader.

AmqpItemWriter

The AmqpItemWriter is an ItemWriter that uses an AmqpTemplate to send messages to an AMQP exchange. Messages are sent to the nameless exchange if the name not specified in the provided AmqpTemplate. Spring Batch provides an AmqpItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the AmqpItemWriter.

JmsItemReader

The JmsItemReader is an ItemReader for JMS that uses a JmsTemplate. The template should have a default destination, which is used to provide items for the read() method. Spring Batch provides a JmsItemReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the JmsItemReader.

JmsItemWriter

The JmsItemWriter is an ItemWriter for JMS that uses a JmsTemplate. The template should have a default destination, which is used to send items in write(List). Spring Batch provides a JmsItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the JmsItemWriter.

KafkaItemReader

The KafkaItemReader is an ItemReader for an Apache Kafka topic. It can be configured to read messages from multiple partitions of the same topic. It stores message offsets in the execution context to support restart capabilities. Spring Batch provides a KafkaItemReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the KafkaItemReader.

KafkaItemWriter

The KafkaItemWriter is an ItemWriter for Apache Kafka that uses a KafkaTemplate to send events to a default topic. Spring Batch provides a KafkaItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the KafkaItemWriter.

Database Readers

Spring Batch offers the following database readers:

Neo4jItemReader

The Neo4jItemReader is an ItemReader that reads objects from the graph database Neo4j by using a paging technique. Spring Batch provides a Neo4jItemReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the Neo4jItemReader.

MongoItemReader

The MongoItemReader is an ItemReader that reads documents from MongoDB by using a paging technique. Spring Batch provides a MongoItemReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the MongoItemReader.

HibernateCursorItemReader

The HibernateCursorItemReader is an ItemStreamReader for reading database records built on top of Hibernate. It executes the HQL query and then, when initialized, iterates over the result set as the read() method is called, successively returning an object corresponding to the current row. Spring Batch provides a HibernateCursorItemReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the HibernateCursorItemReader.

HibernatePagingItemReader

The HibernatePagingItemReader is an ItemReader for reading database records built on top of Hibernate and reading only up to a fixed number of items at a time. Spring Batch provides a HibernatePagingItemReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the HibernatePagingItemReader.

RepositoryItemReader

The RepositoryItemReader is an ItemReader that reads records by using a PagingAndSortingRepository. Spring Batch provides a RepositoryItemReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the RepositoryItemReader.

Database Writers

Spring Batch offers the following database writers:

Neo4jItemWriter

The Neo4jItemWriter is an ItemWriter implementation that writes to a Neo4j database. Spring Batch provides a Neo4jItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the Neo4jItemWriter.

MongoItemWriter

The MongoItemWriter is an ItemWriter implementation that writes to a MongoDB store using an implementation of Spring Data’s MongoOperations. Spring Batch provides a MongoItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the MongoItemWriter.

RepositoryItemWriter

The RepositoryItemWriter is an ItemWriter wrapper for a CrudRepository from Spring Data. Spring Batch provides a RepositoryItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the RepositoryItemWriter.

HibernateItemWriter

The HibernateItemWriter is an ItemWriter that uses a Hibernate session to save or update entities that are not part of the current Hibernate session. Spring Batch provides a HibernateItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the HibernateItemWriter.

JdbcBatchItemWriter

The JdbcBatchItemWriter is an ItemWriter that uses the batching features from NamedParameterJdbcTemplate to execute a batch of statements for all items provided. Spring Batch provides a JdbcBatchItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the JdbcBatchItemWriter.

JpaItemWriter

The JpaItemWriter is an ItemWriter that uses a JPA EntityManagerFactory to merge any entities that are not part of the persistence context. Spring Batch provides a JpaItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the JpaItemWriter.

Specialized Readers

Spring Batch offers the following specialized readers:

LdifReader

The LdifReader reads LDIF (LDAP Data Interchange Format) records from a Resource, parses them, and returns a LdapAttribute object for each read executed. Spring Batch provides a LdifReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the LdifReader.

MappingLdifReader

The MappingLdifReader reads LDIF (LDAP Data Interchange Format) records from a Resource, parses them then maps each LDIF record to a POJO (Plain Old Java Object). Each read returns a POJO. Spring Batch provides a MappingLdifReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the MappingLdifReader.

AvroItemReader

The AvroItemReader reads serialized Avro data from a Resource. Each read returns an instance of the type specified by a Java class or Avro Schema. The reader may be optionally configured for input that embeds an Avro schema or not. Spring Batch provides an AvroItemReaderBuilder to construct an instance of the AvroItemReader.

Specialized Writers

Spring Batch offers the following specialized writers:

SimpleMailMessageItemWriter

The SimpleMailMessageItemWriter is an ItemWriter that can send mail messages. It delegates the actual sending of messages to an instance of MailSender. Spring Batch provides a SimpleMailMessageItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the SimpleMailMessageItemWriter.

AvroItemWriter

The AvroItemWrite serializes Java objects to a WriteableResource according to the given type or Schema. The writer may be optionally configured to embed an Avro schema in the output or not. Spring Batch provides an AvroItemWriterBuilder to construct an instance of the AvroItemWriter.

Specialized Processors

Spring Batch offers the following specialized processors:

ScriptItemProcessor

The ScriptItemProcessor is an ItemProcessor that passes the current item to process to the provided script and the result of the script is returned by the processor. Spring Batch provides a ScriptItemProcessorBuilder to construct an instance of the ScriptItemProcessor.