Working with Objects through RedisTemplate

Most users are likely to use RedisTemplate and its corresponding package, org.springframework.data.redis.core or its reactive variant ReactiveRedisTemplate. The template is, in fact, the central class of the Redis module, due to its rich feature set. The template offers a high-level abstraction for Redis interactions. While [Reactive]RedisConnection offers low-level methods that accept and return binary values (byte arrays), the template takes care of serialization and connection management, freeing the user from dealing with such details.

The RedisTemplate class implements the RedisOperations interface and its reactive variant ReactiveRedisTemplate implements ReactiveRedisOperations.

The preferred way to reference operations on a [Reactive]RedisTemplate instance is through the [Reactive]RedisOperations interface.

Moreover, the template provides operations views (following the grouping from the Redis command reference) that offer rich, generified interfaces for working against a certain type or certain key (through the KeyBound interfaces) as described in the following table:

Operational views

  • Imperative

  • Reactive

Interface Description

Key Type Operations

GeoOperations

Redis geospatial operations, such as GEOADD, GEORADIUS,…​

HashOperations

Redis hash operations

HyperLogLogOperations

Redis HyperLogLog operations, such as PFADD, PFCOUNT,…​

ListOperations

Redis list operations

SetOperations

Redis set operations

ValueOperations

Redis string (or value) operations

ZSetOperations

Redis zset (or sorted set) operations

Key Bound Operations

BoundGeoOperations

Redis key bound geospatial operations

BoundHashOperations

Redis hash key bound operations

BoundKeyOperations

Redis key bound operations

BoundListOperations

Redis list key bound operations

BoundSetOperations

Redis set key bound operations

BoundValueOperations

Redis string (or value) key bound operations

BoundZSetOperations

Redis zset (or sorted set) key bound operations
Interface Description

Key Type Operations

ReactiveGeoOperations

Redis geospatial operations such as GEOADD, GEORADIUS, and others)

ReactiveHashOperations

Redis hash operations

ReactiveHyperLogLogOperations

Redis HyperLogLog operations such as (PFADD, PFCOUNT, and others)

ReactiveListOperations

Redis list operations

ReactiveSetOperations

Redis set operations

ReactiveValueOperations

Redis string (or value) operations

ReactiveZSetOperations

Redis zset (or sorted set) operations

Once configured, the template is thread-safe and can be reused across multiple instances.

RedisTemplate uses a Java-based serializer for most of its operations. This means that any object written or read by the template is serialized and deserialized through Java.

You can change the serialization mechanism on the template, and the Redis module offers several implementations, which are available in the org.springframework.data.redis.serializer package. See Serializers for more information. You can also set any of the serializers to null and use RedisTemplate with raw byte arrays by setting the enableDefaultSerializer property to false. Note that the template requires all keys to be non-null. However, values can be null as long as the underlying serializer accepts them. Read the Javadoc of each serializer for more information.

For cases where you need a certain template view, declare the view as a dependency and inject the template. The container automatically performs the conversion, eliminating the opsFor[X] calls, as shown in the following example:

Configuring Template API

  • Java Imperative

  • Java Reactive

  • XML

@Configuration
class MyConfig {

  @Bean
  LettuceConnectionFactory connectionFactory() {
    return new LettuceConnectionFactory();
  }

  @Bean
  RedisTemplate<String, String> redisTemplate(RedisConnectionFactory connectionFactory) {

    RedisTemplate<String, String> template = new RedisTemplate<>();
    template.setConnectionFactory(connectionFactory);
    return template;
  }
}
@Configuration
class MyConfig {

  @Bean
  LettuceConnectionFactory connectionFactory() {
    return new LettuceConnectionFactory();
  }

  @Bean
  ReactiveRedisTemplate<String, String> ReactiveRedisTemplate(ReactoveRedisConnectionFactory connectionFactory) {
    return new ReactiveRedisTemplate<>(connectionFactory, RedisSerializationContext.string());
  }
}
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">

  <bean id="redisConnectionFactory" class="org.springframework.data.redis.connection.lettuce.LettuceConnectionFactory"/>
  <!-- redis template definition -->
  <bean id="redisTemplate" class="org.springframework.data.redis.core.RedisTemplate" p:connection-factory-ref="redisConnectionFactory"/>
  ...

</beans>
Pushing an item to a List using [Reactive]RedisTemplate

  • Imperative

  • Reactive

public class Example {

  // inject the actual operations
  @Autowired
  private RedisOperations<String, String> operations;

  // inject the template as ListOperations
  @Resource(name="redisTemplate")
  private ListOperations<String, String> listOps;

  public void addLink(String userId, URL url) {
    listOps.leftPush(userId, url.toExternalForm());
  }
}
public class Example {

  // inject the actual template
  @Autowired
  private ReactiveRedisOperations<String, String> operations;

  public Mono<Long> addLink(String userId, URL url) {
    return operations.opsForList().leftPush(userId, url.toExternalForm());
  }
}

String-focused Convenience Classes

Since it is quite common for the keys and values stored in Redis to be java.lang.String, the Redis modules provides two extensions to RedisConnection and RedisTemplate, respectively the StringRedisConnection (and its DefaultStringRedisConnection implementation) and StringRedisTemplate as a convenient one-stop solution for intensive String operations. In addition to being bound to String keys, the template and the connection use the StringRedisSerializer underneath, which means the stored keys and values are human-readable (assuming the same encoding is used both in Redis and your code). The following listings show an example:

  • Java Imperative

  • Java Reactive

  • XML

@Configuration
class RedisConfiguration {

  @Bean
  LettuceConnectionFactory redisConnectionFactory() {
    return new LettuceConnectionFactory();
  }

  @Bean
  StringRedisTemplate stringRedisTemplate(RedisConnectionFactory redisConnectionFactory) {

    StringRedisTemplate template = new StringRedisTemplate();
    template.setConnectionFactory(redisConnectionFactory);
    return template;
  }
}
@Configuration
class RedisConfiguration {

  @Bean
  LettuceConnectionFactory redisConnectionFactory() {
    return new LettuceConnectionFactory();
  }

  @Bean
  ReactiveStringRedisTemplate reactiveRedisTemplate(ReactiveRedisConnectionFactory factory) {
    return new ReactiveStringRedisTemplate<>(factory);
  }
}
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">

  <bean id="redisConnectionFactory" class="org.springframework.data.redis.connection.lettuce.LettuceConnectionFactory"/>

  <bean id="stringRedisTemplate" class="org.springframework.data.redis.core.StringRedisTemplate" p:connection-factory-ref="redisConnectionFactory"/>

</beans>

  • Imperative

  • Reactive

public class Example {

  @Autowired
  private StringRedisTemplate redisTemplate;

  public void addLink(String userId, URL url) {
    redisTemplate.opsForList().leftPush(userId, url.toExternalForm());
  }
}
public class Example {

  @Autowired
  private ReactiveStringRedisTemplate redisTemplate;

  public Mono<Long> addLink(String userId, URL url) {
    return redisTemplate.opsForList().leftPush(userId, url.toExternalForm());
  }
}

As with the other Spring templates, RedisTemplate and StringRedisTemplate let you talk directly to Redis through the RedisCallback interface. This feature gives complete control to you, as it talks directly to the RedisConnection. Note that the callback receives an instance of StringRedisConnection when a StringRedisTemplate is used. The following example shows how to use the RedisCallback interface:

public void useCallback() {

  redisOperations.execute(new RedisCallback<Object>() {
    public Object doInRedis(RedisConnection connection) throws DataAccessException {
      Long size = connection.dbSize();
      // Can cast to StringRedisConnection if using a StringRedisTemplate
      ((StringRedisConnection)connection).set("key", "value");
    }
   });
}

Serializers

From the framework perspective, the data stored in Redis is only bytes. While Redis itself supports various types, for the most part, these refer to the way the data is stored rather than what it represents. It is up to the user to decide whether the information gets translated into strings or any other objects.

In Spring Data, the conversion between the user (custom) types and raw data (and vice-versa) is handled by Spring Data Redis in the org.springframework.data.redis.serializer package.

This package contains two types of serializers that, as the name implies, take care of the serialization process:

  • Two-way serializers based on RedisSerializer.

  • Element readers and writers that use RedisElementReader and RedisElementWriter.

The main difference between these variants is that RedisSerializer primarily serializes to byte[] while readers and writers use ByteBuffer.

Multiple implementations are available (including two that have been already mentioned in this documentation):

  • JdkSerializationRedisSerializer, which is used by default for RedisCache and RedisTemplate.

  • the StringRedisSerializer.

However, one can use OxmSerializer for Object/XML mapping through Spring OXM support or Jackson2JsonRedisSerializer or GenericJackson2JsonRedisSerializer for storing data in JSON format.

Do note that the storage format is not limited only to values. It can be used for keys, values, or hashes without any restrictions.

By default, RedisCache and RedisTemplate are configured to use Java native serialization. Java native serialization is known for allowing the running of remote code caused by payloads that exploit vulnerable libraries and classes injecting unverified bytecode. Manipulated input could lead to unwanted code being run in the application during the deserialization step. As a consequence, do not use serialization in untrusted environments. In general, we strongly recommend any other message format (such as JSON) instead.

If you are concerned about security vulnerabilities due to Java serialization, consider the general-purpose serialization filter mechanism at the core JVM level: