MariaDB releases connector for Reactive Java developers

R2DBC uses declarative techniques to create 'more powerful, efficient and scalable JVM solutions'

MariaDB has released a connector for R2DBC in a bid to make its open-source relational database more friendly to the Java developer community.

But there is more than one way to skin this particular cat.

As an emerging standard in the Java world, Reactive Relational Database Connectivity is designed to help applications benefit from reactive programming by using a stream-oriented approach to interact with relational databases.

MariaDB, the company behind the database, said that unlike its JDBC predecessor, R2DBC allows developers to use declarative programming techniques to create "more powerful, efficient and scalable JVM solutions".

In a pre-canned statement, Mark Paluch, spec lead of the R2DBC specification, said: "Reactive, or non-blocking behaviour through the use of asynchronous data streams can be extremely useful for improved efficiency of resource usage and for increased throughput."

MariaDB has also launched a Developer Hub that contains "how-to resources and code samples."

A release candidate has been available since October, when Rob Hedgpeth, developer evangelist, introduced R2DBC in a webinar.

Federico Razzoli, director and founder of database consultancy Vettabase, said the Reactive Manifesto, launched in 2014, was a good attempt to establish a set of standard techniques that can be used to write scalable software.

R2DBC is a specification for relational database connectors built upon JDBC, which includes the necessary features to write software according to the principles of Reactive Streams, which would help implement asynchronous SQL queries.

"This is quite interesting for the Java community, who can use a consistent standard for scalability," he said. "But it's worth noting that these features are not new."

Several third-party MariaDB/MySQL drivers, as well as the MariaDB C connector, implement non-blocking queries, he said. ®