Cloud Spanner

Cloud Spanner is a scalable, enterprise-grade, globally-distributed, and strongly consistent database service built for the cloud specifically to combine the benefits of relational database structure with non-relational horizontal scale. It delivers high-performance transactions and strong consistency across rows, regions, and continents with an industry-leading 99.999% availability SLA, no planned downtime, and enterprise-grade security. Cloud Spanner revolutionizes database administration and management and makes application development more efficient.

Cloud Spanner Instance

Enable API

gcloud services enable spanner.googleapis.com

Create an Instance

gcloud spanner instances create spanner-instance \
  --config=regional-us-central1 \
  --nodes=1 --description="A Spanner Instance"

This example creates a new regional instance (i.e., spanning across zones within the same region). Cloud Spanner supports multi-regional configuration to span across multiple regions for highest availability.

Create a Database

A Cloud Spanner instance can host multiple databases, that each contains its own tables.

gcloud spanner databases create orders \
  --instance=spanner-instance

Connect to Instance

There is no interactive CLI to Cloud Spanner. You can create table and execute SQL statements from the Cloud Console, or from gcloud command line. Following are some common operations:

List Databases

gcloud spanner databases list --instance=spanner-instance

Execute SQL Statements

gcloud spanner databases execute-sql orders \
  --instance=spanner-instance \
  --sql="SELECT 1"

Show Query Plan

gcloud spanner databases execute-sql orders \
  --instance=spanner-instance \
  --sql="SELECT 1" \
  --query-mode=PLAN

Create a Table

Create a DDL file, schema.ddl:

CREATE TABLE orders (
  order_id STRING(36) NOT NULL,
  description STRING(255),
  creation_timestamp TIMESTAMP,
) PRIMARY KEY (order_id);

CREATE TABLE order_items (
  order_id STRING(36) NOT NULL,
  order_item_id STRING(36) NOT NULL,
  description STRING(255),
  quantity INT64,
) PRIMARY KEY (order_id, order_item_id),
  INTERLEAVE IN PARENT orders ON DELETE CASCADE;

Cloud Spanner differs from traditional RDBMS in a several ways:

• No server-side automatic ID generation.

• Avoid monodically increasing IDs - I.e., no auto incremented ID, because it may create hot spots in partitions.

• No foreign key constraints.

Cloud Spanner, being horizontally scalable and shards data with your keys, prefers the following:

• UUIDv4 as IDs - It's random and can be partitioned easily.

• Parent-Children relationship encoded using a compose primary key.

• Colocate Parent-Children data using Interleave tables - If accessing parent means children data is also likely to be read, interleaving allows children data to be colocated with parent row in the same parition.

Use gcloud to execute the DDL:

gcloud spanner databases ddl update orders \
  --instance=spanner-instance \
  --ddl="$(<schema.ddl)"

Spring Data Spanner Starter

The easiest way to access Cloud Spanner is using Spring Cloud GCP's Spring Data Spanner starter. This starter provides full Spring Data support for Cloud Spanner while implementing idiomatic access patterns.

Spring Data Feature	Supported
ORM	✅
Declarative Transaction	✅
Repository	✅
REST Repository	✅
Query methods	✅
Query annotation	✅
Pagination	✅
Events	✅
Auditing	✅

Dependency

Add the Spring Data Spanner starter:

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-cloud-gcp-starter-data-spanner</artifactId>
</dependency>

Gradle

Configuration

Configure Cloud Spanner instance and database to connect to.

application.properties

spring.cloud.gcp.spanner.instance-id=spanner-instance
spring.cloud.gcp.spanner.database=orders

Notice that there is no explicit configuration for username/password. Cloud Spanner authentication uses the GCP credential (either your user credential, or Service Account credential), and authorization is configured via Identity Access Management (IAM).

ORM

Spring Data Cloud Spanner allows you to map domain POJOs to Cloud Spanner tables via annotations. Read the Spring Data Spanner reference documentation for details

Order.java

import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.util.List;
import lombok.Data;
import org.springframework.cloud.gcp.data.spanner.core.mapping.*;

@Table(name="orders")
@Data // Lombok to generate getter/setters
class Order {
  @PrimaryKey
  @Column(name="order_id")
  private String id;

  private String description;

  @Column(name="creation_timestamp")
  private LocalDateTime timestamp;

  @Interleaved
  private List<OrderItem> items;
}  

OrderItem.java

import lombok.Data;
import org.springframework.cloud.gcp.data.spanner.core.mapping.*;

@Table(name="order_items")
@Data // Lombok to generate getter/setters
class OrderItem {
    @PrimaryKey(keyOrder = 1)
    @Column(name="order_id")
    private String orderId;

    @PrimaryKey(keyOrder = 2)
    @Column(name="order_item_id")
    private String orderItemId;

    private String description;
    private Long quantity;
}

Read the Spring Data Spanner reference documentation for more details.

Repository

Use Spring Data repository to quickly get CRUD access to the Cloud Spanner tables.

OrderRepository.java

package com.example.demo;

import org.springframework.cloud.gcp.data.spanner.repository.SpannerRepository;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Repository;

@Repository
public interface OrderRepository extends SpannerRepository<Order, String> {
}

OrderItemRepoistory.java

package com.example.demo;

import lombok.Data;
import org.springframework.cloud.gcp.data.spanner.core.mapping.*;

@Table(name="order_items")
@Data
class OrderItem {
  @PrimaryKey(keyOrder = 1)
  @Column(name="order_id")
  private String orderId;

  @PrimaryKey(keyOrder = 2)
  @Column(name="order_item_id")
  private String orderItemId;

  private String description;
  private Long quantity;
}

Order is the parent and has only a primary key. Spring Data repository's ID parameter type can be the type for the single key. OrderItem, however, has a composite key. Spring Data repository's ID parameter type must be Cloud Spanner's Key type for a composite key.

In a business logic service, you can utilize the repositories:

@Service
class OrderService {
  private final OrderRepository orderRepository;

  OrderService(OrderRepository orderRepository,
      OrderItemRepository orderItemRepository) {
    this.orderRepository = orderRepository;
  }

  @Transactional
  Order createOrder(Order order) {
    // Use UUID String representation for the ID
    order.setId(UUID.randomUUID().toString());

    // Set the creation time
    order.setCreationTimestamp(LocalDateTime.now());

    // Set the parent Order ID and children ID for each item.
    if (order.getItems() != null) {
        order.getItems().stream().forEach(orderItem -> {
        orderItem.setOrderId(order.getId());
        orderItem.setOrderItemId(UUID.randomUUID().toString());
      });
    }

    // Children are saved in cascade.
    return orderRepository.save(order);
  }
}

Rest Repository

Spring Data Rest can expose a Spring Data repository directly on a RESTful endpoint, and rendering the payload as JSON with HATEOS format. It supports common access patterns like pagination.

Add Spring Data Rest starter:

Maven

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-rest</artifactId>
</dependency>

Gradle

@RepositoryRestResource
interface OrderRepository extends SpannerRepository<Order, String> {
}

@RepositoryRestResource
interface OrderItemRepository extends SpannerRepository<OrderItem, Key> {
  List<OrderItem> findAllByOrderId(String orderId);
}

To access the endpoint for Order:

curl http://localhost:8080/orders

Samples

• Spring Boot with Cloud Spanner sample

JDBC

Cloud Spanner JDBC Driver can be used if you need raw JDBC access.

Dependency

Add Cloud Spanner JDBC Driver:

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>google-cloud-spanner-jdbc</artifactId>
</dependency>

Gradle

Use Spring Boot JDBC Starter to use JDBC Template:

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-jdbc</artifactId>
</dependency>

Gradle

Configuration

Cloud Spanner JDBC Driver Class:

com.google.cloud.spanner.jdbc.JdbcDriver

Cloud Spanner JDBC URL format:

jdbc:cloudspanner:/projects/PROJECT_ID/instances/INSTANCE_ID/databases/DATABASE_NAME

With Spring Data JDBC, you can configure the datasource:

application.properties

spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.google.cloud.spanner.jdbc.JdbcDriver
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:cloudspanner:/projects/PROJECT_ID/instances/spanner-instance/databases/orders

Hibernate

Cloud Spanner Hibernate Dialect lets you use Cloud Spanner with Hibernate ORM. You can use Cloud Spanner with Hibernate from any Java application. When using Spring Boot, you can use the Hibernate Dialect with Spring Data JPA.

Dependency

Add both the Cloud Spanner JDBC driver and Cloud Spanner Hibernate Dialect:

Maven

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
  <artifactId>google-cloud-spanner-jdbc</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
  <artifactId>google-cloud-spanner-hibernate-dialect</artifactId>
</dependency>

Gradle

Add Spring Data JPA starter:

Maven

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
</dependency>

Gradle

Configuration

Cloud Spanner Hibernate Dialect class:

com.google.cloud.spanner.hibernate.SpannerDialect

Configure Spring Data JPA:

application.properties

spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.google.cloud.spanner.jdbc.JdbcDriver
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:cloudspanner:/projects/PROJECT_ID/instances/spanner-instance/databases/orders

spring.jpa.database-platform=com.google.cloud.spanner.hibernate.SpannerDialect

ORM

Use JPA annotations to map POJO to Cloud Spanner database tables.

In Cloud Spanner, parent-children relationship is modeled as a composite key. With JPA, use IdClass or EmbeddableId to map a composite key.

@Entity
@Table(name="orders")
class Order {
    @Id
    @Column(name="order_id")
  private String id;

    private String description;

    @Column(name="creation_timestamp")
    private LocalDateTime creationTimestamp;

    @OneToMany(mappedBy = "order", cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
    private List<OrderItem> items;

  // Getter and Setter ...
}

@Embeddable
class OrderItemId implements Serializable {
  @Column(name="order_id")
    private String orderId;

    @Column(name="order_item_id")
    private String orderItemId;

    // Getter and Setter ...
    // Hashcode and Equals ...
}

@Entity
@Table(name="order_items")
class OrderItem {
    @EmbeddedId
    private OrderItemId orderItemId;

    private String description;
    private Long quantity;

    @ManyToOne
  @JoinColumn(name="order_id", insertable = false, updatable = false)
    private Order order;

    // Getter and Setter ...
}

Repository

Use Spring Data repository for CRUD access to the tables.

@Repository
interface OrderRepository extends JpaRepository<Order, String> {
}

@Repository
interface OrderItemRepository extends JpaRepository<OrderItem, OrderItemId> {
}

Rest Repository

Use Spring Data Rest to expose the repositories as RESTful services with HATEOS format.

@RepositoryRestResource
interface OrderRepository extends JpaRepository<Order, String> {
}

@RepositoryRestResource
interface OrderItemRepository extends JpaRepository<OrderItem, OrderItemId> {
}

Sample

• Spring Boot with Spring Data JPA and Cloud Spanner

• Quarkus with Hibernate and Cloud Spanner

• Microprofile with Hibernate and Cloud Spanner

R2DBC

Cloud Spanner R2DBC driver let's you access Cloud Spanner data with reactive API.

Cloud Spanner R2DBC driver is under active development.

It can be used with Spring Data R2DBC using the Cloud Spanner R2DBC Dialect.

Samples

• Spring Boot with Spring Data R2DBC and Cloud Spanner