The publishers of the relational open source database MariaDB have published a connection for Reactive Relational Database Connectivity (R2DBC). The new connector is supposed to support reactive programming and should therefore be of particular interest to Java developers.

New specification for a reactive interface R2DBC is apparently intended to replace its predecessor JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) and, according to MariaDB Corporation, is used to create scalable Java Virtual Machines (JVM) that have recently been used to interact with the relational database can use a streaming approach.

According to the blog announcement, the new specification “Reactive Relational Database Connectivity” is about reactive or non-blocking behavior by using asynchronous data streams. This should have a positive effect on the use of resources by increasing the data throughput, among other things, as Mark Paluch, who is responsible for developing this specification, explains. This is particularly important for real-time streaming: According to the blog entry, MariaDB is opening up to new use cases in this area.

Code examples and resources in the DeveloperHub Code examples and resources for the new connector and other interfaces for various programming languages ​​can be found in a newly set up MariaDB Developer Hub. MariaDB Corporation positions the open source database as an alternative to proprietary databases for corporate use, building on modular storage engines to cope with fluctuating workloads.

In-depth information on the new connector and reactive programming with the relational Database can be found in the press release on MariaDB’s blog. An article in the online documentation reveals how to use the non-blocking library.

(sih)