This topic explains how to start using Native Client for VMware GemFire.
To use the GemFire Native Library for developing GemFire client applications:
- Obtain a distribution of the Native library and install it on your development platform.
- Set up your development environment with the tools you need, such as a compiler and an OpenSSL security library.
- Establish access to a new or existing GemFire cluster.
- Write your client application using the GemFire native library to interact with the GemFire server.
Set Up Your Development Environment
You will need some essential tools, such as a compiler and a linker. Your compiler must have access to the Native Client header files, and the linker must have access to the Native Client libraries. The header files and libraries are located in the Native Client installation directory.
Establish Access to a GemFire Cluster
As you develop your application, you will need access to a GemFire cluster. Your client application connects to a GemFire cluster by specifying the address (host name or IP address) and port number of one or more locators, and the name of a region that also exists on the cluster. The client API establishes a pool of these network connections for your client application to use.
You can choose whether to use a large, remote, production-quality cluster; a small, local, development cluster; or something in-between, such as a testing or experimental lab installation.
In the GemFire User’s Guide, see Configuring and Running a Cluster and Client/Server Configuration for instructions on setting up and starting the cluster for a client/server configuration.
Connecting to the Server
To connect to a server, your application must follow these steps:
- Create a cache, setting characteristics of interest (for example,
log-level). - Use the cache to create a named pool of network connections, specifying the hostname and port for at least one server locator.
- Instantiate a region of the desired type (usually PROXY, sometimes CACHING_PROXY) and connect it by name to its counterpart on the server.
Once the connection pool and the shared region are in place, your client application is ready to share data with the server.
Server Connection: C++ Example
Create a cache and set its characteristics:
auto cache = CacheFactory()
.set("log-level", "debug")
.set("ssl-enabled", "true")
.set("ssl-truststore", clientTruststore.string())
.create();
Use the cache to create a named pool of network connections, specifying the hostname and port for the server locator:
cache.getPoolManager()
.createFactory()
.addLocator("localhost", 10334)
.create("pool");
Instantiate a region of the desired type and connect to the pool by name::
auto regionFactory = cache.createRegionFactory(RegionShortcut::PROXY);
auto region = regionFactory.setPoolName("pool").create("exampleRegion");
See the GemFire User Guide section Configuring a Client/Server System for more details.
Application Development Walkthrough
The C++ App Development Walkthrough describes how to set up a native client development environment using CMake.
Programming Examples
The GemFire Client build provides a set of programming examples to help you understand the client API. The examples directory contains CMake files and a cpp subdirectory containing C++ examples. The Windows build also includes a dotnet subdirectory containing C# examples.
CMake files are located at each level of the directory structure to allow examples to be built individually or in groups.
The directory structure resembles this hierarchy (some entries are omitted for clarity):
MyProject/
cmake/
CMakeLists.txt
examples/
BUILD-EXAMPLES.md
CMakeLists.txt
CMakeLists.txt.in
cmake/
cpp/
authinitialize/
continuousquery/
dataserializable/
functionexecution/
pdxserializable/
pdxserializer/
putgetremove/
remotequery/
sslputget/
transaction/
dotnet/
authinitialize/
continuousquery/
dataserializable/
functionexecution/
pdxautoserializer/
pdxserializable/
putgetremove/
remotequery/
sslputget/
transaction/
See the BUILD-EXAMPLES.md file for detailed instructions on building and executing the examples, and read the source code to understand how the examples are constructed.
See Put/Get/Remove Example for sample code showing the basics of how a client application connects to a GemFire cluster and performs basic operations on a remote server.
