Question

How do I surround a try catch around my Ehcache in the attempt to make sure it has started correctly?

Answer 1

You can write wrapper method which checks the status of cache with CacheManager e.g.,

/**
 * 
 * @return true if Caching system is live otherwise false
 */
public boolean isAlive()
{
    return net.sf.ehcache.Status.STATUS_ALIVE == cacheManager.getStatus();
}

You can always wrap your caching calls as

public Object getVal(Object aKey, Object aDefaultValue)
{
    Element element = null;

    if (Util.isAlive())
    {
        try
        {
            element = cache.get(aKey);
        }
        catch (IllegalStateException e)
        {
            //Log it
        }
        catch (RuntimeException r)
        {
            //Log it
        }
    }

    return ((element == null) ? aDefaultValue : element.getObjectValue());
}

Hope this helps