---
title: "MariaDB Connector/R2DBC now RC"
publish_date: 2020-10-19
updated_date: 2021-08-30
author: "Ralf Gebhardt"
channel:
  - name: "Product"
    url: "/resources/blog/channel/product.md"
tags:
  - name: "MariaDB Connector"
    url: "/resources/blog/tag/mariadb-connector.md"
  - name: "r2dbc"
    url: "/resources/blog/tag/r2dbc.md"
---

# MariaDB Connector/R2DBC now RC

MariaDB Connector/R2DBC is now a release candidate (RC). MariaDB Connector/J has long been a popular choice for Java application developers connecting with MariaDB, and now with Connector/R2DBC we have support for non-blocking, reactive Java programming with MariaDB databases.

Connector/R2DBC implements the [R2DBC](http://r2dbc.io/) 0.8.2 specification. R2DBC specifies a service-provider interface (SPI) to enable integration of databases into systems that use reactive programming models.

- Reactive programming takes the existing Callbacks-Futures based asynchronous paradigm further with a new Publisher-Subscriber based asynchronous model.
- A publisher-subscriber is a push-pull model rather than the classic asynchronous model that is push-consume.
- A data stream is not sent unless a subscriber subscribes to it, and a subscriber can choose the rate it will consume data.
- Reactive data streams are non-blocking, do not require threads, and are faster than non-reactive data streams.

MariaDB Connector/R2DBC is available from the [MariaDB Download](https://staging-mdb.com/downloads/#connectors) page (choose “r2dbc connector”). Java 8+ is supported. MariaDB Connector/R2DBC 0.8.4 is a release candidate (RC) release. It is not recommended for production usage.

[Documentation](https://staging-mdb.com/docs/appdev/connector-r2dbc/) is provided with examples, both [native](https://staging-mdb.com/docs/appdev/connector-r2dbc/native/) and using [Connector/R2DBC with Spring Data R2DBC](https://staging-mdb.com/docs/appdev/connector-r2dbc/spring/) to make it “easier to build Spring-powered applications that use relational data access technologies in a reactive application stack”.

A demonstration of R2DBC functionality is available in the OpenWorks 2020 “[Introducing the R2DBC async Java connector](https://staging-mdb.com/openworks/sessions-on-demand/introducing-the-r2dbc-async-java-connector/)” webinar, available on demand.