After a long ride, it is my pleasure to announce that Spring 3.0 GA (.RELEASE) is finally available (download page)! All of SpringSource is celebrating - join the party :-) For some very recent news, Spring 3.0 GA is compatible with Java EE 6 final in terms of runtime environments now (e.g. on GlassFish v3 as released last week) and supports JPA 2.0 final already (e.g. using EclipseLink 2.0). We also support the newly introduced @ManagedBean (JSR-250 v1.1) annotation for component scanning now, which nicely complements our @Inject (JSR-330) support for annotation-driven dependency injection…
We decided to publish a further Spring 3.0 release candidate before going GA: Get it from the download page, do a round of thorough testing, and let us know how it works for you. Spring 3.0 is now waiting for your integration test feedback and will eventually go GA in mid December. This release candidate comes with several enhancements: e.g. extended functionality in the new namespace, and a further revision of startup/shutdown behavior (affecting message listeners and scheduled tasks). Feel free to give those features an early try! We are also keen to learn about upgrade experiences…
It is my pleasure to announce that we released the second Spring 3.0 release candidate today (download page). This release introduces key improvements over RC1 in several areas, in particular: Spring 3.0 RC2 is fully JSR-330 compliant and passes the final version of the TCK. JSR-330, a.k.a. "Dependency Injection for Java", basically standardizes an @Inject annotation with a qualifier model. The "javax.inject" annotations can now be used as alternative to Spring's own @Autowired and @Qualifier annotations. Spring's element automatically activates JSR-330 processing…
I'm pleased to announce that we recently released the first Spring 3.0 release candidate (download page). This release completes the key Spring 3.0 feature set. You certainly remember the original Spring 3.0 themes REST and EL; in the meantime, we have been expanding the list significantly: Fully Java 5 based: This is the first Spring generation which requires Java 5 or above, with Java 5 syntax used in the entire Spring API as well as in the entire implementation codebase. For example, the BeanFactory API returns generically typed bean instances wherever possible, and ApplicationListeners may…
We are pleased to announce that the third Spring 3.0 milestone is available now (download page)! This release comes with many new features and refinements, including... Reference documentation: M3 is the first Spring 3.0 milestone that comes with reference documentation, in both HTML and PDF format. Even if the documentation is still a work in progress, it does cover many 3.0 feature areas at this point already. We hope that you'll find this early cut of the documentation useful for learning more about the 3.0 milestone features. Annotated factory methods: Spring 3.0 M3 includes the core…
We are pleased to announce that the second Spring 3.0 milestone is finally available (download page).
This release comes with a wealth of revisions and new features: Further Java 5 style API updates: consistent use of generic Collections and Maps, consistent use of generified FactoryBeans, and also consistent resolution of bridge methods in the Spring AOP API. Generified ApplicationListeners automatically receive specific event types only. All callback interfaces such as TransactionCallback and HibernateCallback declare a generic result value now. Overall, the Spring core codebase is now…
I'm pleased to announce that Spring Framework 3.0 M1 is finally available for download! This release features several major changes, including a start of the major 3.0 themes such as EL and REST support: as well as various minor enhancements. Note that Spring Framework 3.0 requires Java 5 or above and J2EE 1.4 or above. We are building on Java 6 and Java EE 5 as the primary platform levels - but rest assured, we will retain compatibility with Java 5 enabled J2EE 1.4 servers such as WebLogic 9 and WebSphere 6.1. We also removed/deprecated several classes that became outdated. More information…
A brief pictorial review of the SpringSource Seminar Day in Linz, having happened on September 8th, 2008, at the Bergschloessl Linz... More than 150 people were listening to a six-pack of presentations about what's new and upcoming at SpringSource. The "Story of Spring" keynote by Rod Johnson and Adrian Colyer was a great start into a day full of information: about the SpringSource Application Platform, the SpringSource Tool Suite, Spring 3.0, etc. (See the original blog announcement for details on the agenda.)
It was a pleasure to see so many people attending: from Austria as well as…
Yesterday, I blogged about how Spring helps maximize application portability. Even if the portability problem has been an ongoing topic in enterprise Java land for many years, that blog was timely. Today, Oracle announced that its $6.7 billion acquisition of BEA Systems has closed. There is substantial overlap between the product sets of the two companies, so this is bound to bring uncertainty to the WebLogic and OC4J customer bases. WebLogic and OC4J may both fall into the "J2EE server" category but they are very different products with very different characteristics. Since many enterprise…
