Spring 3.0 framework for Java to bow

InfoWorld - Spring 3.0, a major upgrade to the popular open-source Java development framework, is being introduced Monday by SpringSource, featuring full REST support for rich Web applications as well as an expression language.

SpringSource, which recently was acquired by VMware, also is announcing SpringSource tc Server Developer Edition, offering a runtime environment for building Spring applications. And tc Server is compatible with the Apache Tomcat Java application server.

[ See also InfoWorld's report on VMware's SpringSource application: "VMware buys SpringSource in cloud move." ]

The Spring Framework is used by more than 3 million developers, SpringSource said.

"Spring 3.0 makes it even easier for developers to build flexible, high-quality applications while providing a foundation for innovation in other open-source projects and commercial projects," said Rod Johnson, general manager of the SpringSource division ofVMware.

REST capabilities are offered in Spring MVC such as REST-style request mappings and URI variable extraction through @Pathvariable parameters. Object/XML Mapping (OXM) is featured in the framework core.

Version 3.0, accessible at this Web site, also offers streamlined configuration of Spring beans. The framework is based on Java 5, with Java 5 syntax used in the Spring API and implementation code base. Early support for Java Enterprise Edition 6 is included as well, through support of JavaServer Faces 2.0 and Java Persistence API in a Spring environment. Further Java EE specifications such as Servlet 3.0 will be supported as they become available.

Spring expression language (SpEL) in the release serves as a core expression parser for bean definitions, allowing for nested bean structures as well as environmental data structures such as system property values through a common syntax.

Extended support for annotation-based components also is featured, and a stereotype model allows for developing "shortcut" annotations through meta-annotations. Standardized dependency injection annotations are featured, as is a declarative model validation based on constraint annotations.

Enhanced binding and formatting facilities are included. Scheduling capabilities are featured as well.

Spring 3.0 is backward-compatible with Spring 2.5.

With tc Server Developer Edition, developers get visibility and relevant information for debugging and improving Spring applications, SpringSource said. Combining Spring with Apache Tomcat enables developers to keep application code free of needless Java EE complexity, the company said.

The tc Server Developer Edition is based on SpringSource tc Server, which is an enterprise version of Apache Tomcat intended to bridge the gap between developers and operations, SpringSource said. Performance visibility is provided for developers building applications and IT Web operations teams managing these applications.

Featured in tc Server Developer Edition is the Spring Insight console, which is a dashboard offering real-time application performance metrics. The tc Developer Edition is integrated with the SpringSource Tool Suite, an Eclipse-powered development environment for building Spring enterprise applications.

SpringSource is introducing tc Server Developer Edition and Spring Framework 3.0 at the SpringOne 2GX conference in New Orleans.

This story, "Spring 3.0 framework for Java to debut," was originally published at InfoWorld.com.