spring-framework/spring-framework-reference/src/new-in-3.xml

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<chapter id="new-in-3">
  <title>What's new in Spring 3.0?</title>

  <para>If you have been using the Spring Framework for some time, you will be
  aware that Spring has undergone two major revisions: Spring 2.0, released in
  October 2006, and Spring 2.5, released in November 2007. It is now time for
  a third overhaul resulting in Spring 3.0.</para>

  <sidebar id="new-in-3-intro-java">
    <title>Java SE and Java EE Support</title>

    <para>The Spring Framework is now based on Java 5 and Java 6 is fully
    supported.</para>

    <para>Furthermore, Spring is compatible with J2EE 1.4 and Java EE 5, while
    at the same time introducing some early support for Java EE 6.</para>
  </sidebar>

  <section id="new-in-3-intro">
    <title>Java 5</title>

    <para>The entire framework code has been revised to take advantage of Java
    5 features like generics, varargs and other language improvements. We have
    done our best to still keep the code backwards compatible. We now have
    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 freshly revised and
    optimized for Java 5.</para>

    <para>Spring's TaskExecutor abstraction has been updated for close
    integration with Java 5's java.util.concurrent facilities. We provide
    first-class support for Callables and Futures now, as well as
    ExecutorService adapters, ThreadFactory integration, etc. This has been
    aligned with JSR-236 (Concurrency Utilities for Java EE 6) as far as
    possible. Furthermore, we provide support for asynchronous method
    invocations through the use of the new @Async annotation (or EJB 3.1's
    @Asynchronous annotation).</para>
  </section>

  <section id="new-in-3-improved-docs">
    <title>Improved documentation</title>

    <sidebar id="new-in-3-intro-work-in-progress">
      <title>Note:</title>

      <para>The current documentation is a <emphasis>*** WORK IN PROGRESS
      ***</emphasis> and is currently being re-written to reflect all the
      changes in the framework and from now relying on Java 5 features.</para>
    </sidebar>

    <para>The Spring reference documentation has also substantially been
    updated to reflect all of the changes and new features for Spring 3.0.
    While every effort has been made to ensure that there are no errors in
    this documentation, some errors may nevertheless have crept in. If you do
    spot any typos or even more serious errors, and you can spare a few cycles
    during lunch, please do bring the error to the attention of the Spring
    team by <ulink url="http://jira.springframework.org/">raising an
    issue</ulink>.</para>
  </section>

  <section id="new-in-3-modules-build">
    <title>New module organization and build system</title>

    <para>The framework modules have been revised and are now managed
    separately with one source-tree per module jar:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.aop</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.beans</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.context</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.context.support</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.expression</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.instrument</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.jdbc</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.jms</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.orm</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.oxm</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.test</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.transaction</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.web</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.web.portlet</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>org.springframework.web.servlet</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <sidebar id="new-in-3-intro-spring-jar">
      <title>Note:</title>

      <para>The spring.jar artifact that contained almost the entire framework
      is no longer provided.</para>
    </sidebar>

    <para>We are now using a new Spring build system as known from Spring Web
    Flow 2.0. This gives us:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>Ivy-based "Spring Build" system</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>consistent deployment procedure</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>consistent dependency management</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>consistent generation of OSGi manifests</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </section>

  <section id="new-in-3-features-overview">
    <title>Overview of new features</title>

    <para>This is a list of new features for Spring 3.0. We will cover these
    features in more detail in the following sections.</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>Spring Expression Language</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>IoC enhancements</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Comprehensive REST support</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>@MVC additions</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Declarative model validation</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Early support for Java EE 6</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </section>

  <section id="new-feature-el">
    <title>Spring Expression Language</title>

    <para>Spring introduces an expression language which is similar to Unified
    EL in its syntax but offers significantly more features. The expression
    language can be used when defining XML and Annotation based bean
    definitions and also serves as the foundation for expression language
    support across the Spring portfolio. Details of this new functionality can
    be found in the chapter <link linkend="expressions">Spring Expression
    Language (SpEL).</link></para>
  </section>

  <section id="new-feature-java-config">
    <title>The Inversion of Control (IoC) container</title>

    <para>Core JavaConfigfeatures added</para>
  </section>

  <section id="new-feature-rest">
    <title>The Web Tier</title>

    <para>Work in progress</para>

    <section>
      <title>Comprehensive REST support</title>

      <para>Work in progress</para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>@MVC additions</title>

      <para>Work in progress</para>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section id="new-feature-validation">
    <title>Declarative model validation</title>

    <para>Hibernate Validator, JSR 303</para>
  </section>

  <section id="new-feature-jee-6">
    <title>Early support for Java EE 6</title>

    <para>JSF 2.0, JPA 2.0, etc</para>
  </section>
</chapter>