Spring Framework Extensions Now Compatible with Spring 3.1 -- ADTmag

Spring Framework Extensions Now Compatible with Spring 3.1

By John K. Waters
March 21, 2012

VMware recently announced that all major extensions to its Spring Framework are now compatible with the latest version of the Spring open source Java development framework. The list of compatible extensions includes Spring Integration, Spring Security, Spring Batch, Spring Data, Spring Mobile and Spring for Android.

Support for the extensions to popular Java/J2EE framework continues "the tradition of taking care of the infrastructure so developers can focus on building applications that address today's business requirements," said Adrian Colyer, VMware's chief technical office of Cloud and Application Services, in a statement.

Spring Integration is an extension of the Spring programming model that supports the 65 patterns described in Enterprise Integration Patterns by Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf. It's designed to enable lightweight messaging within Spring-based applications. A SpringSource project launched in 2003, Spring Security is a customizable authentication and access-control framework, considered the de-facto standard for securing Spring-based applications. Spring Batch is a lightweight batch framework designed to enable the development of enterprise-level batch applications. It builds on the plain old Java objects (POJO) development approach. Spring Data is a SpringSource project focused on making it easier to build Spring-powered applications that use new data access technologies such as non-relational databases, map-reduce frameworks, and cloud based data services. Spring Mobile is an extension to Spring MVC (model-view-controller) architecture that aims to simplify the development of mobile web applications. And Spring for Android is an extension of the framework designed to simplify the development of native Android apps.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based virtualization vendor's SpringSource division, the chief commercial sponsor of the open-source Spring Framework project, released Spring 3.1 in December. That release came with several new features, including comprehensive Java-based application configuration; new caching abstraction capabilities; support for bean definition profiles and hierarchical property source management; and many others.

VMware reports that average monthly downloads of the Spring Framework from the Maven Central repository have grown by 40 percent year to date.

About the Author

John K. Waters is the editor in chief of a number of Converge360.com sites, with a focus on high-end development, AI and future tech. He's been writing about cutting-edge technologies and culture of Silicon Valley for more than two decades, and he's written more than a dozen books. He also co-scripted the documentary film Silicon Valley: A 100 Year Renaissance, which aired on PBS. He can be reached at [email protected].