Spring Tutorials

The Spring Framework was first released in 2004; since then there have been significant major revisions: Spring 2.0 provided XML namespaces and AspectJ support; Spring 2.5 embraced annotation-driven configuration, Spring 3.0 introduced a strong Java 5+ foundation across the framework codebase, and features such as the Java-based @Configuration model.

Now the latest Version 4.0 is release of the Spring Framework and the first to fully support Java 8 features. You can still use Spring with older versions of Java, however, the minimum requirement has now been raised to Java SE 6. We have also taken the opportunity of a major release to remove many deprecated classes and methods. there are some features as listed below.

1. Lightweight: Spring is lightweight when it comes to size and transparency. The basic version of spring framework is around 1MB. And the processing overhead is also very negligible.
2. Inversion of control (IOC): Loose coupling is achieved in spring using the technique Inversion of Control. The objects give their dependencies instead of creating or looking for dependent objects.
3. Aspect oriented (AOP): Spring supports Aspect oriented programming and enables cohesive development by separating application business logic from system services.
4. Container: Spring contains and manages the life cycle and configuration of application objects.
5. MVC Framework: Spring comes with MVC web application framework, built on core Spring functionality. This framework is highly configurable via strategy interfaces, and accommodates multiple view technologies like JSP, Velocity, Tiles, iText, and POI. But other frameworks can be easily used instead of Spring MVC Framework.
6. Transaction Management: Spring framework provides a generic abstraction layer for transaction management. this allowing the developer to add the pluggable transaction managers, and making it easy to demarcate transactions without dealing with low-level issues. Spring's transaction support is not tied to J2EE environments and it can be also used in container less environments.
7. JDBC Exception Handling: The JDBC abstraction layer of the Spring offers a meaningful exception hierarchy, which simplifies the error handling strategy. Integration with Hibernate, JDO, and iBATIS: Spring provides best Integration services with Hibernate, JDO and iBATIS etc.
8. Removed Deprecated Packages and Methods: All deprecated packages, and many deprecated classes and methods have been removed with version 4.0. If you are upgrading from a previous release of Spring, you should ensure that you have fixed any deprecated calls that you were making to outdated APIs.
9. General Web Improvements: Deployment to Servlet 2.5 servers remains an option, but Spring Framework 4.0 is now focused primarily on Servlet 3.0+ environments. If you are using the Spring MVC Test Framework you will need to ensure that a Servlet 3.0 compatible JAR is in your test classpath.