Spring – An Overview

Overview

• Spring is a framework for dependency-injection which is a pattern that allows to build very decoupled systems.
• The Spring Framework is divided into modules.
• Applications can choose which modules they need.
• At the heart are the modules of the core container, including a configuration model and a dependency injection mechanism.
• Official Website

Spring Release

• Spring 1     : 2004
• Spring 2     : 2006
• Spring 3     : 2009
• Spring 4     : 2013
• Spring 4.3  : 2016
• Spring 5     : 2017

Version Changes

• 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.
• Version 4.0 was 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.

Spring Framework 4.x Changes

• Removed Deprecated Packages and Methods. Here is complete List

Java 8

• Spring Framework 4.0 provides support for several Java 8 features.

Java EE 6 and 7

• Java EE version 6 or above is now considered the baseline for Spring Framework 4, with the JPA 2.0 and Servlet 3.0 specifications being of particular relevance.
• Spring Framework 4.0 supports the Java EE 7 level of applicable specifications now: in particular, JMS 2.0, JTA 1.2, JPA 2.1, Bean Validation 1.1, and JSR-236 Concurrency Utilities.

Release Note of Spring 4.x 

Spring Framework 5.x Changes

Servlet API 4

• One of the new features that Spring 5 brings – is the server push support that comes with Java EE 8 Servlet 4.0 API. 

Java EE 7

• Servlet 3.1
• JMS 2.0
• JPA 2.1
• JAX-RS 2.0
• Bean Validation 1.1
• Java 8 or Higher
  Java 8 is the minimum requirement to work on Spring Framework 5.0.

Spring webflux

• Spring-webflux module that supports reactive HTTP and WebSocket clients.

Testing

• Spring Framework 5.0 fully supports Junit 5 Jupiter to write tests and extensions in JUnit 5.

Library Support

• Jackson 2.6+
• EhCache 2.10+ / 3.0 GA
• Hibernate 5.0+
• JDBC 4.0+
• XmlUnit 2.x+
• OkHttp 3.x+
• Netty 4.1+

Discontinued Support

• beans.factory.access
• jdbc.support.nativejdbc
• mock.staticmock of the spring-aspects module.
• web.view.tiles2M. Now Tiles 3 is the minimum requirement.
• orm.hibernate3 and orm.hibernate4. Now, Hibernate 5 is the supported framework.
• Spring Framework 5.0 has also discontinued support for the following libraries:
  • Portlet
  • Velocity
  • JasperReports
  • XMLBeans
  • JDO
  • Guava

Min Server Versions

• Tomcat 8.5+
• Jetty 9.4+
• WildFly 10+
• Netty 4.1+
• Undertow 1.4+