We are pleased to announce that Spring Framework 1.1.3 has just been released. This is a bugfix and minor enhancement release in the 1.1 series; most importantly, JDK 1.3 compatibility is fully restored.

Among the new features in this release are:

        <ul>
          <li>added

"setResourceLoader" method to GenericApplicationContext, for overriding the default resource loading strategy

added FileSystemResourceLoader, resolving paths as file system resources rather than as class path resources

BeanWrapperImpl automatically registers a default ResourceArrayPropertyEditor

added CustomCollectionEditor, by default registered to convert between Set, SortedSet and List (when necessary)

added "fileEncoding" and "propertiesPersister" properties to PropertyResourceConfigurer

reworked DefaultListableBeanFactory's "getBeansOfType" to return FactoryBean instances when passed a FactoryBean type

DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser resolves "set" tag as LinkedHashSet on JDK 1.4, falling back to HashSet on JDK 1.3

factored out AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext as base class of AbstractXmlApplicationContext

added "setIgnoreUnknownFields" method to DataBinder, enforcing request parameters to match fields when turned "false"

• added "execute(ConnectionCallback)" method to JdbcTemplate, allowing any kind of operation on a given Connection
• added DB2SequenceMaxValueIncrementer, implementing the DataFieldMaxValueIncrementer interface for a DB2 sequence
• fixed Hibernate/JTA synchronization to also work with EJB remote transaction propagation (with >1 thread involved)
• added "transactionConfigClass" and "transactionConfigProperties" customization properties to SqlMapClientFactoryBean

• added optional "proxyInterface" property to JndiObjectFactoryBean, for exposing a proxy rather than the plain object
• added "lookupOnStartup" and "cache" properties to JndiObjectFactoryBean, allowing for lazy lookup on first access etc
• added "codebaseUrl" property to HttpInvokerClientInterceptor, specifying a URL for dynamic class download
• added support for dynamic class downloading to AbstractHttpInvokerRequestExecutor and its subclasses

• DispatcherServlet by default cleans up request attributes after include request (configurable via "cleanupOnInclude")
• UrlBasedViewResolver supports a "forward:" prefix too, for forwards to other controllers through special view names
• added "attributes" (Properties) and "attributesMap" (Map) properties to UrlBasedViewResolver, for static attributes
• InternalResourceView performs an include if the response has already been committed (-> forward not possible anymore)
• JstlView and TilesJstlView respect a JSTL "localizationContext" config in web.xml, checking those messages first
• added overloaded "createVelocityContext" and "exposeHelpers" methods to VelocityView, with passed-in servlet response
• added "toolAttributes" property to VelocityView, taking attribute name / tool class name pairs for tools to expose
• added JasperReportsXxxView to allow for convenient rendering of CSV/HTML/PDF/XLS web views with Jasper Reports
• added MappingDispatchActionSupport class, as convenience subclass of Struts 1.2's MappingDispatchAction

As always, have a look at the changelog for details.
Downloads are available through the SourceForge project page