Dear Spring community,

Exactly one year after the Spring Framework 3.1 release, I'm pleased to announce that Spring Framework 3.2 is generally available now!

We recommend an upgrade from all previous Spring releases, in particular from Spring Framework 3.1.x which this is a direct successor for.

As previously discussed, key features in Spring Framework 3.2 include:

• Refined Java SE 7 support within the framework as well as through upgrades to CGLIB 3.0, ASM 4.0 (both of which we're inlining now) and AspectJ 1.7
• Concurrency refinements across the framework, avoiding the use of synchronization wherever possible - in particular for scoped/prototype beans
• Allowing for @Autowired and @Value to be used as meta-annotations, e.g. to build custom injection annotations in combination with specific qualifiers
• Support for custom @Bean definition annotations in @Configuration classes, e.g. in combination with specific qualifiers, @Lazy, @Primary, etc
• Asynchronous MVC processing on Servlet 3.0…

Dear Spring community,

I'm pleased to announce that the first Spring Framework 3.2 release candidate is now available.

This generation of the core framework is a straightforward next step after last year's Spring Framework 3.1, continuing several well-established themes. Key features in Spring Framework 3.2 include:

• A new Gradle-based framework build, making it easier than ever to contribute to the Spring Framework project on GitHub
• Inlined CGLIB 3.0 and ASM 4.0, fully supporting Java 7 byte code and making CGLIB-based functionality available without explicit declaration of a CGLIB dependency
• Allowing for @Autowired and @Value to be used as meta-annotations, e.g. to build custom injection annotations in combination with specific qualifiers
• Support for custom @Bean definition annotations in @Configuration classes, e.g. in combination with specific qualifiers, @Lazy, @Primary, etc
• Asynchronous MVC processing on Servlet 3.0…

It is my pleasure to announce that Spring Framework 3.1 becomes generally available today! This release delivers several key features that make Spring ready for the challenges of 2012 and beyond:

• The environment abstraction and the associated bean definition profiles, along with centrally configurable property sources for placeholder resolution.

• Java-based application configuration based on @Enable* annotations on configuration classes, allowing for convenient container configuration: e.g. using @EnableTransactionManagement to activate declarative transaction processing.

• The cache abstraction with our declarative caching solution (@Cacheable etc) on top, focusing on convenient interaction between application code and cache providers.

• The Servlet 3.0 based WebApplicationInitializer mechanism for bootstrapping a Spring web application without web.xml! This is a key piece in Spring's web configuration story, providing a rich alternative to XML-based bootstrapping.

  …

It is my pleasure to announce that the first Spring Framework 3.1 release candidate has - finally - been released this week! We have been working on this release for several months, completing our milestone work and recently adding support for Java SE 7 and for Hibernate 4.0 to the feature list.

Spring Framework 3.1 RC1 completes the 3.1 feature set:

• The environment abstraction and the environment profile mechanism for bean definitions.

• Comprehensive Java-based application configuration based on @Enable* annotations on @Configuration classes.

• An overhaul of the TestContext framework with first-class support for @Configuration classes and for environment profiles.

• Our new "c:" namespace for conveniently specifying constructor arguments by name in a concise inline style.

• The cache abstraction with our declarative caching solution (@Cacheable etc) on top.

• The Servlet 3.0 based WebApplicationInitializer mechanism for bootstrapping a Spring web application without web.xml!

  …

Spring Framework 3.1 M2 has been released this week, marking the end of the 3.1 milestone phase. We are moving on to the release candidate phase now, preparing for a feature-complete RC1 in July and a GA release in September.

3.1 M2 completes the work on several major themes started in 3.1 M1 back in February:

• We've stabilized our environment abstraction and the environment profile mechanism. If you haven't given it a try already, now is a great time to check it out!

• Our Java-based application configuration approach has changed from the @Feature approach in M1 to @Enable* annotations on regular @Configuration classes in M2.

• The cache abstraction has been revised for delivering a minimal cache interaction SPI. Our declarative caching solution (@Cacheable etc) keeps sitting on top of it.

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Spring on Java EE 6 - a viable combination? Can you easily continue to use Spring when you have a Java EE 6 server to deploy to? At this year's edition of the SpringOne conference which kicked off just a few hours ago, I'll once again be presenting a session on Spring and EE 6: now with a focus on GlassFish 3 as an actually available (and at this point, still the only available) EE 6 server for production environments. As a sneak preview, here are four key considerations taken from that presentation...

1. A Java EE 6 server like GlassFish 3 is a fine runtime environment for Spring 3

GlassFish 3 provides a lot of out-of-the-box middleware: Servlet 3.0, JSF 2.0, JPA 2.0, as…

After several weeks of fine-tuning and community feedback, Spring Framework 3.0.3 is now available. This release fixes more than a hundred minor issues reported against Spring 3.0.2, in particular in the JSP tag library and in Portlet session handling, as well as in ConversionService details. Once again, this release catches up with recent third-party releases: OpenJPA 2.0 final, Hibernate 3.5.2, and JBoss 6.0.0 M3, all of which are fully supported in combination with Spring 3 now.

Note that, in the meantime, all major persistence providers have released GA versions with JPA 2.0 support, even…

I'm pleased to announce that Spring Framework 3.0.2 is available now, including more than 100 fixes for user-reported issues. Get it from our download page.

Spring 3.0.2 catches up with recent third-party releases such as Hibernate 3.5 final, OpenJPA 2.0 beta 3, Hessian 4.0.3, and JasperReports 3.7. In addition, this release introduces web support refinements (e.g. the new HttpEntity class) and fixes a couple of regressions.

We recommend upgrading to Spring 3.0.2 from all previous Spring 3.0 releases - for both development and production use. If you are currently using Spring 2.5, the 3.0.…

Here in the Spring team, we are currently preparing for a busy next week: We have a three-day team meeting coming up from March 15th to 17th, immediately followed by the SpringSource S2G Forum Munich on Thursday, March 18th (overview, agenda, registration).

The S2G Forum series is a new conference concept that we are giving a try in Europe: One-day shows in specific regions, with international speakers, and also some regional-language talks thrown into the mix. Munich is the first of those shows this year; further ones are going to follow in Amsterdam on May 11th and in London on May 13th.

The…

After two months of incorporating valuable feedback, it is my pleasure to announce the first Spring 3.0 maintenance release - addressing more than 170 reported issues. Get it from our download page.

Since quite a few users asked for a dependencies distribution (as an alternative to grabbing dependencies via Maven or Ivy), we are providing a third download now: containing an Ivy repository with common third-party jar files. Note that the core framework is separate from the dependencies; the latter are just provided as an additional convenience and do not constitute an inherent part of the framework distribution. You may of course keep using any supported version…