On behalf of the Spring Framework framework team, it is my pleasure to announce that the second Spring Framework 6.1 milestone release is available from repo.spring.io/milestone now. This new version builds on the main 6.1 themes introduced in the first milestone and adds new ones: @Scheduled improvements and the introduction of RestClient.

Main themes status update

The Data Binding and validation worked has made progress and we have now completed the "Built-in Web Support for Method Bean Validation" umbrella issue and documented the feature accordingly.

Thanks to the Virtual Threads theme, blocking execution of WebFlux Controllers can now be scheduled on a VirtualThreadTaskExecutor, if available.

The Checkpoint/Restore feature is still ongoing, with developer experience updates and lifecycle improvements of ThreadPoolTaskExecutor and ThreadPoolTaskScheduler

New 6.1 themes

This version introduces a new and exciting RestClient type. This is an important feature that deserves its own blog post: check out Arjen's take on the new RestClient.

We are improving the @Scheduled support with two new features. You can now use multiple TaskSchedulers thanks to a new scheduler attribute on the @Scheduled annotation. The Observability enthusiasts also requested metrics and traces support for @Scheduled methods - it's now available with a direct Micrometer instrumentation.

What's next

Check out our What's New page for details about the specific features shipped so far.

The first Spring Boot 3.2 milestone will be released next week. Perfect timing for trying out the new features and preparing for future upgrades! Let us know how it goes, you have a chance to help us shape this 6.1 generation for its general availability in November.