When you launch a Java web application on Cloud Foundry, you can specify many aspects of a deployment blueprint including: •    Single instance vs. Multiple instances topology •    Virtual instance types •    Public facing IP address •    SSL configuration •    JVM options •    Database configuration •    Monitoring and management •    Self-healing and auto-scaling options •    And more…

The wide range of options gives you the ability to configure the optimal deployment blueprint for your application. The bad news was that you had to re-enter those carefully chosen settings each time you…

I'm pleased to announce that we recently released the first Spring 3.0 release candidate (download page). This release completes the key Spring 3.0 feature set. You certainly remember the original Spring 3.0 themes REST and EL; in the meantime, we have been expanding the list significantly:

• Fully Java 5 based: This is the first Spring generation which requires Java 5 or above, with Java 5 syntax used in the entire Spring API as well as in the entire implementation codebase. For example, the BeanFactory API returns generically typed bean instances wherever possible, and ApplicationListeners may declare a specific event type using generics now. For a comparison: In Spring 2.5, the actual Spring core was still JDK 1.4 compatible, while a lot of higher-level functionality was built on Java 5.

• Spring expression language (SpEL): a core expression parser for use in bean definitions, allowing for references to nested bean structures (e.g. properties of other beans) as well as to environmental data structures (e.g. system property values) through a common #{...} syntax in property values. This also serves as a foundation for various expression-based features across the Spring project portfolio.

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We're pleased to announce that the first milestone of the Spring Security Kerberos Extension is now available for download. The release is also available through the Maven milestone repository at http://maven.springframework.org/milestone. With the Spring Security Kerberos Extension, your users are authenticated against your web application just by opening the URL. There is no need to enter a username/password and no need to install additional software.

Before going deeper into Kerberos, I would like to introduce Spring Security Extensions, a new Spring Extension project dedicated to provide…

I'm pleased to announce that beginning with its newly released 1.0.0.M6 version, Bundlor now supports OSGi Blueprint Service files.

As with the support for Spring-DM contexts, Bundlor scans for Blueprint Service configuration files in both the default location (OSGI-INF/blueprint/*.xml) and in locations specified with the custom Bundle-Blueprint manifest header. When these files are found, they are scanned for class and interface names and the packages for those types are added to the OSGi manifest that Bundlor creates.

For information about Bundlor and to download this latest milestone, please visit the Bundlor project page…

This news just in from Arjen Poutsma's twitter feed: Spring 3.0.0.RC1 is now available.

Download | Javadoc API | Change Log

Thank you to all of the dedicated community members that have given feedback and identified issues. Please keep up the good work as we push toward GA.

Dear Spring Community,

I'm pleased to announce that the 1.0.1 maintenance release of Spring BlazeDS Integration, the open source solution for building Spring-powered RIAs with Adobe Flex, is now available.

Download | Reference Documentation | JavaDocs | Changelog

Along with a number of minor bug fixes and enhancements, we have done some restructuring of the popular Spring BlazeDS Test Drive bundled sample application to make it even easier to get up and running in a variety of different environments, and to bring some of the configuration elements further in line with what you might see in the near future in a SpringSource Tool Suite project creation template for Spring BlazeDS Integration projects. Also, we've enhanced the security example further to really show how having Spring Security so tightly integrated sets this solution apart from alternate approaches to securing Flex applications.

As always, I encourage anyone interested to get involved by trying out the release and giving us feedback in the community forum and Jira. We've been getting some great feedback from people having success with Spring BlazeDS Integration in their projects, and we look forward to hearing more about your experiences.

Lastly, for anyone headed to Adobe MAX 2009, be sure and check out the session I'll be co-presenting with Mark Fisher on "Integrating Spring with BlazeDS and LiveCycle Data Services" on Wednesday, October 7th at 2PM.

In Rob's dm Server Roadmap blog entry, last April, we introduced two new artefact types: “plan” and “configuration file”.

Here is a short screencast demonstrating configuration files, in particular we show how to reference them from a plan.

First, a small web application picks up properties from a configuration properties file—deployed separately from the application. Second, the application and the properties are placed in the repository and a plan is constructed and deployed which installs and starts both the web application and its properties in one step.

Configuration Properties (5:59)

• QuickTime Screencast (42.9 MB)

Source Code

Git - git://git.springsource.org…

The last 100 days have been extraordinary for Hyperic. The events over the last three months place Hyperic in the unique position to be part of defining the future of application deployment and management. First, we announced in May that we were joining forces with SpringSource to build the next great full lifecycle enterprise software company. Judging by the response from our community, customers, partners, and the press, our combined "Build – Run ‑ Manage" strategy was the right choice and something the market has been waiting for.  Next, just a few weeks ago in August and barely 90 days…

Since Andy's announcement of the early alpha version of a new and improved Groovy Eclipse plugin, we have received very good feedback from early adopters out of the Groovy and Grails community. Judging from comments and twitter buzz there really is a big interest in good quality Groovy language support on the Eclipse platform. Andy and Andrew made good progress during the last weeks and are heading towards an M1 release which is not far off; check out JIRA for more details on when to expect it.

We'd like to thank everybody who tried out the early version and took time to report problems and…