On this lucky Friday the 13th, we are pleased to announce that Spring 1.2 final has just been released.

(Thanks to Juergen for doing the packaging and his usual coding heroics). 

The major new features since 1.2 RC2 are:

• TopLink support (for both TopLink 9.0.4 and 10.1.3)
• JDO 2.0 support (tested against JPOX 1.1 beta 3)
• Hibernate 3.0.3 support (aggressive release of Connections)

The overall major new features of Spring 1.2 are:

• finer-grained distribution jar files
• simplified XML bean definitions
• JMX support
• JDK 1.5 transaction annotation
• support for WebLogic JTA extensions
• JDBC RowSet support
• JCA CCI support
• JDO2 support
• Hibernate3 support
• TopLink support

Thanks to Oracle for donating the original TopLink support prototype,  and in particular to Jim Clark from Oracle - for all his help in getting the TopLink support into its final shape!

For details on new features, deprecations and bug fixes, please see the change log.

FYI, we have a 1.2.1 release scheduled for June, featuring minor enhancements that did not make 1.2 final. See our JIRA road map for details.

We are pleased to announce that Spring Modules 0.1 has just been released.

Downloads can be found at: http://springmodules.dev.java.net.

This release includes:

• Integration with HiveMind, allowing for HiveMind services to be exposed as Spring beans
• Spring-style integration classes for JSR-94 rules engines such as Jess and Drools
• Spring-style configuration for OSWorkflow
• Integration classes for Commons Validator (taken from Spring sandbox)

For a detailed list of features, see the changelog.

The HiveMind and Commons Validator support classes are considered to be stable and ready for use in production. Modifications to the JavaScripthandling in Commons Validator will appear in 0.2.

The OSWorkflow configuration support is ready for use in production, but 0.2 will introduce the OSWorkflowTemplate, which will bring full Spring semantics to workflow usage.

We have successfully used the JSR-94 integration classes in a production setting, but are planning to overhaul session handling in 0.2.

We are planning to release 0.2 within the next three weeks, hopefully just after Spring 1.2 goes final. This is in keeping with our plan to release new features as often as possible.

The full roadmap can be found at: http://opensource.atlassian.com/projects/spring/secure/BrowseProject.jspa?id=10030&report=roadmap.

We are still looking to recruit more developers to work on more modules, and any feedback on new or existing features will be much appreciated.

We're pleased to announce that Spring 1.2 RC2 has just been released.

This release introduces one major new feature:

• support for JCA's Common Client Interface (CCI), including support for CCI local transactions

Furthermore, there are various minor enhancements, for example:

• deprecated ListableBeanFactory's getBeanDefinitionNames(type)", in favor of "getBeanNamesForType"
  
• added "value"/"value-ref" shortcut attributes to XML "entry" tag for maps
  
• added "alias" root element for XML bean definition files, for aliases for beans in other files
  
  
• JdbcAccessor lazily initializes the SQLExceptionTranslator by default now
  
• added further configuration options to LocalSessionFactoryBean for Hibernate3
  
• added "defaultDestinationName" property to JmsTemplate, for a dynamic default destination
  
  
• refined Resource support for compatibility with JDK 1.3's classic VM and with JRockit's jar paths
  
• refactored static PathMatcher class into PathMatcher interface and AntPathMatcher implementation
  
• added ConfigurableMimeFileTypeMap, with extensive MIME type mappings out-of-the-box
  
  
• added "context.i18n" package, with LocaleContext abstraction and global LocaleContextHolder
  
• DispatcherServlet exposes the current LocaleResolver through the global LocaleContextHolder
  
• added RemoteInvocationTraceInterceptor, logging remote calls and exceptions on the server
  
  
• updated JasperReports support for JR 0.6.6, using JRDefaultCompiler as default report compiler
  
• reworked AbstractJasperReportsView to work on JasperPrint instance rather than JasperReport instance
  
• added support for reports with embedded SQL statements to AbstractJasperReportsView

For a detailed list of enhancements and bug fixes, see the changelog.

This release candidate is considered stable and recommended for development use. We expect Spring 1.2 final to be released in about two weeks.

We are pleased to announce the 2nd preview release of Spring Web Flow for use with the Spring 1.2 release path.  This stable-for-development-use release offers the following major new features:

• Pluggable flow execution storage strategies, with out-of-the-box continuations support.  This means:
  • You now have the option to persist an executing flow’s state to any backing data store, including the HttpSession (the default), a database, serialized files, etc.
  • You can select to use a continuations based storage strategy, turning Spring Web Flow into a continuation-driven system providing proper browser navigational button behavior (back, next, refresh, and new window.) You can also choose between client-side or server-side continuation storage.  GZIP compression of flow execution state is also supported.
• Support for OGNL transition criteria, with a TransitionCriteriaCreator strategy for easily integrating other expression languages or custom transition expressions as needed.
• Portlet support, with the samples (Phonebook) illustrating Spring Web Flow in a portlet environment.
• Support for a ‘validatorMethod’ action state property, specifying a validation method to invoke, for use with a FormAction with a configured Validator instance (to support easy piecemeal validation within a wizard)
• Support for JDK 1.3.
• Samples (Phonebook) illustrating how to write integration tests to verify the expected behavior of your flows.
• Samples (Birthdate) illustrating Struts integration.
• A brand new sample app (Sell Item), illustrating a validating wizard using continuations (providing proper browser navigational button use!) and conditional transitions (using OGNL expressions!).

There are also a number of bug fixes and other general improvements/polishing included in this release.  Note, for PR1 users: there are a few incompatible changes in PR2 with PR1.  Please see the Change Log on the WIKI for details.

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As always, with the Spring seal of quality you’ve come to expect, we offer:

• Quality documentation, both in the javadocs and WIKI docs
  
• Strong test coverage
  
• Careful attention to naming, packaging, and ease of use
  
• Exceptional error reporting
• A feature set driven by end user needs

To download the preview release:

            <br />

1. Access the springframework project file list.
   

           <br />
   

2. Scroll down to the 'spring-webflow' release package and select

…

We are pleased to announce a preview release of Spring Web Flow for use with the Spring 1.2 release path.  With this release, we consider the web flow system fit for development use.

        <br />

Contained in this release are new features we expect to take web applications with demanding page flow requirements to the next level.  These include:

• The ability to capture the logical page flows of your application as self-contained modules reusable in multiple situations.
• The ability to nest flows 'n' levels deep (as subflows), where each flow is a "black-box" adhering to a well-defined contract for input/output.
• The ability to express page flows declaratively, with a pluggable flow definition format (currently Java-based and XML-based builder formats are provided.)
• …

It's Spring time

We are pleased to announce that Spring 1.2 RC1 has just been released. This release introduces a number of major new features:

• finer-grained distribution jar files, alongside the full spring.jar
  
• AOP Alliance interfaces are now contained in spring-aop.jar and spring.jar
  

XML bean definition improvements ("ref" and "value" shortcut attributes
etc)

improved AOP TargetSourceCreator mechanism (supporting
LazyInitTargetSource too)

transaction annotation support for JDK 1.5+ (annotation called
"Transactional")

improved WebLogicJtaTransactionManager (transaction names, isolation
levels)

SqlRowSet support for JDBC (in conjunction with JdbcTemplate's
"queryForRowSet")

Hibernate3 support (in orm.hibernate3; Hibernate 2.1 support is still
available)

JMX support for export of Spring beans as managed resources and for MBean
access

Commons Attributes and JDK 1.5+ annotations for JMX MBean export

This release also contains many minor enhancements, for example:

factored out BindingErrorProcessor strategy for ServletRequestDataBinder

improved ParameterMethodNameResolver for Web MVC MultiActionController

For a detailed list of enhancements and bug fixes, see the changelog.

This release candidate is already considered stable and recommended for development use. We expect Spring 1.2 final to be released in late April.

Watch out for the Spring Web Flow preview release to follow later this week (for use with Spring 1.2)! Web Flow will also become part of the nightly build at that time.

We are pleased to announce that Spring Framework 1.1.5 has just been released.

This is the last bug fix and minor enhancement release in the 1.1.x series, featuring many minor improvements such as:

• added overloaded "reject" and rejectValue" methods without default message to Errors interface and BindException
  
• added "lookup(name, requiredType)" convenience method to JndiTemplate, matching the JNDI object against the given type
  
• added "homeInterface" property to AbstractRemoteSlsbInvokerInterceptor, for specifying the home interface to narrow to
  
• introduced MailMessage interface as common interface for SimpleMailMessage and JavaMail MIME messages
  
• Log4jConfigurer accepts a "classpath:" URL or a "file:" URL as location too, not just a plain file path
  
• Log4jConfigurer accepts config files that do not reside in the file system, as long as there is no refresh interval
  
  
• added "int[] batchUpdate(String[] sql)" method to JdbcTemplate, for executing a group of SQL statements as a batch
  
• added C3P0NativeJdbcExtractor for C3P0 0.8.5 or later (for earlier C3P0 versions, use SimpleNativeJdbcExtractor)
  
• added "maxRows" bean property to JdbcTemplate, allowing to specify the maximum number of rows to be fetched
  
• added "fetchSize" and "maxRows" bean properties to RdbmsOperation, passing the values to the internal JdbcTemplate
  
• added ClobStringTypeHandler, BlobByteArrayTypeHandler and BlobSerializableTypeHandler for iBATIS SQL Maps 2.0.9
  
• ResourceHolderSupport throws TransactionTimedOutException if no time-to-live left (before attempting an operation)
  
• TransactionSynchronization objects can influence their execution order through implementing the Ordered interface
  
• JtaTransactionManager is able to work with a JTA TransactionManager only (i.e. without a UserTransaction handle)
  
  
• upgraded MockHttpServletRequest to Servlet API 2.4 (added getRemotePort, getLocalName, getLocalAddr, getLocalPort)
  
• upgraded MockPageContext to JSP API 2.0 (added getExpressionEvaluator, getVariableResolver, overloaded include)
  
• added "contextOverride" option to ServletContextPropertyPlaceholderConfigurer, letting web.xml override local settings
  
• added "searchContextAttributes" option to ServletContextPropertyPlaceholderConfigurer, resolving context attributes
  
• added "clear" and "isEmpty" methods to ModelAndView, allowing to clear the view of a given ModelAndView object
  
• added JasperReportsMultiFormatView, allowing to specify the output format dynamically via a discriminator in the model
  
• JSP EL expressions in Spring's JSP tags will be parsed with JSP 2.0 ExpressionEvaluator on JSP 2.0 (Jakarta JSTL else)
  
• changed "spring:transform" tag's "value" attribute from String to Object, to allow for expressions resolved by JSP 2.0
  

Please see the changelog for details.

Our next milestone is 1.2 RC1, which we intend to release as soon as possible: with Hibernate3 support, JMX support and further major new features. Nightly 1.2-dev snapshots with Hibernate3 support and JMX support will be available within a few days, so feel free to give 1.2 an early try

We are pleased to announce that Spring Framework 1.1.4 has just been released. This is a bugfix and minor enhancement release in the 1.1 series.

        </span>Among the new

features are:

• added LazyInitTargetSource, lazily accessing a singleton from a BeanFactory (lazily initializing on first call)
• added ServiceLocatorFactoryBean, allowing to map custom service locator interface methods to BeanFactory.getBean calls
• reworked ResourcePatternResolver to extend ResourceLoader, for ResourcePatternResolver checks in ResourceLoaderAware
• made BindException serializable, provided that the contained target object is serializable

• added LazyConnectionDataSourceProxy, for lazily fetching JDBC Connections with native JDBC or Hibernate transactions
• added "Sybase-jConnect" to default sql-error-codes.xml file, for database product name "Adaptive Server Enterprise"
• added overloaded "queryForList"/"queryForObject"/"queryForLong"/"queryForInt" methods with arg types to JdbcTemplate
• added "alwaysUseNewSession" flag to HibernateTemplate, enforcing a new Session even in case of a pre-bound Session
• HibernateTemplate proxies exposed Sessions by default, applying query cache settings and transaction timeouts
• added "isConnectFailure(RemoteException)" hook to AbstractRemoteSlsbInvokerInterceptor, for customized failure checks

• added "isConnectFailure(RemoteException)" hook to (Jndi)RmiClientInterceptor, for customized connect failure checks
• added JaxRpcServicePostProcessor interface, intended for reusable custom type mappings etc for a JAX-RPC service
• added "servicePostProcessors" property to LocalJaxRpcServiceFactory and subclasses (incl. JaxRpcPortProxyFactoryBean)

• added "messageIdEnabled" and "messageTimestampEnabled" properties to JmsTemplate, to disable id/timestamp on producer
• added "pubSubNoLocal" property to JmsTemplate, leading to the NoLocal flag being specified on MessageConsumer creation
• added "receiveSelected" and "receivedSelectedAndConvert" methods to JmsTemplate, accepting JMS message selectors
• added "schedulerListeners", "(global)JobListeners", "(global)TriggerListeners" bean properties to SchedulerFactoryBean
• added "jobListenerNames"/"triggerListenerNames" property to JobDetailBean, CronTriggerBean, SimpleTriggerBean (resp.)

• added ServletContextAttributeFactoryBean, exposing an existing ServletContext attribute for bean references
• added ServletContextAttributeExporter, taking Spring-defined objects and exposing them as ServletContext attributes
• added ServletContextPropertyPlaceholderConfigurer, a subclass that falls back to web.xml context-param entries
• added "publishEvents" init-param to FrameworkServlet, allowing to turn off the publishing of RequestHandledEvents
• Spring JSP tags work outside DispatcherServlet too, falling back to root WebApplicationContext and JSTL/request locale

Please see the changelog for details.
Downloads are available through the SourceForge project page

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

…