Spring Framework 2.0 M1 released

[Colin Sampaleanu]

--- Dec. 22, 2005:

The beginning of the next season of Spring is here: Spring Framework 2.0 M1 has been released.
Download it here.

Important new features include:

• Simplified, extensible XML configuration
• Powerful new Spring AOP features and AspectJ 5 integration
• Aynchronous JMS facilities enabling message-driven POJOs
• Spring Portlet MVC, a MVC framework for JSR-168 Portlets
• ... and much, much more

Spring 2.0 remains 100% backwards compatible with Spring 1.2 and continues to run on Java 1.3 and greater.

A word on the new configuration enhancements: Spring 2.0 uses XML Schema to support the definition of tailored application configuration schemas. The M1 release ships convenient XML tags that greatly simplify the definition of declarative transactions, JNDI lookups, custom aspects, and common utility services such as loading properties files.

Please review the central JPetstore sample application included in the release. This sample demonstrates the new 2.0 features in action and will continued to be refined in subsequent milestones.

Read Juergen's original announcement on the developer mailing list for more information.

Review the Spring 2.0 roadmap for information about upcoming milestones.

[mpriest]

Hi,

I am confused as to whether Spring 2.0 M1 is the current production release or a beta-like release. The download page says that Spring 1.2.6 is the current production release.

I am new to Spring and don't understand the release designations of M1, M2, RC1, etc. I tried to find some information on your website but was not able to.

Thanks,
Mark

[Colin Sampaleanu]

Mark,

2.0M1 is a 'Milestone' release. It is safe to use for development, but would normally not be used for production.

A Release Candidate (RC) typically implies that the release in question may actually be promoted to a final release, if it's stable enough. That said, we've played a bit hard and loose with that term before, to the extent that we've put out RCs when we knew for sure there would be other releases after it.

Regards,

[Rod Johnson]

We essentially follow the M (milestone) and RC (Release Candidate) terminology used by Eclipse. A milestone is not recommended for use in production. An RC may well be usable in production, but we do not recommend using any non-final release software (Spring or other) in a production environment.

I would definitely switch to using 2.0 RC1, when it's released, in development. With milestones it's up to you. I would probably wait for M2 at this point, unless you're anxious to investigate the new features.

[manifoldronin]

Is there any ballpark dates in terms of when the milestones and even RC1 will be available?

I'm by no means trying to press or anything. Just I'm starting a new project and really want to start fresh w/ 2.0. Thanks.

[Rod Johnson]

M2 will be out early next week, with major progress, especially in AspectJ integration (argument binding for @AspectJ syntax etc.) It will also include the JPA (EJB 3 persistence) integration, support for beans implemented in scripting languages such as Groovy and JRuby, and some important incremental improvements in the IoC container. M3 probably a couple of weeks later.

Target date for 2.0 final is mid March. Expect an RC mid Feb.

Rgds
Rod