What are the advantages of using Spring framework

[yinglcs]

Hi,

I am going to develop a java web application running on Tomcat. And I am going to use JSF (for web UI) and Hibernate (for ORM).


My question is if I still need Spring framework?
My impression is spring provides an 'abstract layer' of ORM and UI framework for me so that I can switch later. Is that correct? And if I am not going to switch, do I still need springframework?


Thank you for any advice.

[Andreas Senft]

Spring's intention is not exactly to abstract away things in order to allow later switching. It rather provides easier integration and add-on functionality for the libraries you choose.
What you can use in any case is Spring's IoC configuration support (which is the core functionality of Spring). Besides that you might find the testing support classes quite useful.
I suggest having a read at the documentation to get an overview. Especially the introduction articles (at the top of the page) might be helpful.

Regards,
Andreas