Spring Framework 4.0 Release Candidate 1 is released by Spring IO this week. Earlier they have announced that Spring 4.0 is due to the release in October 2014. However, in the latest blog post they have indicated that it will be available by December 2014. The last addition of new features with this release candidate also included by them in this blog post. The documentation for the upcoming release is not yet reflecting the new version. It looks like we have to wait for the final release. Couple of weeks back, they have given the overview of the new features included in the Spring 4.0. Lets look at the list of new features added for this release candidate. This will be the final addition of the new features and this list will be moved to the final release.
- One of the most important theme for this (Spring 4.0) release is the compatibility of JDK 8.0, an upcoming Java version. With this release candidate, Spring framework offers out of the box support for the JDK 8.0 build.
- Support for the groovy based bean definitions.
- Auto wiring of spring beans using Generic types.
- using Objenesis to create CGLIB proxy instances (allowing for constructor injection).
- Support for JSR-223. It is scripting support for the Java platform. In the upcoming releases, Java platform will start adding support to the scripting languages out of the box.
- Time zone support in Spring MVC.
- More configuration options for the Spring MVC’s @ControllerAdvice.
- New API MvcUriComponentsBuilder is introduced with this release. It is keeping in mind with the release of Spring HATEOAS.
- Lot of fine tuning to the Spring’s Web Socket support.
It is the perfect time to start using the latest build. It is obvious that when release candidates are released, the build quality will be with good quality like in the production release. If you are an early adopter, lets jump start learning the latest version of spring framework.
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