A lot of exciting new stuff in december: Spring 3.0 & Java EE 6
By: Stephan Oudmaijer, 21 December 2009
The last month of 2009 has brought some exciting Java news, both Java EE 6 and Spring 3.0 have become final this month!
Spring 3.0 GA is compatible with Java EE 6 final in terms of runtime environments now (e.g. on GlassFish v3 as released last week) and supports JPA 2.0 final already (e.g. using EclipseLink 2.0). We also support the newly introduced @ManagedBean (JSR-250 v1.1) annotation for component scanning now, which nicely complements our @Inject (JSR-330) support for annotation-driven dependency injection.
* 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.
* Extended support for annotation-based components: now with the notion of configuration classes and annotated factory methods (as known from Spring JavaConfig). Spring also allows for injecting configuration values through @Value expressions now, referring to configuration settings via dynamic #{…} expressions or static ${…} placeholders.
* Powerful stereotype model: allows for creating ’shortcut’ annotations through the use of meta-annotations, e.g. for default scopes and default transactional characteristics on custom stereotypes. Imagine a custom @MyService annotation indicating @Service, @Scope(“request”) and @Transactional(readOnly=true) through a single annotation.
* Standardized dependency injection annotations: Spring 3.0 comes with full support for the JSR-330 specification for Dependency Injection in Java – annotation-driven injection via @Inject and its associated qualifier and provider model, as an alternative to Spring’s own @Autowired and co.
* Declarative model validation based on constraint annotations: Spring-style setup of a JSR-303 Bean Validation provider (such as Hibernate Validator 4.0). Comes with an annotation-driven validation option in Spring MVC, exposing a unified view on constraint violations through Spring’s binding result facility.
* Enhanced binding and annotation-driven formatting: Converter and Formatter SPIs as an alternative to standard PropertyEditors. Formatting may be driven by annotations in a style similar to JSR-303 constraints, e.g. using @DateTimeFormat. Also, check out the new mvc namespace for convenient setup of formatting and validation in Spring MVC.
* Comprehensive REST support: native REST capabilities in Spring MVC, such as REST-style request mappings, URI variable extraction through @PathVariable parameters, and view resolution driven by content negotiation. Client-side REST support is available in the form of a RestTemplate class.
* Rich native Portlet 2.0 support: Spring MVC fully supports Portlet 2.0 environments and Portlet 2.0’s new event and resource request model. Includes specialized mapping facilities for typical portlet request characteristics: @ActionMapping, @RenderMapping, @ResourceMapping, @EventMapping.
* Object/XML Mapping (OXM): as known from Spring Web Services, now in Spring Framework core. Marshalling and Unmarshaller abstractions with out-of-the-box support for JAXB 2, Castor, etc. Comes with integration options for XML payloads in Spring MVC and Spring JMS.
* Next-generation scheduling capabilities: new TaskScheduler and Trigger mechanisms with first-class cron support. Spring 3.0 comes with a convenient task namespace and also supports @Async and @Scheduled annotations now. This can be executed on top of native thread pools or server-managed thread pools.
From Roberto Chinnici’s weblog:
With the closing of the final approval ballot earlier today, it is now official: the JCP Executive Committee has given a green light to the release of the Java EE 6 platform specification. The final release will happen on December 10, when GlassFish v3 will be available. For more details of the ballot, with comments from several EC members, please refer to the JCP web site. Of course the excitement of the event drove me to watch live the ballot close at midnight PT and tweet about it!
Several other Java EE component JSRs were approved at the same time: Servlet 3.0, JPA 2.0, EJB 3.1, Connector 1.6, CDI 1.0. All other components, be they full JSRs or maintenance releases (MRs, for insiders), had been previously approved. I should also mention here that, being part of the platform JSR (JSR-316) the Java EE 6 Web Profile too was approved, and so was the Managed Beans 1.0 specification I talked about in prior blog entries. So, yes, now we really have profiles in Java EE: let’s put them to good use!
We are going to have more white papers, tutorials, etc. coming up for the final release in a few days. In the meantime, even a casual perusal of the javadocs will show a number of new APIs in key areas: JAX-RS, Dependency Injection, CDI, Bean Validation. I see a bright future for these APIs, and fully expect them to become key components of Java EE applications in the coming years. I also happen to think that the level of integration that we achieved between these new APIs and some of the existing ones represents a valuable principle that can guide the evolution of Java EE going forward; certainly I expect future Java EE APIs to be held to the same strict criteria for integration with the rest of the platform that JAX-RS, Bean Validation and CDI were held to in this release.
Java EE 6 includes:
- Java Persistency API 2.0
- JavaServer Faces 2.0
- Enterprise JavaBeans 3.1
- Servlet 3.0
- Context and Dependecy Injection (a.k.a. WebBeans)
- Dependency Injection (@Inject)
- JAX-RS
- Web Profile
- and much more…
See also this article for more information: http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/JavaEE/JavaEE6Overview.html
So if you are bored during the christmas holiday, you can try out the new Java EE 6 features using GlassFish v3 and NetBeans 6.8. But also IntelliJ 9 and Eclipse 3.5.1 feature Java EE 6 support.