Beginning Spring Framework 2

Chapter 1. Jump Start Spring 2

It is always an exciting time when you first start to use a new software framework. Spring 2, indeed, is an exciting software framework in its own right. However, it is also a fairly large framework. In order to apply it effectively in your daily work you must first get some fundamental understanding of the following issues:

• Why Spring exists

• What problem it is trying to solve

• How it works

• What new techniques or concepts it embraces

• How best to use it

This chapter attempts to get these points covered as quickly as possible and get you using the Spring 2 framework on some code immediately. The following topics are covered in this chapter:

• A brief history of the Spring framework and design rationales

• A typical application of the Spring framework

• Wiring Java components to create applications using Spring

• Understanding Spring's autowiring capabilities

• Understanding the inversion of control and dependency injection

• Understanding the available API modules of Spring 2

Having read this chapter, you will be equipped and ready to dive into specific areas of the Spring framework that later chapters cover.

All About Spring

Spring started its life as a body of sample code that Rod Johnson featured in his 2002 Wrox Press book Expert One on One Java J2EE Design and Development(ISBN: 1861007841). The book was published during the height of J2EE popularity. Back in those days, the conventionally accepted way to create a serious enterprise Java application was to use Java 2 Enterprise ...