Spring Framework Changelog

What's new in Spring Framework 4.2.0

• Core Container Improvements:
• Annotations such as @Bean get detected and processed on Java 8 default methods as well, allowing for composing a configuration class from interfaces with default @Bean methods.
• Configuration classes may declare @Import with regular component classes now, allowing for a mix of imported configuration classes and component classes.
• Configuration classes may declare an @Order value, getting processed in a corresponding order (e.g. for overriding beans by name) even when detected through classpath scanning.
• @Resource injection points support an @Lazy declaration, analogous to @Autowired, receiving a lazy-initializing proxy for the requested target bean.
• The application event infrastructure now offers an annotation-based model as well as the ability to publish any arbitrary event.
• Spring Framework 4.2 introduces first-class support for declaring and looking up aliases for annotation attributes. The new @AliasFor annotation can be used to declare a pair of aliased attributes within a single annotation or to declare an alias from one attribute in a custom composed annotation to an attribute in a meta-annotation.
• Data Access Improvements:
• javax.transaction.Transactional is now supported via AspectJ.
• SimpleJdbcCallOperations now supports named binding.
• Full support for Hibernate ORM 5.0: as a JPA provider (automatically adapted) as well as through its native API (covered by the new org.springframework.orm.hibernate5 package).
• Embedded databases can now be automatically assigned unique names, and supports a new database-name attribute. See "Testing Improvements" below for further details.
• JMS Improvements:
• The autoStartup attribute can be controlled via JmsListenerContainerFactory.
• The type of the reply Destination can now be configured per listener container.
• The value of the @SendTo annotation can now use a SpEL expression.
• The response destination can be computed at runtime using JmsResponse
• @JmsListener is now a repeatable annotation to declare several JMS containers on the same method (use the newly introduced @JmsListeners if you’re not using Java8 yet).
• Web Improvements:
• HTTP Streaming and Server-Sent Events support, see the section called “HTTP Streaming”.
• Built-in support for CORS including global (MVC Java config and XML namespace) and local (e.g. @CrossOrigin) configuration. See Chapter 26, CORS Support for details.
• HTTP caching updates.
• Custom mapping annotations, using @RequestMapping as a meta-annotation.
• Public methods in AbstractHandlerMethodMapping to register and unregister request mappings at runtime.
• Protected createDispatcherServlet method in AbstractDispatcherServletInitializer to further customize the DispatcherServlet instance to use.
• HandlerMethod as a method argument on @ExceptionHandler methods, especially handy in @ControllerAdvice components.
• java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture as an @Controller method return value type.
• Byte-range request support in HttpHeaders and for serving static resources.
• @ResponseStatus detected on nested exceptions.
• UriTemplateHandler extension point in the RestTemplate.
• OkHTTP integration with the RestTemplate.
• Custom baseUrl alternative for methods in MvcUriComponentsBuilder.
• Serialization/deserialization exception messages are now logged at WARN level.
• Default JSON prefix has been changed from "{} && " to the safer ")]}', " one.
• New RequestBodyAdvice extension point and built-in implementation to support Jackson’s @JsonView on @RequestBody method arguments.
• When using GSON or Jackson 2.6+, the handler method return type is used to improve serialization of parameterized types like List.
• Introduced ScriptTemplateView as a JSR-223 based mechanism for scripted web views, with a focus on JavaScript view templating on Nashorn (JDK 8).
• WebSocket Messaging Improvements:
• Expose presence information about connected users and subscriptions.
• Resolve user destinations across cluster of servers (see broker relay config options).
• StompSubProtocolErrorHandler extension point to customize and control STOMP ERROR frames to clients.
• Global @MessageExceptionHandler methods via @ControllerAdvice components.
• Heart-beats and a SpEL expression 'selector' header for subscriptions with SimpleBrokerMessageHandler.
• STOMP client for use over TCP and WebSocket; see Section 25.4.13, “STOMP Client”.
• @SendTo and @SendToUser can contain destination variable placeholders.
• Jackson’s @JsonView supported for return values on @MessageMapping and @SubscribeMapping methods.
• ListenableFuture and CompletableFuture as return value types from @MessageMapping and @SubscribeMapping methods.
• MarshallingMessageConverter for XML payloads.
• Testing Improvements:
• JUnit-based integration tests can now be executed with JUnit rules instead of the SpringJUnit4ClassRunner. This allows Spring-based integration tests to be run with alternative runners like JUnit’s Parameterized or third-party runners such as the MockitoJUnitRunner.
• The Spring MVC Test framework now provides first-class support for HtmlUnit, including integration with Selenium’s WebDriver, allowing for page-based web application testing without the need to deploy to a Servlet container.
• AopTestUtils is a new testing utility that allows developers to obtain a reference to the underlying target object hidden behind one or more Spring proxies.
• ReflectionTestUtils now supports setting and getting static fields, including constants.
• The original ordering of bean definition profiles declared via @ActiveProfiles is now retained in order to support use cases such as Spring Boot’s ConfigFileApplicationListener which loads configuration files based on the names of active profiles.
• @DirtiesContext supports new BEFORE_METHOD, BEFORE_CLASS, and BEFORE_EACH_TEST_METHOD modes for closing the ApplicationContext before a test — for example, if some rogue (i.e., yet to be determined) test within a large test suite has corrupted the original configuration for the ApplicationContext.
• @Commit is a new annotation that may be used as a direct replacement for @Rollback(false).
• @Rollback may now be used to configure class-level default rollback semantics.
• @Sql now supports execution of inlined SQL statements via a new statements attribute.
• The ContextCache that is used for caching ApplicationContexts between tests is now a public API with a default implementation that can be replaced for custom caching needs.
• DefaultTestContext, DefaultBootstrapContext, and DefaultCacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate are now public classes in the support subpackage, allowing for custom extensions.
• TestContextBootstrappers are now responsible for building the TestContext.
• In the Spring MVC Test framework, MvcResult details can now be logged at DEBUG level or written to a custom OutputStream or Writer. See the new log(), print(OutputStream), and print(Writer) methods in MockMvcResultHandlers for details.
• The JDBC XML namespace supports a new database-name attribute in , allowing developers to set unique names for embedded databases –- for example, via a SpEL expression or a property placeholder that is influenced by the current active bean definition profiles.
• Embedded databases can now be automatically assigned a unique name, allowing common test database configuration to be reused in different ApplicationContexts within a test suite.