Spring Tool Suite (STS) Changelog

What's new in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.6

Sep 20, 2018

Eclipse 2018-09 (4.9):
The default STS distribution is now based on the recently released Eclipse 2018-09 (4.9) release, including support for JDK9 and JDK10 and a number of performance and memory usage improvements. Details about the Eclipse release can be found here: Eclipse SDK 2018-09 New & Noteworthy.
Important Changes and Fixes:
improvement: initializr wizards - additional information showing up when modules are greyed out, explaining why those are not selectable
improvement: added automatic and manual SSH tunnel creation for JMX access to remote apps on CF
fixed: allow STS 3.9.6 to run on JDK 11
fixed: cannot install AnyEdit or Mercurial plugins (#268) (#310)
fixed: allow WebFlux annotation-based Live Request Mappings to show up in the Request Mappings tab in the Properties view for the selected running Boot app with Reactive Web starter

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.5 (Jul 6, 2018)

UPDATES AND NEW/ENHANCED FEATURES:
Eclipse Photon (4.8.0):
The default STS distribution is now based on the recently released Eclipse Photon (4.8.0) release, including support for JDK9 and JDK10 and a number of performance and memory usage improvements. Details about the Eclipse release can be found here: Eclipse Photon New & Noteworthy.
Pivotal tc Server updated to 4.0.1:
The Pivotal tc Server Developer Edition that comes with the STS distribution bundle got updated to the latest tc Server version 4.0.1.
Early Access: Spring Tools 4 Public Beta extension for STS 3.9.x:
At last years SpringOne Platform conference, we announced the public beta access for the upcoming all-new next generation of the Spring tooling, called Spring Tools 4. If you haven't had the chance to take a look, here is the Spring Tools 4 website.
In case you want to learn more, here is a great Spring Tip video that Josh Long recorded about the now available public beta of the all-new Spring Tools 4.
IMPORTANT CHANGES AND FIXES:
fixed: Edit Starters doesn't properly handle removal of all dependencies(#52)
fixed: Edit starters doesn't handle 'cross-selection' well
fixed: Error in error log when open Spring Dashboard: Could not call browser function extension: addHtml
fixed: Refresh token exceptions in manifest LS with 3.8.0 cf Java client
fixed: ssh debugging for boot dash cf apps is not working on PWS
fixed: RequestMapping View shows all the Resource URL with the same / value(#227)
fixed: MissingConfigurationProcessorRule generates a false positive when the annotationProcessor configuration is used(#266)
fixed: Javadoc popover when editing application.properties lacks context and can be confusing(#265)
fixed: Link to springframework.org in Spring IDE features is broken(#285)
fixed: Unable to load GERRIT queries after fresh STS 3.9.4 install(#279)
fixed: NPE in RestartAction(#278)
fixed: [tc server] selecting "serve modules without publishing" option is failing with exception(#8)
fixed: [tc server 4.x] Unable to start tc server 4.0.1(#7)
fixed: [tc server 4.x] Existing server instances combo is always empty(#6)
fixed: [tc server 4.x] No way to configure tc server 4.x standard edition(#5)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.4 (Apr 16, 2018)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.3 (Mar 22, 2018)

UPDATES AND NEW/ENHANCED FEATURES:
Eclipse Oxygen.3 (4.7.3):
The default STS distribution is now based on the recently released Eclipse Oxygen.3 (4.7.3) release.
Pivotal tc Server updated to 3.2.9:
The Pivotal tc Server Developer Edition that comes with the STS distribution bundle got updated to the latest tc Server version 3.2.9.
Early Access: Spring Tools 4 Public Beta extension for STS 3.9.x:
At last years SpringOne Platform conference, we announced the public beta access for the upcoming all-new next generation of the Spring tooling, called Spring Tools 4. If you haven't had the chance to take a look, here is the Spring Tools 4 website.
While the Spring Tools 4 Public Beta (and the Spring Tools 4 in general) come as a totally new and independent distribution of Eclipse (called the Spring Tool Suite 4), extensions for Visual Studio Code and Atom, we also offer an early access extension pack for the now-released STS 3.9.3 distribution (via an Extension Install listing on the STS dashboard). You can add this extension pack to your STS 3.9.3 install to get an early impression of the new tooling - and provide feedback, of course.
Please keep in mind that the new Spring Tools 4 distribution will replace the existing STS 3.9.x distributions in mid of 2018 and will require a fresh install of the Spring Tools 4.
IMPORTANT CHANGES AND FIXES:
fixed a problem when using Spring 5 or Spring Boot 2 in projects, works now out-of-the-box again
fixed a problem with the request mappings section of the properties view not being scrollable (#243)
fixed a bug in Spring property editing support (#235)
fixed a NPE that was caused by the No Prefix Constructor content-assist (#226)
fixed a problem within Spring IDE causing exceptions when property placeholders we used in the projects soource code (#121)
Spring Starter Project wizard doesn't freeze anymore for certain custom starter URLs (#230)
fixed an issue with the Boot launch support mixing up custom classpath settings in launch configs (#222)
ANSI coloring works again in the Console view by default for macOS High Sierra (#196)
Spring Starter Project wizard doesn't freeze anymore for certain custom starter URLs (#230)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.2 (Dec 22, 2017)

Eclipse Oxygen.2 (4.7.2), including support for Java9 and JUnit 5:
The default STS distribution is now based on the recently released Eclipse Oxygen.2 (4.7.2) release, please take a look at the New and Noteworty. This includes support for JDK9 and JUnit 5 out of the box.
Early Access: Spring Tools 4 Public Beta extension for STS 3.9.x:
At this years SpringOne Platform conference, we announced the public beta access for the upcoming all-new next generation of the Spring tooling, called Spring Tools 4. If you haven't had the chance to take a look, here is the Spring Tools 4 website.
In case you want to learn more, here is a great Spring Tip video that Josh Long recorded about the now available public beta of the all-new Spring Tools 4:
While the Spring Tools 4 Public Beta (and the Spring Tools 4 in general) come as a totally new and independent distribution of Eclipse (called the Spring Tool Suite 4), extensions for Visual Studio Code and Atom, we also offer an early access extension pack for the now-released STS 3.9.2 distribution (via an Extension Install listing on the STS dashboard). You can add this extension pack to your STS 3.9.2 install to get an early impression of the new tooling - and provide feedback, of course.
Please keep in mind that the new Spring Tools 4 distribution will replace the existing STS 3.9.x distributions in mid of 2018 and will require a fresh install of the Spring Tools 4.
Improvements in Replacing Existing Cloud Foundry Applications in the Boot Dashboard:
In older versions of STS, dragging and dropping a project with the same name as an existing deployed application in Cloud Foundry would just open a simple dialogue warning the user that existing service bindings would be removed, but not show any differences between the manifest file in the project and the actual deployed application.
New to 3.9.2., this has been improved to show actual differences between the manifest file, if one exists in the project, and the existing application in Cloud Foundry.
A user can chose to use the local manifest file to make changes to the existing application, or can also chose to ignore the manifest file, and retain the existing properties, like memory, routes and environment variables, as well as existing service bindings. In the latter case, only the file contents of the application will be changed, but all Cloud Foundry properties will be retained.
Likewise, if the project does not contain a manifest file, and a user drag/drops the project into the dashboard, only the contents of the existing application in Cloud Foundry will be changed, but not any other Cloud Foundry properties, like service bindings, environment variables, etc..
Live Beans in Boot Dashboard:
Live Beans UI is made available in the Boot Dashboard. Select a local running boot app in the Boot Dashboard, open Properties view for it and then Live Beans tab in the Properties view
The search text box at the top of the Live Beans tab pane allows one to search for specific bean(s) using a search term string
Important Changes and Fixes:
Help menu contains item for accessing the dashboard again (#208)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.1 (Oct 13, 2017)

Updates and New/Enhanced Features:
Eclipse Oxygen.1a (4.7.1a), including support for Java9 and JUnit 5
The default STS distribution is now based on the recently released Eclipse Oxygen.1a (4.7.1a) release. This includes support for JDK9 and JUnit 5 now out of the box.
JDK9 compatibility warning (attention if you are using Spring Boot 1.5.x or earlier):
STS 3.9.1 runs fine on JDK9 (and supports developing Java 9 applications). However, in case you use Maven and have a build plugin configured for your project that isn't compatible with Java 9 yet, the build in Eclipse/STS will fail with an exception error message. This is the case for Spring Boot projects that use Spring Boot 1.5.x or earlier.
In those cases, we recommend to run Eclipse/STS on top of a JDK8. You can still configure a Java 9 JRE and develop Java 9 applications, but the IDE itself would run on top of a Java 8 runtime.
To make people aware of this incompatibility, a special dialog will pop up as soon as STS identifies such an error and will notify you of the required steps how to avoid this error.
macOS version of STS ships as DMG file:
The macOS distribution of STS now ships as signed DMG file. This makes installing STS easy and avoid running into issues when users don't move the app after extracting the tar.gz file in the past (due to Gatekeeper and App Translocation security features on macOS).
Pivotal tc Server updated to 3.2.8:
The latest Pivotal tc Server release 3.2.8 is now included in the STS distribution bundle.
Automatic conversion of boot property files to YAML:
STS 3.9.1 allows you to automatically convert application.properties config files into YAML files. Right-click on the application.properties file and select the automatic conversation to YAML. A preview diff dialog will show up and display a nice diff preview of the result.
Changes to the Spring Cloud CLI integration:
Spring Cloud CLI installation in STS is completely user driven now rather then STS doing auto-install. Boot Dashboard shows a hyper-link to install Spring Cloud CLI services.
User can click the hyper-link and follow the wizard to install Spring Cloud CLI into the current Spring Boot Installation pointed by the STS.
New code templates for @Get/Post/Put/Delete/PatchMapping:
STS 3.9.1 enhances the code templates around request mappings with new ones for the more specific meta annotations GetMapping, PostMapping, PutMapping, and DeleteMapping.
Experimental: use Spring Boot Thin JAR wrapper to launch boot apps:
As an experimental feature this release of STS introduces the option to launch Spring Boot apps from within the IDE using the Thin launcher approach that Dave Syer implemented: spring-boot-thin-launcher (on GitHub). This approach allows you to create a thin jar without all the dependencies that you have configured in your pom. Instead, a thin jar launcher is placed and configured into your small JAR file. When the app launches, the thin jar launcher will resolve and fetch the necessary dependencies and launch the boot app.
Even though this approach to launch an app doesn't make a lot of sense when working on the app in an IDE like STS (since the IDE already resolved the necessary dependencies for you), you might want to launch the boot app from time to time using this approach for testing purposes. To support that, we include preliminary support for this in STS.
In order to use this, you have to point STS to the thin jar launcher that you would like to use in the preferences.
You should select the thin jar launcher library that you would like to use for launching the app. Usually, if you have the thin jar launcher configured in your build, Maven might already downloaded the corresponding artifact (to be used during the Maven build), so you can look that up in your local Maven repo. The name of the JAR is, for example: spring-boot-thin-wrapper-1.0.7.RELEASE.jar.
Once you configured this launcher in the preferences, you can enable it for each boot app launch config.
Important Changes and Fixes:
Organize imports keybinding is back when editing Java source files
Fast startup options caused boot app launch to fail in case of additional custom VM options
STS news dashboard now uses embedded browser engine to avoid rendering issues
AOP model builder could fail with cannot find classfile
Request mapping tab in boot dashboard property view for running apps now works with early Boot 2 versions
Spring Data repository method auto-completion proposals now take code complete insert/override setting into account
customizing the classpath of a boot app launch config doesn't cause strange libs to appear on the classpath anymore
issue with custom annotation processing in combination with m2e-apt fixed

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.0 (Jul 11, 2017)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.8.4 (Apr 3, 2017)

Eclipse Neon.3 (4.6.3):
The default STS distribution is now based on the recently released Eclipse Neon.3 (4.6.3) release.
Pivotal tc Server updated to 3.2.4.SR1:
The latest Pivotal tc Server release 3.2.4.SR1 is now included in the STS distribution bundle.
Early Access for Eclipse Oxygen 4.7 available:
Since STS 3.8.4 we have early-access versions available for the latest Eclipse Oxygen 4.7 builds. You can find the update site here: http://dist.springsource.com/release/TOOLS/update/e4.7
Attention: Eclipse Oxygen M6 has a severe bug that prevents the JEE, Java, and STS packages working properly. If you want to install STS into Eclipse 4.7, you need to make sure to use post-M6 builds of Eclipse Oxygen as a base.
You can also download complete STS distribution packages based on early Eclipse 4.7 versions from our nightly downloads page at: http://dist.springsource.com/snapshot/STS/nightly-distributions.html. Those distribution packages already contain a fix for the bug and therefore can be used out-of-the-box.
Eclipse Data Tools removed:
Due to various users reporting issues related to the Eclipse Data Tools that we included in STS, we decided to remove those features from the default STS distribution. We added an item to the dashboard extension install listing that makes it easy for you to get them back into your STS in case you would like to use them. More details on the exact issue behind this can be found here: https://issuetracker.springsource.com/browse/STS-4416
Buildship 2 import strategy for Getting Started Wizards:
The "New Spring Starter Project" and "Import Getting Started Content" now provide a "Buildship 2.x" import strategy. For backwards compatibility the old import startegy which supports "Buildship 1.x" is also still available.
This allows you to use the STS wizards to import those projects while using the new version of the Buildship project in the same installation. STS recognizes the installed version of the Buildship plugin and offers the matching option in those wizards automatically. For more information about Buildship version 2, here is the announcement blog post: https://blog.gradle.org/announcing-buildship-2.0
Revamped UI for the "New Spring Starter" and "Edit Starters" Wizards:
Users can now specify a custom initializr service in the first page of the wizard. A new dropdown widget at the top of the page allows users to type a URL or select one from the dropdown. URLs entered in the widget will be saved in the Initializr Preference page only after the starter wizard finishes, and users can edit the URLs from there. The content of the wizard dynamically changes when a valid service URL is entered.
This is particularly useful when you have your own or even multiple custom spring initilizr services running in-house.
The UI for the dependencies page now features a more intuitive two-column layout. Available dependencies are shown in the left column and selected dependencies on the right. A search box at the top of the first column filters the list of available dependencies.
You can easily select dependencies from the left list by checking them and remove them from the list of selected items on the right via the grey "x" in front of their name.
There are also links to further documentation available for most of the spring boot starter modules. Hover with the mouse over the item and links to the relevant documentation will appear.
If you edit your dependencies in the pom.xml editor that comes with Eclipse and STS, we added a shortcut to open the wizard to the list of available content-assists. That way you can easily open the wizard and add or remove spring boot starter modules to and from your pom.xml file.
Spring Cloud CLI Integration - Local Services in the Boot Dash:
Spring Cloud CLI available services are shown in the Boot Dashboard under local run target below the Spring Boot project entries. The Boot Dashboard provides the expected life cycle management control features over Cloud services provided by Spring Cloud CLI such as starting and stopping a service. In order to see these services in the Boot Dashboard one would need to point STS to a Spring Boot CLI installation with Spring Cloud CLI installed in it via preferences Spring->Boot->CLI.
Attention: The current limitation with this STS integration is that it is not aware of any Spring Cloud CLI services that you started started manually on the command line (instead of within STS).
There is also an option in the dashboard view menu to disable (and hide) the local cloud services from your boot dashboard, in case you don't want to use this and don't want to spend cycles to access them.
Cloud Foundry - Added support for "routes":
Users can now specify routes with paths, or TCP routes with ports if the Cloud Foundry target supports TCP.
Attention: "random-route" property does not yet work with "routes", so if specifying a TCP route, an explicit port needs to be set in the route.
We also added content assist and basic validation in the manifest editor. The basic validation in the manifest editor detects if legacy domain(s), host(s) or no-hostname were used with the new routes property in the same manifest and report errors appropriately.
The merge dialog for deployment manifests also got support for routes. Additional paths on routes are not yet supported (known limitation). That will follow soon.
Important Changes and Fixes:
Wrong character and font display on Spring Dashboard fixed
Request Mappings are now shown in Request Mappings view for @RepositoryRestController classes
Environment settings are no longer lost when copying launch configs in boot dashboard
StsProperties (internal to the IDE) are no longer read from network, STS no longer hangs because of this
JMX used to get request mappings from running boot app, therefore don't need to lower security for HTTP for them
Improved UI in boot launch config editor for JMX settings
Fixed a problem with boot projects sometimes not showing up in boot dashboard after starting up STS
Fixed an issue with starting and stopping boot apps from the boot dashboard didn't work (forever spinning startup indicator)
Fixed an issue when using CF targets in the boot dashboard that have a comma in their organisation name
Fixed a number of most-reported errors from the automated error reporting

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.8.3 (Dec 23, 2016)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.8.2 (Oct 7, 2016)

ECLIPSE NEON.1 (4.6.1):
The default STS distribution is now based on the recently released Eclipse Neon.1 (4.6.1) release. There is a nice 4min video on YouTube about noticable updates and improvements in Neon.1, alongside various bug fixes that went into this release.
PIVOTAL TC SERVER UPDATED TO 3.2.0:
The latest Pivotal tc Server release 3.2.0 is now included in the STS distribution bundle.
AUTOMATIC ERROR REPORTING NOW INCLUDED:
The Spring Tool Suite now comes with automatic error reporting being included in the distribution. This allows you to report errors that happen under the hood of the IDE automatically to the development team.
This automatic error reporting mechanism is an opt-in mechanism that uses the same automatic error reporting infrastructure that the regular Eclipse Neon packages include. You can configure all the details via the preferences:
More details about the underlying technology, the exact information that is being transfered, where it is being stored, etc, can be found here: Terms of Use.
SPRING BOOT DASHBOARD: OAUTH TOKEN SUPPORT:
In case you use the nice integration of Cloud Foundry into the boot dashboard, you are now able to select the way the boot dashboard should remember your CF credentials. You can choose to not store the credentials at all, store them in the secure storage facility that is provided by Eclipse, or (and this option is new) to use an oauth token (which is stored by the boot dashboard in a local file).
BUILDPACK CONTENT ASSIST NOW PROVIDES ADDITIONAL HINTS:
The content assist for Cloud Foundry manifest files provides nice content-assist for various property values. For the buildpack option those content-assist values are dynamically inferred from the configured Cloud Foundry targets in your boot dashboard.
While this is easy and convenient while using a single Cloud Foundry target, it can be confusing if you use various Cloud Foundry targets from different CF installations, since those can each provide a different set of available buildpacks.
To avoid this confusion, the boot dashboard now shows additional information if a buildpack is available only on a certain set of Cloud Foundry targets.
CUSTOM URLS FOR SPRING INITIALIZR:
It is now possible to specify the URL of the Spring Initializr instance that the Spring Starter Project wizard should use via the preference settings at Spring -> Boot -> Initializr. This is extremely useful if you use your own, customized version of the Spring Initializr app in-house and would like to use that directly in STS.
SPRING STARTER WIZARD NOW ALLOWS DEFAULT SELECTIONS:
Spring Starter Wizard has two new buttons:
`Make Default` - allows you to preset selected by default starter project dependencies for the next time the wizard is opened.
`Clear Selection` - clears currently selected starter project dependencies.
IMPORTANT CHANGES AND FIXES:
Spring Boot Dashboard: fixed a problem with retrieving request mappings when skip-ssl-verification was active
Spring Boot Dashboard: fixed a problem with certain request mappings confused the dashboard
Spring Boot Dashboard: fixed a problem that confused the dashboard when deleting launch configs of running boot apps
New Spring Starter Wizard: improved UI behavior when typing into search field
added an m2e connector for the Spring Boot maven plugin
New Spring Starter Wizard: fixed a deadlock when selecting Buildship
Spring Boot Dashboard: fixed problems when pushing multiple apps to CF in parallel
Spring Boot Dashboard: doesn't show error dialog anymore when wrong password is entered

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.8.1 (Aug 3, 2016)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.8.0 (Jul 6, 2016)

GENERAL UPDATES:
Eclipse Neon (4.6.0):
The default STS distribution is now based on the recently released Eclipse Neon (4.6) release.
Highlights from this Eclipse Neon release include substring code completion for Java content assist, word-wrap in text editors, commands/shortcuts/pinch gestures to zoom into text editors (especially useful when giving presentations), and more. Please find additional details in the Eclipse Neon New and Noteworthy.
The latest Pivotal tc Server release 3.1.4 is now included in the STS distribution bundle.
Support for Spring Insight removed:
The support for Spring Insight that was part of the tc-server support got removed.
Buildship notification:
We added a plugin from Eclipse Buildship to notify our users of using Eclipse Buildship instead of the legacy STS support for Gradle in the future.
SPRING TOOLING:
Spring Boot Dashboard: customizable labels for CF targets:
You can now change the labels for CF target nodes in the Boot Dashboard. To do so, right-click a node and select "Customize... -> Customize Label...".
You can type in any name you like. In addition to plain text you can also use a few placeholders in there.
Spring Boot Dashboard: advanced support for multi-app manifest files:
A single manifest.yml may specify deployment properties for multiple applications. When deploying an app, the Deployment Properties dialog's YAML Content section highlights application names and allows the user to choose one, by clicking on the visual annotations in the vertical ruler.
Spring Boot Dashboard: choose to remember password or not:
The Cloud Foundry Target creation wizard and login dialog now have a "Remember Password" check-box. If you choose not to remember the password then you will be prompted to enter Cloud Foundry login credentials when connecting to the Cloud Foundry target or after restarting STS. Otherwise, the password will be stored in Secure Storage and you will not be prompted to enter the password again. Note that on Linux, you will still be prompted for the Secure Storage master password.
Spring Boot Dashboard: Skip SSL validation for Cloud Foundry targets:
Skipping SSL validation is now supported when creating Cloud Foundry targets in the Spring Boot Dashboard.
Spring Boot Dashboard: customizable apps manager URL:
The boot dashboard allows you to quickly jump to the web console of the apps manager of a Cloud Foundry target that you confgured in the boot dashboard. However, the URL of the apps manager can vary, depending on the version and configuration of your PCF installation. Therefore the boot dashboard allows you to customize the URL it uses to jump to that web console (via "Customize... -> Customize Cloud Admin Console URL").
Spring Boot Dashboard: filter apps by project name:
The filter in the boot dashboard is now also aware of project names. No need to organize your projects into working sets anymore, just type in a part of the project name and see the filtered list of projects in the boot dashboard.
Spring Boot: additional code templates:
Based on input from Spring Boot Core developers we have created some code templates useful in developing Spring/Spring Boot apps.
The templates are invoked through Eclipse's content-assist (i.e. you press CTRL-SPACE) and shown as completions when you type the template's name (or even just a part of the name).
Some templates are context-sensitive. This means that there multiple versions of the template that expand into a different pattern, depending on the context you are in. For example the notnull template expands to something that uses JUnit's assert in test code; it expands into something that uses Spring's assert anywhere else.
Spring Boot: JAR type search now asks for confirmation:
"Jar Type Search" is a feature that was introduced in STS 3.5.0. It provides content-assist proposals in Spring Boot projects, for types that are not (yet) on the classpath. When selecting such a proposal the required dependency is automatically added to the project's maven pom.
Some people liked this, but others found it confusing or annoying rather than helpful because it was too easy to add undesirable elements to a pom accidentally.
STS 3.8.0 addresses this by asking for explicit confirmation before making changes to your pom. The confirmation dialog also has a "Disable" button, which you can click to disable it completely.
Spring Boot: trigger devtools restart manually:
Spring Boot applications that have the boot devtools included in their classpath can quickly be restarted (without shutting down the JVM completely). This can now be triggered manually from the console.
IMPROVEMENTS TO THE SPRING BOOT YML AND PROPERTIES EDITORS:
Validation of comma-separated lists in the .properties editor:
The Spring Boot Properties editor now knows how to check the validity of a list of comma-separated values.
Quickfix for deprecated properties in yml and properties editor:
Both the yml and properties editor now provide a quickfix for deprecated property names (if the property defines a replacement in its metadata).
Note: The yml quickfix is smart enough to move a renamed property to a different place in the yml structure as needed.
Basic content-assist for 'Resource' type in yml/props editor:
Both the yml and properties editor now provide some basic content assist for configuration properties of type org.springframework.core.io.Resource. Content assist suggestions are generated by scanning your project's source-folders for 'resources'. In a future release we may extend this to do a broader scan to look also for 'resources' in the project's dependencies.
Support for 'class-reference' value provider:
Configuration properties with 'value provider' metadata of type 'class-reference' now are handled by both the yml and properties editor. For example property spring.data.mongodb.field-naming-strategy comes with the following metadata attached.
The editor now understand what this means and will suggest names of classes that implement the FieldNamingStrategy interface from the project's classpath.
Support for handle-as value-provider:
Handle-as value provider can be used in spring-boot configuration property metadata to designate that a property ostensibly declared as a vanilla type such as String should be treated as something more specific (e.g. org.springframework.core.io.Resource). Both yml and properties editor now understand this metadata.
Check for duplicate keys in yml and properties editor:
Both the yml and properties editor now check for duplicate keys and flag them with an error marker.
Better handling of enum values in yml and properties editor:
Both yml and properties editor now are able to show the JavaDoc for enum values when hovering over them or in the side-panel of a content-assist suggestion.
Note 1: Hyperlink navigation with 'CTRL-Click' now also works for enum values, taking you to the source-code of the corresponding enum constant.
Note 2: JavaDoc in Eclipse in general, is only available when source-jars have been downloaded and associated with the binary jars. If you do not get JavaDoc hovers where you expect them, verify that source code for the enum in question is attached before reporting this as a bug.
Note 3:There are still cases, especially in the properties editor, where hover-info and/or CTRL-click does not yet work, in particular when the enum-value occurs on the left-hand-side of the '=' of a property-assignment. We plan to resolve these issues in a future release.
CLOUD FOUNDRY MANIFEST YML EDITOR:
Content Assist for Cloud Foundry Buildpacks:
Content assist for buildpacks now proposes buildpacks dynamically from Cloud Foundry targets in the Spring Boot Dashboard. It will list buildpacks from any Cloud Foundry target, not just Pivotal Web Services.
Developer Productivity Bits:
We implemented a number of little things to improve the general developer productivity when working with the Spring Tool Suite and Eclipse. Here are the little improvements in detail.
Want to rename tests, too:
After you rename a class, STS will check if there is a test class with a similar name. If it finds one, it will ask you if you want to rename that too.
More Defaults for Static Imports in Favorites:
Additional default types containing static members have been added to Content Assist for imports, including some from springframework libraries. Users can customize the list through "Favorites" preferences, as well as restore the default list.
Improved Quickfix for Unresolved Types in Assignments:
Quickfix on unresolved Java types now matches the return type of an assignment statement.
Java quickfix improvements in STS can be disabled, and the original Eclipse JDT quickfix feature restored, by adding the following VM arg to the STS.ini file and restarting STS: -Denable.sts.quickfix.imports=false.

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.6.4 (Mar 16, 2015)

GENERAL UPDATES:
Eclipse Luna SR2 (4.4.2):
The default STS and GGTS distribution is now based on the just released Eclipse Luna SR2 release.
Pivotal tc Server updated to 3.1.0:
The latest Pivotal tc Server release 3.1.0 is now included in the STS/GGTS distribution bundle.
SPRING TOOLING:
Spring Boot Properties Editor:
The Spring Properties Editor is a specialization of the default Eclipse properties editor. It understands Spring Boot's configuration metadata (this is information stored in "spring-configuration-metadata.json" files included in the jars of Spring Boot Dependencies). The editor provides the following features:
The Content Assistant suggests auto-completions as you type.
An Info Hover is shown when you hover the mouse over a known property name.
Use CTRL-CLICK navigation to take you directly to the source code where a known property-name is defined.
The Reconciler shows errors and warnings as you type.
Live Meta Data - You can define your own properties by annotating your own classes with a '@ConfigurationProperties'.
Add the 'spring-boot-configuration-processor' as a dependency in your 'pom' (or 'build.gradle') and STS will configure Eclipse's Annotation Processor to generate the metadata for your project on-the-fly.
Now, any time you define a new property, the editor will recognize it instantly.
Enabling the Spring Properties Editor STS automatically configures Eclipse Content Types so that the Spring Properties Editor is used for any file called 'application.properties'. This is indicated by the 'Spring Leaf' icon in the Package and Project Explorer Views.
Properties files with other names will be opened with Eclipse's basic property editor. You can easily override that behavior by right clicking any '.properties' file and selecting "Spring >> Enable Spring Property Editor"
Spring Boot Launch Configuration Editor:
This release provides a brand-new, spring-boot-specific Launch Configuration Editor.
The "Run As >> Spring Boot App" menu still works as before except that it now creates a Spring-Boot-specific launch configuration. This configuration can then later be easily customized with the Launch Configuration Editor.
You open the editor by selecting either the "Debug As >> Debug Configurations..." or "Run As >> Run Configuration..." menu.
The editor has a Boot-specific tab that has the following features:
The Project and Main Type selection widgets are like those on the standard Java Launch Configuration Editor. However its 'Main Type Search' algorithm is tweaked to work better for Spring Boot projects.
The 'Profile' text/pulldown combo let's you select an optional Active Profile. Type an arbitrary profile name or pick one from the pull-down menu. The menu is populated with profiles you used before as well as profiles you have defined by creating a properties files like 'application-production.properties'.
The 'Enable Live Bean Support' adds some VM arguments to the launch to enable JMX and Spring infrastructure that allows extracting information about Spring Beans from a running process. You can later view this information by right clicking on your project (while it is running) and selecting the "Spring >> Open Live Beans Graph".
The 'Override Properties' table lets you add additional property associations which will take precedence over those that are defined in the 'application.properties' file or the active profile. The table viewer provides auto-completions for property names.
GGTS:
Please be aware that after the end of March Pivotal is no longer sponsoring the Groovy and Grails projects (as described here). Therefore this will be the final release of the GGTS bundle. It includes support for the latest released version of Groovy, version 2.4.1 (installable from the dashboard) as well as updates to the latest service refresh of the Groovy 2.3 line (2.3.10). It includes the current production version of Grails (2.4.4). For anyone wishing to take the projects forward, the process for updating groovy-eclipse to support more recent versions of Groovy is documented here on the wiki and we are more than willing to help with knowledge transfer for anyone who wishes to pick the tools up and maintain them. The actual homes of these individual projects are Groovy-Eclipse and Grails-IDE.

Spring Tool Suite (STS) Changelog

What's new in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.6

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.5 (Jul 6, 2018)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.4 (Apr 16, 2018)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.3 (Mar 22, 2018)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.2 (Dec 22, 2017)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.1 (Oct 13, 2017)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.9.0 (Jul 11, 2017)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.8.4 (Apr 3, 2017)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.8.3 (Dec 23, 2016)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.8.2 (Oct 7, 2016)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.8.1 (Aug 3, 2016)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.8.0 (Jul 6, 2016)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.6.4 (Mar 16, 2015)

New in Spring Tool Suite (STS) 3.6.3 SR1 (Jan 19, 2015)