Spring is a framework for making java applications. It has a simple container for assembling and configuring components and a lot of support for other frameworks like Hibernate.
Craig Walls and Ryan Breidenbach:
"Spring is a fresh breeze blowing over the Java landscape. Based on a design principle called Inversion of Control, Spring is a powerful but lightweight J2EE framework that does not require the use of EJBs. Spring greatly reduces the complexity of using interfaces, and speeds and simplifies your application development. You get the power and robust features of EJB and get to keep the simplicity of the non-enterprise JavaBean."
Ryan's definition (read more
):
"Spring is a lightweight framework that allows for the complete abstraction and encapsulation of implementation-specific technologies, like EJB, JDBC, Hibernate and others, by providing the ability to transparently manage, wire and intercept application components."
Resources
Tutorials
Book/Chapters
Getting started resources
