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Spring Framework Modules

1. Core Container Layer

  • 1. core:

    • Consists of the Core, Beans, Context, and SpEL modules.
    • Provides the core functionality (IoC, Dependency Injection).

  • 2. beans:

    • Manages beans (objects) and their life cycle.
    • A complex implementation of the factory pattern provided by the Bean module.

  • 3. Context:

    • Builds on Core and Beans modules.
    • Provides access to configured objects (beans).
    • Main entry point: ApplicationContext interface for dependency injection.

  • 4. SpEL (Spring Expression Language):

    • Expression language for searching/querying/manipulating objects at runtime.
    • Supports:
      • Property access
      • Method calls
      • Array/collection access
      • Variable use
      • Bean retrieval from IoC container

2. AOP

  • Provides AOP (Aspect Oriented Programming) features.

3. Aspect

  • A module that encapsulates cross-cutting logic.
  • Example: A logging aspect that runs before/after methods.

4. Instrumentation

  • Provides class instrumentation and classloader implementations for certain servers.
  • Configurable via:
  • XML
  • Annotations (@Aspect, @Before, @After, etc.)
  • AspectJ integration

5. Messaging

  • Used for asynchronous communication between applications/components.
  • Supports:
  • Point-to-point (Queue)
  • Publish-subscribe (Topic) models
  • Spring provides spring-jms for Java Messaging Service.

6. Data Access / Integration Layer

1. JDBC (Java Database Connectivity)

  • Contains a JDBC abstraction layer.
  • Simplifies JDBC code with less boilerplate.

2. ORM (Object-Relational Mapping)

  • Integrates with ORM frameworks:
  • Hibernate
  • JPA
  • JDO
  • iBatis
  • Supports declarative transactions for data persistence.

3. OXM (Object/XML Mapping)

  • Supports mapping using:
  • JAXB
  • Castor
  • XMLBeans
  • JiBX
  • XStream

4. JMS (Java Messaging Service)

  • Provides features for producing/consuming or sending/receiving messages.

5. Transaction

  • Supports programmatic and declarative transaction management for POJOs.

7. Web Layer

  • 1. web: Basic web-oriented features (multipart file upload, REST clients).
  • 2. Web-Servlet: MVC (Model View Controller) implementation for web applications.
  • 3. Web-Portlet: MVC implementation for portlet environments; similar to Web-Servlet.
  • 4. websocket: WebSocket and real-time communication support.
  • 5. Web-Struts: Deprecated support for integrating Struts. Use Struts 2.0 or Spring MVC.

8. Test Layer

  • Supports testing Spring components with JUnit/TestNG.
  • Provides: Applica

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