NEWS

Open Source Spring for Java Developers Gets Integration Add-On; Spring Integration Will Work With the Core of Spring Framework to Connect Java Apps to Other Applications, Databases, and Pieces of the Software Infrastructure.

InformationWeek
December 18, 2007
By Charles Babcock

The Spring Framework, used by programmers as a way to lighten the complexity of building Java applications, has been extended by a second product to ease the task of making Java applications more interoperable.

Spring Integration will work with the core of Spring Framework to connect Java applications to other applications, databases, and pieces of the software infrastructure. Spring Integration is an example of how easier-to-use technologies are infiltrating the Java platform and making it possible to build Java applications with less-complex, detailed programming.

Spring Integration provides built-in message-listening on behalf of a running application and the ability to invoke a message service when needed. In addition to invoking Java Messaging Service, Spring Integration can direct the routing of a message and handle the data transformation that may be needed for the data to be useful to the destination application, said Mark Fisher, a SpringSource developer who is the project lead for Integration, in an interview.

SpringSource, formerly Interface21, is the company founded by Spring's originator, Rod Johnson. The firm changed its name in mid-November.

The Spring Framework itself provides some integration capabilities, Fisher said, such as basic messaging and scheduling of tasks. Spring Integration takes over to provide "extension points" for programmers to let their applications reach out beyond their own business logic to other applications and services, he said.

Spring Integration includes adapters for common input and output sources, such as relational databases and file systems.

It's a separate product because Spring designers "want to keep the integration behaviors separate from the business behaviors" captured in the application, said Fisher. Integration requirements might change as a new Java business process is adapted to changing business needs.

Like the framework, Spring Integration is available for free download as open source code from www.springsource.com. The company of 75 employees earns revenue through training, consulting, and technical support of Spring Framework and its supporting products. In addition to Framework and Integration, SpringSource also provides Spring Batch for running batch jobs through Spring applications.

Part of the appeal of Spring Framework is that it substitutes declarative statements and annotations for complex programming. Spring can apply annotations or tags to configuration files. Instead of having to name each class library and other parts of applications, a developer can cite the annotations that apply to a particular configuration of the application, and Spring pulls the parts together. Oracle (NSDQ: ORCL) and IBM (NYSE: IBM), among others, have encouraged the use of Spring with their products.

Spring Integration was demonstrated last week by Fisher at The Spring Experience user group in Hollywood, Fla. It will become generally available by the end of the first quarter of 2008.