In this article on A Brief Tutorial on Spring Framework, I will explain Spring Framework, its benefits, and a simple example of an application using the Spring Framework.
What is Spring?
Basically, Spring is not a J2EE Framework. Instead, it is an open-source framework that supports the POJO (Plain Old Java Objects) based programming model. The use of Spring makes the development of J2EE applications easier. It is lightweight. Also, it integrates well with some of the J2EE specifications like Servlet API, JPA, and so on.
Benefits of Spring Framework
The following list provides the significant benefits of using Spring Framework.
- Spring Framework provides a consistent way for data access. It has support for commonly used data access frameworks such as Hibernate, Java Persistence API, JDBC, and so on.
- Spring framework supports loose coupling. Therefore, developers can create components that are independent of other components in the application. Moreover, these components are easy to modify and test. It provides a mechanism called Dependency Injection (DI) that enables loose coupling among components of the application.
- Furthermore, the developers can use POJO (Plain Old Java Objects) to create the application components. Hence, the development is easier and fast with Spring.
- Also, the Spring Framework provides a lightweight Spring container that eliminates the need of using any web server or application server.
- With the use of POJO, creating and executing JUnit tests are much easier with Spring. Moreover, we can also use other test frameworks like Mockito with Spring.
- For the purpose of managing transactions efficiently, Spring provides the @Transaction annotation. Also, it has support for both programmatic and declarative transaction management.
- Spring provides the development of various kinds of applications. So, you can use Spring to develop web applications, standalone applications, or distributed applications.
- Since it uses a number of annotations, it reduces the overall lines of code. So, you can develop applications with less code.
- Spring has a well-developed Spring MVC Framework. So you can develop your web applications using MVC (Model View Controller) Pattern.
However, Spring has certain drawbacks. The use of lots of XML makes the application difficult to understand. Also, beginners may find it complex that requires lots of time to learn.
Further Reading
Spring Framework Practice Problems and Their Solutions
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