@@ -744,6 +744,185 @@ the exact version and feature set of the container.
[[spring-whats-new]]
= What's New in Spring Framework 4.x
[[new-in-4.0]]
== New Features and Enhancements in Spring Framework 4.0
The Spring Framework was first released in 2004, since then there have been only a
few major revisions: Spring 2.0 provided cleaner XML support and improved AOP; Spring 2.5
embraced annotation-driven configuration; Spring 3.0 added Java 5 features, such as
generics and java-based `@Configuration`.
Version 4.0 is the latest major release of the Spring Framework and the first to fully
support Java 8 features. You can still use Spring with older versions of Java, however,
the minimum requirement has now been raised to Java SE 6. We have also taken the
opportunity of a major release to remove many deprecated classes and methods from the
previous version.
A https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/wiki/Migrating-from-earlier-versions-of-the-spring-framework[migration guide for upgrading to Spring 4.0]
is available on the https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/wiki[Spring Framework GitHub Wiki].
=== Improved Getting Started Experience
The new http://spring.io[spring.io] website provides a whole series of
http://spring.io/guides["Getting Started"] guides to help you learn Spring. You
can read more about the guides in the <<overview-getting-started-with-spring>> section
in this document. The new website also provides a comprehensive overview of the many
additional projects that are released under the Spring umbrella.
If you are a Maven user you may also be interested in the helpful
<<overview-maven-bom,bill of materials>> POM file that is now published with each Spring
Framework release.
=== Removed Deprecated Packages and Methods
All deprecated packages, and many deprecated classes and methods have been removed with
version 4.0. If you are upgrading from a previous release of Spring, you should ensure
that you have fixed any deprecated calls that you were making.