SPRING FRAMEWORK CHANGELOG
==========================
http://www.springsource.org


Changes in version 3.1.1 (2012-02-13)
-------------------------------------

* official support for Hibernate 4.0 GA (as released in the meantime)
* JBossNativeJdbcExtractor is compatible with JBoss AS 7 as well
* restored JBossLoadTimeWeaver compatibility with JBoss AS 5.1
* Provider injection works with generically typed collections of beans as well
* context:property-placeholder's "file-encoding" attribute value is being applied correctly
* optimized converter lookup in GenericConversionService to avoid contention in JDK proxy check
* DataBinder correctly handles ParseException from Formatter for String->String case
* CacheNamespaceHandler actually parses cache:annotation-driven's "key-generator" attribute
* officially deprecated TopLinkJpaDialect in favor of EclipseLink and Spring's EclipseLinkJpaDialect
* fixed LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean's "packagesToScan" to avoid additional provider scan
* LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean's "persistenceUnitName" applies to "packagesToScan" as well
* DefaultPersistenceUnitManager uses containing jar as persistence unit root URL for default unit
* added protected "isPersistenceUnitOverrideAllowed()" method to DefaultPersistenceUnitManager
* Hibernate synchronization properly unbinds Session even in case of afterCompletion exception
* Hibernate exception translation covers NonUniqueObjectException to DuplicateKeyException case
* Hibernate 4 LocalSessionFactoryBean implements PersistenceExceptionTranslator interface as well
* Hibernate 4 LocalSessionFactoryBean does not insist on a "dataSource" reference being set
* added "entityInterceptor" property to Hibernate 4 LocalSessionFactoryBean
* added "getConfiguration" accessor to Hibernate 4 LocalSessionFactoryBean
* added "durability" and "description" properties to JobDetailFactoryBean
* corrected fix for QuartzJobBean to work with Quartz 2.0/2.1
* JMS CachingConnectionFactory never caches consumers for temporary queues and topics
* JMS SimpleMessageListenerContainer silently falls back to lazy registration of consumers
* Servlet/PortletContextResource's "isReadable()" implementation returns false for directories
* preserve quotes in MediaType parameters
* added "normalize()" method to UriComponents
* remove empty path segments from input to UriComponentsBuilder
* added "fromRequestUri(request)" and "fromCurrentRequestUri()" methods to ServletUriComponentsBuilder
* allow adding flash attributes in methods with a ModelAndView return value
* make flash attributes available in the model of Parameterizable/UrlFilenameViewController
* revised the FlashMapManager contract and implementation to address a flaw in its design
* improved @SessionAttributes handling to provide better support for clustered sessions
* added property to RedirectView to disable expanding URI variables in redirect URL
* fixed request mapping bug involving direct vs pattern path matches with HTTP methods
* removed check for HTTP "POST" when resolving multipart request controller method arguments
* updated @RequestMapping and reference docs wrt differences between @MVC 3.1 and @MVC 2.5-3.0


Changes in version 3.1 GA (2011-12-12)
--------------------------------------

* SmartLifecycle beans in Lifecycle dependency graphs are only being started when isAutoStartup=true
* ConversionService is able to work with "Collections.emptyList()" as target type (again)
* restored DataBinder's ability to bind to an auto-growing List with unknown element type
* added SmartValidator interface with general support for validation hints
* added custom @Validated annotation with support for JSR-303 validation groups
* JSR-303 SpringValidatorAdapter and MVC data binding provide support for validation groups
* restored SpringValidatorAdapter's ability to handle bean constraints with property paths
* added MethodValidationInterceptor/PostProcessor for Hibernate Validator 4.2 based method validation
* fixed QuartzJobBean to work with Quartz 2.0/2.1 as well
* @Transactional qualifiers match against transaction manager definitions in parent contexts as well
* optimized AnnotationTransactionAspect and AnnotationCacheAspect pointcuts to avoid runtime checks
* renamed @CacheEvict's "afterInvocation" attribute to "beforeInvocation" (for better readability)
* added "mappingResources" property to LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean (pointing to orm.xml)
* Hibernate 4.0 variant of HibernateTransactionManager properly works with Open Session in View now
* JmsInvokerClientInterceptor/FactoryBean always uses createConnection/createSession when on JMS 1.1
* added out-of-the-box MappingJacksonMessageConverter impl for Spring's JMS MessageConverter facility
* DispatcherServlet's "dispatchOptionsRequest" only sets the default 'Allow' header if actually needed
* ResourceHttpRequestHandler sends content without content-type header if no media type found
* ResourceHttpRequestHandler and ContentNegotiatingViewResolver use consistent mime type resolution
* simplified support package layout in "web.method" and "web.servlet.mvc.method"
* added "useTrailingSlashMatch" property to RequestMappingHandlerMapping
* Portlet MVC annotation mapping allows for distributing action names across controllers
* added String constants to MediaType

 
Changes in version 3.1 RC2 (2011-11-28)
---------------------------------------

* fixed OSGi manifest for spring-web bundle to not require Apache HttpComponents anymore
* fixed GenericTypeResolver to consistently return null if not resolvable
* added proper "contentLength()" implementation to ByteArrayResource
* refined Resource "exists()" check for HTTP URLs to always return false for 404 status
* LocaleEditor and StringToLocaleConverter do not restrict variant part through validation
* LinkedCaseInsensitiveMap overrides putAll method as well (for IBM JDK 1.6 compatibility)
* optimized DefaultListableBeanFactory's PropertyDescriptor caching for concurrent access
* renamed ValueWrapperImpl to SimpleValueWrapper (for use in Cache implementations)
* exposed EHCache 1.7's "statisticsEnabled"/"sampledStatisticsEnabled" on EhCacheFactoryBean
* SpringValidatorAdapter accepts non-indexed set paths (for Hibernate Validator compatibility)
* TransactionSynchronizationManager eagerly cleans up void ResourceHolders on any access
* SimpleJdbcTestUtils executeSqlScript properly closes its LineNumberReader after use
* JDO PersistenceManager synchronization performs close attempt after completion (if necessary)
* JPA EntityManagerFactoryUtils silently ignores IllegalArgumentExceptions from setHint calls
* fixed HibernateTransactionManager for Hibernate 4.0 to refer to correct openSession() method
* added "namingStrategy" property to Hibernate 4 LocalSessionFactoryBean variant
* HibernateJpaDialect does NOT expose underlying Session for underlying SessionFactory anymore
* fixed MethodInvokingJobDetailFactoryBean's Quartz 2.0 support
* added Quartz 2.1 compatibility while preserving Quartz 2.0 support
* introduced JobDetail/CronTrigger/SimpleTriggerFactoryBean variants for Quartz 2.0/2.1 support
* added "forwarder" property to ConnectorServerFactoryBean, accepting an MBeanServerForwarder
* RmiClientInterceptor detects nested SocketException as connect failure as well
* fixed StandardServlet/PortletEnvironment to check for JNDI (for Google App Engine compatibility)
* Servlet/PortletContextResource's getFile prefers "file:" URL resolution over calling getRealPath
* Portlet session mutex uses global session attribute to be shared among all portlets in the session
* using original request URI in FlashMap matching logic to account for URL rewriting
* now supporting target request with multiple parameter values in FlashMap matching logic
* fixed issue in SimpleMappingExceptionResolver causing exception when setting "statusCodes" property
* added ignoreDefaultModelOnRedirect attribute to <mvc:annotation-driven/>
* added methods to UriComponentsBuilder for replacing the path or the query
* support UriComponentsBuilder as @Controller method argument
* added ServletUriComponentsBuilder to build a UriComponents instance starting with a ServletRequest
* fixed issue with cache ignoring prototype-scoped controllers in RequestMappingHandlerAdapter
* fixed issue with setting Content-Length header depending on the charset of the response
* fixed @RequestMapping header matching to correctly process negated header conditions
* added getObjectMapper() accessor to MappingJacksonHttpMessageConverter
* AbstractCachingViewResolver caches unresolved view names by default ("cacheUnresolved"=true)
* form input tag now allows type values other than "text" such as HTML5-specific types
* form hidden tag now supports "disabled" attribute
* fixed "formMultiSelect"/"formCheckboxes" FreeMarker macros to compare against actual field value
* MockHttpServletRequest/Response now keep contentType field and Content-Type header in sync
* updated Spring MVC configuration section to include MVC Java config and the MVC namespace


Changes in version 3.1 RC1 (2011-10-11)
---------------------------------------

* upgraded to JUnit 4.9
* updated Quartz support package for Quartz 2.0 compatibility
* support for load-time weaving on WebSphere 7 and 8
* updated JBossLoadTimeWeaver to automatically detect and support JBoss AS 7 as well
* added support for Hibernate 4.0 (HibernateJpaDialect as well as natively in orm.hibernate4)
* added 'destroy method inference' (SPR-8751)
* prepared Spring's DataSource and RowSet adapters for forward compatibility with JDBC 4.1
* introduced ForkJoinPoolFactoryBean for Java 7 (alternative: add new jsr166.jar to Java 6)
* introduced extended WritableResource interface
* ConversionService prevents Converter from trying to convert to a subtype of its actual target type
* CollectionCollection/MapToMapConverter preserve original Collection/Map if no converted elements
* DefaultListableBeanFactory is only deserializable through a SerializedBeanFactoryReference
* DefaultListableBeanFactory's getBean(name, type) attempts type conversion if necessary
* DefaultListableBeanFactory allows for init methods to register further bean definitions (again)
* XmlBeanDefinitionReader accepts description subelement within map entry as well (as per the XSD)
* ConfigurationClassPostProcessor supports use of same processor instance with several factories
* SpringBeanAutowiringSupport is able to process @Value annotations on any given target instance
* introduced @EnableAspectJAutoProxy
* overridden @PersistenceContext annotations on subclass methods are being processed correctly
* DataBinder uses a default limit of 256 for array/collection auto-growing
* added "autoGrowNestedPaths" property to ConfigurableWebBindingInitializer
* added "getMultipartContentType(String)" method to MultipartRequest interface
* added headers support to MultipartFile abstraction (actually supported on Servlet 3.0)
* revised Servlet 3.0 based StandardServletMultipartResolver for correct param/file distinction
* MultipartFilter uses a Servlet 3.0 based StandardServletMultipartResolver by default
* added RequestPartServletServerHttpRequest and corresponding @RequestPart support in Spring MVC
* added "connectTimeout" and "readTimeout" properties to Simple/CommonsClientHttpRequestFactory
* added flash attribute support through FlashMap and FlashMapManager abstractions
* added RedirectAttributes abstraction as supported method argument type of @RequestMapping methods
* added "ignoreDefaultModelOnRedirect" flag to RequestMappingHandlerAdapter
* fixed @ExceptionHandler exception type matching (ExceptionDepthComparator)
* ResourceHttpRequestHandler detects invalid directory traversal in given path
* HtmlUtils properly escapes single quotes as well
* Spring JSP tags do not use their own expression support on Servlet 3.0 containers by default
* added support for web.xml context-param "springJspExpressionSupport" (explicit "true"/"false")
* ContextLoader and FrameworkServlet support "contextId" parameter for custom serialization id
* added "acceptProxyClasses" flag to RemoteInvocationSerializingExporter
* refined WebLogic RMI descriptor to only mark 'getTargetInterfaceName' method as idempotent
* revised JMS CachedConnectionFactory to avoid unnecessary rollback calls on Session return
* fixed JMS CachedConnectionFactory to fully synchronize its Session list
* JpaTransactionManager etc can find EntityManagerFactory by "persistenceUnitName" property now
* HibernateJpaDialect exposes underlying Session for underlying SessionFactory
* deprecated JpaTemplate/JpaInterceptor/JpaDaoSupport and JdoTemplate/JdoInterceptor/JdoDaoSupport
* updated H2 error codes in sql-error-codes.xml
* fixed NamedParameterJdbcTemplate to use correct maximum type for queryForInt/Long
* jdbc:script's "separator" and "execution" attributes work nested with embedded-database as well
* added "encoding" attribute to jdbc:script element
* JavaMailSenderImpl detects and respects "mail.transport.protocol" property in existing Session
* added ConcurrentMapCacheManager, dynamically building ConcurrentMapCache instances at runtime
* added "disabled" property to EhCacheFactoryBean
* introduced generic invokeMethod() in ReflectionTestUtils
* introduced DelegatingSmartContextLoader as new default ContextLoader for TestContext framework
* deprecated @ExpectedException
* AnnotationConfigContextLoader now detects default configuration classes within test classes
* TestContext now uses MergedContextConfiguration for the ContextCache key
* extended Servlet API mocks for Servlet 3.0 forward compatibility as far as possible
* made MockHttpServletResponse compatible with Servlet 3.0 getHeader(s) method returning Strings
* added getHeaderValue(s) method to MockHttpServletResponse for raw value access


Changes in version 3.1 M2 (2011-06-08)
--------------------------------------

* revised TypeDescriptor signature and implementation for clearer handling of nested generics
* full support for arbitrary nesting of collections in fields
* proper type detection in nested collections within arrays
* collection/array conversion returns original collection if possible (instead of first element)
* AnnotatedBeanDefinitionReader now inherits Environment of supplied BeanDefinitionRegistry
* eliminated @Feature support in favor of @Enable* and framework-provided @Configuration classes
* introduced @EnableTransactionManagement, @EnableScheduling, etc
* add Java config alternative to MVC namespace via @EnableWebMvc annotation
* introduce HandlerMethod abstraction selecting and invoking @RequestMapping methods
* add HandlerMethod-based implementations of HandlerMapping, HandlerAdapter, HandlerExceptionResolver
* merge @PathVariables in the model before rendering except for JSON/XML serialization/marshalling.
* use @PathVariables in addition to request parameters in data binding
* support URI variable placeholders in "redirect:" prefixed view names
* add flag to extract value from single-key model in MappingJacksonJsonView
* support @Valid on @RequestBody method arguments
* allow bean references in mvc:interceptor namespace elements
* consolidate initialization and use of MappedInterceptors in AbstractHandlerMapping
* added Servlet 3.0 based WebApplicationInitializer mechanism for programmatic bootstrapping
* added Servlet 3.0 based StandardServletMultipartResolver
* added "packagesToScan" feature to LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean (avoiding persistence.xml)
* fixed JPA 2.0 timeout hints to correctly specify milliseconds
* added support for shutdown scripts to DataSourceInitializer (see "databaseCleaner" property)
* added "separator" and "execution" attributes to jdbc:script element
* revised cache abstraction to focus on minimal atomic access operations
* updated Quartz package to support Quartz 1.8 as well (note: not fully supporting Quartz 2.0 yet)
* RemoteExporter uses an opaque proxy for 'serviceInterface' (no AOP interfaces exposed)
* introduced AnnotationConfigContextLoader to provide TestContext support for @Configuration classes
* introduced @ActiveProfiles for declarative configuration of bean definition profiles in tests
* TestContext generates context cache key based on all applicable configuration metadata
* deprecated AbstractJUnit38SpringContextTests and AbstractTransactionalJUnit38SpringContextTests


Changes in version 3.1 M1 (2011-02-11)
--------------------------------------

* upgraded to JUnit 4.8.1 and TestNG 5.12.1
* fixed aspects bundle to declare dependencies for @Async aspect as well
* introduced Environment abstraction with flexible placeholder resolution
* introduced support for environment profiles in XML bean definition files
* introduced @Profile annotation for configuration classes and individual component classes
* introduced PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer as alternative to PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer
* introduced "c:" namespace for constructor argument shortcuts (analogous to the "p:" namespace)
* introduced @FeatureConfiguration classes with @Feature methods that return FeatureSpecifications
* added TxAnnotationDriven, MvcAnnotationDriven, etc. as out-of-the-box FeatureSpecifications
* introduced caching abstraction and cache annotation support
* moved EhCache FactoryBeans from context-support to context module
* EhCacheManagerFactoryBean properly closes "ehcache.xml" input stream, if any
* exceptions thrown by @Scheduled methods will be propagated to a registered ErrorHandler
* ProxyCreationContext uses "ThreadLocal.remove()" over "ThreadLocal.set(null)" as well
* BeanDefinitionVisitor now actually visits factory method names
* fixed potential InjectionMetadata NPE when using SpringBeanAutowiringInterceptor
* fixed AbstractBindingResult to avoid NPE in "hashCode()" if target is null
* Servlet/PortletRequestDataBinder perform unwrapping for MultipartRequest as well
* ResourceHttpRequestHandler does not set Content-Length header for 304 response
* LocaleChangeInterceptor validates locale values in order to prevent XSS vulnerability


Changes in version 3.0.5 (2010-10-20)
-------------------------------------

* support for Hibernate 3.6 final
* added core serializer abstraction with default implementations using Java Serialization
* consistent use of JDK 1.5's "ThreadLocal.remove()" over "ThreadLocal.set(null)"
* fixed JodaTimeContextHolder to use a non-inheritable ThreadLocal and expose a reset method
* revised "ClassUtils.isAssignable" semantics to cover primitives vs wrappers in both directions
* optimized AnnotationUtils findAnnotation performance for repeated search on same interfaces
* ConversionService protects itself against infinite recursion in ObjectToCollectionConverter
* fixed TypeDescriptor to correctly resolve nested collections and their element types
* BeanWrapper does not attempt to populate Map values on access (just auto-grows Map itself)
* fixed Autowired/CommonAnnotationBeanPostProcessor to prevent race condition in skipping check
* fixed @Value injection to correctly cache temporary null results for non-singleton beans
* ApplicationContext registers context-specific ClassArrayEditor for its bean ClassLoader
* refined ApplicationContext singleton processing to not fail for manually registered null instances
* fixed ApplicationContext event processing for repeated invocations to non-singleton listener beans
* optimized @Bean error messages for static factory methods as well as for argument type mismatches
* modified expression parsing to pass full TypeDescriptor context through to ConversionService calls
* adapted expression parser's Constructor/MethodResolver to accept TypeDescriptors instead of raw types
* SpEL supports projection on any kind of Collection (not just on Lists and arrays)
* SpEL MapAccessor consistently rejects "target.key" style access to Maps if no such key is found
* SpEL method invocations prefer method with fewest parameters (e.g. no-arg over vararg)
* AspectJExpressionPointcut uses bean ClassLoader for initializing the AspectJ pointcut parser
* added AnnotationAsyncExecutionAspect as AspectJ-based variant of @Async processing
* added mode="proxy"/"aspectj" and proxy-target-class options to task:annotation-driven
* JDBC bundle uses local ClassLoader as bean ClassLoader for "sql-error-codes.xml" parsing
* EmbeddedDatabaseFactory shuts down database when failing to populate it in "initDatabase()"
* embedded database support now also works with Derby >= 10.6
* "jdbc:embedded-database" uses id as database name to allow multiple ones in parallel
* ResourceDatabasePopulator throws descriptive ScriptStatementFailedException with resource details
* added configurable Connection/Statement/ResultSet target types to Jdbc4NativeJdbcExtractor
* added OracleJdbc4NativeJdbcExtractor with pre-configured Oracle JDBC API types
* DefaultLobHandler's "wrapAsLob" mode works with PostgreSQL's "getAsciiStream()" requirement
* ResultSetWrappingSqlRowSet (as used by JdbcTemplate's "queryForRowSet") supports column labels now
* LocalSessionFactoryBean's "entityCacheStrategies" works with region names on Hibernate 3.6 as well
* fixed DefaultMessageListenerContainer's no-message-received commit to work without Session caching
* DefaultMessageListenerContainer's skips no-message-received commit on Tibco (avoiding a deadlock)
* JaxWsPortClientInterceptor does not fall back to annotation-specified name as portName anymore
* UriTemplate is serializable now
* fixed AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter's caching to avoid concurrency issues in RequestMappingInfo
* fixed @MVC processing of parameter-level annotations to work with interface-based proxies again
* revised @RequestParam processing to support CSV-to-array/collection binding with ConversionService
* fixed EvalTag's EvaluationContext caching to properly handle JSP tag caching across requests
* AbstractJasperReportsView only sets locale model attributes if not present already
* DispatcherPortlet throws custom NoHandlerFoundException instead of misleading UnavailableException
* DispatcherPortlet copies all action parameters to render parameters in case of an action exception
* DispatcherPortlet's default resource serving explicitly prevents access to WEB-INF and META-INF
* Portlet @ExceptionHandler methods allow for writing the response directly (like in the Servlet case)
* MockHttpServletRequest/HttpSession/etc returns independent Enumeration from "getAttributeNames()"


Changes in version 3.0.4 (2010-08-19)
-------------------------------------

* support for Hibernate Core 3.6, Hibernate Validator 4.1, EclipseLink 2.1, EHCache 2.2
* OSGi manifest version range accepts EHCache 2.x as well
* added "contentLength()" method to Resource abstraction
* URL-based Resource variants introspect "last-modified" and "content-length" response headers
* refined "exists()" check for UrlResource (HEAD request) and ClassPathResource (URL resolution)
* ConversionService is able to deal with empty collections and nested collections (fixed regression)
* ConversionService properly handles nested Resource arrays in Map values (fixed regression)
* ConversionService does not accidentally use copy constructor for same type
* fixed double ConversionFailedException nesting for ObjectToObjectConverter invocations
* BeanWrapper preserves annotation information for individual array/list/map elements
* Spring's constructor resolution consistently finds non-public multi-arg constructors
* revised constructor argument caching, avoiding a race condition for converted argument values
* SpEL passes full collection type context (generics, annotations) to ConversionService
* SpEL 'select last' operator now works consistently with maps
* BeanWrapper/DataBinder's "autoGrowNestedPaths" works for Maps as well
* fixed concurrency issue in TypedStringValue, showing for nested typed Maps in prototype beans
* fixed WeakReferenceMonitor to never stop its monitoring thread if an entry has been registered
* fixed CronTrigger to correctly parse month parts expressed as numbers (1-12 instead of 0-11)
* TaskExecutorFactoryBean (as used by task:executor) exposes full ThreadPoolTaskExecutor type
* JmsResourceHolder does not ignore IllegalStateException from locally synchronized transaction
* fixed JMS CachingConnectionFactory to correctly cache a producer without fixed destination as well
* DefaultMessageListenerContainer triggers Session commit even if no message has been received
* DefaultMessageListenerContainer supports client id setting even for non-shared Connections
* Spring's MessageEndpointFactory classes are now JCA 1.6 compliant as well
* AbstractJaxWsServiceExporter supports "bindingType" bean property, overriding @BindingType
* AbstractJaxWsServiceExporter supports "webServiceFeatures" bean property on JAX-WS 2.2
* JaxWsPortProxyFactoryBean takes "wsdlDocumentUrl", "namespaceUri" etc defaults from @WebService
* Jaxb2Marshaller's "marshallerProperties" Map accepts any value type
* SpringTemplateLoader for FreeMarker supports last-modified timestamp through Resource abstraction
* HibernateJpaDialect correctly closes borrowed connections even for nested JDBC executions
* DefaultJdoDialect supports JDO 3.0 query timeout facility (as supported by DataNucleus 2.1)
* transaction names based on method id from most specific method (target class instead of interface)
* added "validationMessageSource" to LocalValidatorFactoryBean, for Spring-based validation messages
* Spring field error arguments include actually declared annotation attributes in alphabetical order
* JSR-303 Pattern message resolvable through Spring MessageSource (despite special characters) 
* DispatcherServlet applies default view name translation to error views as well
* mvc:annotation-driven reliably detects JSR-303 and JAXB2 in an OSGi environment as well
* revised @MVC handler method resolution with respect to handler methods on generic interfaces
* @MVC handler methods reliably resolve MultipartRequest arguments with HiddenHttpMethodFilter
* WebDataBinder and @MVC request params detect and introspect MultipartFile arrays as well
* fixed @PathVariable regression in combination with ConversionService usage on DataBinder
* @CookieValue returns decoded cookie value in a Servlet environment (analogous to @RequestParam)
* MVC HandlerExceptionResolvers prevent caching for exception views if preventResponseCaching=true
* @ExceptionHandler works for inherited method and CGLIB proxies on Portlet controllers as well
* Portlet @MVC's implicit render model will be updated at the end of the event phase
* Portlet AbstractController consistently uses session mutex if "synchronizeOnSession" is active
* PortletWrappingController supports Portlet 2.0 resource and event requests as well
* fixed JSP EvalTag to render null result as empty String instead of "null" String
* JSP EvalTag resolves "@myBeanName" references in expressions against the WebApplicationContext
* added support for static resource serving: ResourceHttpRequestHandler, mvc:resources
* revised DispatcherServlet's last-modified handling to properly work with scoped controllers
* MockMultipartHttpServletRequest pre-defines method "POST" and content type "multipart/form-data"


Changes in version 3.0.3 (2010-06-15)
-------------------------------------

* Spring autodetects JodaTime 1.3 or higher (as required), ignoring older JodaTime versions
* clarified that Spring's Jackson support requires Jackson 1.3 or higher
* JPA 2.0 support tested and supported with Hibernate 3.5.2 and OpenJPA 2.0.0 GA as well
* revised VFS support for Spring's component scanning to work on JBoss AS 6.0.0 M3 as well
* fixed URIEditor's URI construction to consider fragment as well
* added default InputSourceEditor for SAX InputSource construction with a URL String as system id
* CachedIntrospectionResults only caches GenericTypeAwarePropertyDescriptors if fully safe
* revised BeanWrapper's exception wrapping to consistently handle ConversionExceptions
* DefaultListableBeanFactory checks for alias circle on registerAlias (avoiding endless loop)
* ConversionService is able to apply Converters to interface-based array elements
* ConversionService fully supports conversion from String to MediaType now (through 'valueOf')
* revised exception handling in ObjectToObjectConverter, avoiding InvocationTargetExceptions
* a context ConversionService is able to override an ApplicationContext's resource editors
* refined LifecycleProcessor exception handling, properly wrapping a start exception from a bean
* revised DefaultLifecycleProcessor's handling of circular dependencies to avoid stack overflow
* fixed constructor argument caching for prototypes with multiple constructor matches
* specific detection of CGLIB subclasses in order to properly handle CGLIB interfaces
* registerDependentBean resolves to the canonical bean name in order to handle alias references
* fixed registerResolvableDependency mechanism to correctly handle non-serializable factory objects
* added "expose-proxy" attribute to aop namespace (enforcing AopContext proxy exposure with CGLIB)
* revised AbstractInterceptorDrivenBeanDefinitionDecorator for further alignment with auto-proxying
* BeanDefinitionVisitor/PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer finds and resolves values in arrays as well
* property placeholders can deal with nested expressions which happen to use the same suffix
* SpEL's Elvis operator is able to deal with #{${myProp}?:defaultValue} case if myProp is empty
* introduced EmbeddedValueResolverAware callback interface for convenient placeholder resolution
* @Transactional qualifier value matches against @Qualifier annotations on @Bean methods as well
* setTransactionIsolation on JDBC Connection only called when actually necessary (for PostgreSQL)
* added limit for parsed SQL cache to NamedParameterJdbcTemplate (default is 256; configurable) 
* CachingConnectionFactory detects destination equality for WebSphere MQ as well (using toString)
* DefaultPersistenceUnitManager's getPersistenceUnitInfo method has 2.5 compatible signature again
* DefaultMessageListenerContainer reacts to maxConcurrentConsumers reduction for long-lived tasks
* added "idleConsumerLimit" bean property to DefaultMessageListenerContainer (default is 1)
* AsyncAnnotationBeanPostProcessor consistently adds @Async processing as first Advisor in the chain
* ScheduledTaskRegistrar (as used for @Scheduled processing) properly shuts down its default executor
* CronTrigger defensively protects itself against accidental re-fires if a task runs too early
* MailSendException includes all messages as failed messages in case of a connect failure
* added support for JAX-WS 2.1 WebServiceFeatures to JaxWsPortClientInterceptor/PortProxyFactoryBean
* added XmlAwareFormHttpMessageConverter, taking over the 3.0.2-introduced XML multipart support
* ServletContextResourcePatternResolver handles "/WEB-INF/lib/*.jar!/**/context.xml" style patterns
* fixed MVC mapping regression for servlet url-pattern "/" case on servers other than WebSphere
* MVC mappings properly apply even to welcome file entries that forward to a DispatcherServlet
* fixed @ExceptionHandler resolution in case of multiple matches at different inheritance levels
* revised Portlet SessionStatus.setComplete() to avoid re-exposure of attributes in render phase
* shortened Portlet MVC's implicit model render parameter name to "implicitModel"
* added convenient "checkRefresh" bean property to TilesConfigurer
* TilesConfigurer's "definitionsFactoryClass" property applies common Tiles DefinitionsFactory setup
* JSP FormTag calculates proper default form action even when using a rewrite filter on WebSphere
* JSP HiddenInputTag allows for using common HTML attributes (equivalent to LabelTag)
* fixed JSP ErrorsTag to avoid invalid "*.errors" id, using form object name as id prefix instead
* fixed JSP SelectTag's support for rendering enum constants
* JSP Radiobutton/CheckboxesTag utilizes PropertyEditor/ConversionService for label rendering
* MockHttpServletResponse supports multiple includes


Changes in version 3.0.2 (2010-04-02)
-------------------------------------

* fixed cross-module version ranges in OSGi manifests
* fixed contents of org.springframework.web.struts jar
* upgraded to Hibernate Validator 4.0.2 and Jackson 1.4.2
* compatibility with Hibernate 3.5 final (native and also as a JPA 2.0 provider)
* compatibility with OpenJPA 2.0 (support for JPA 2.0 persistence.xml versioning)
* compatibility with Hessian 4.0 (in terms of exception propagation)
* compatibility with JasperReports 3.x (in terms of resource management)
* restored full compatibility with Servlet 2.4 containers on all VMs
* PropertyEditor lookup fallback works on Google App Engine as well
* fixed TypeDescriptor/MethodParameter toString for all cases in debug log messages
* widened AbstractFactoryBean's "getObjectType" signature to return any Class as well
* BeanPostProcessors are allowed to return a null bean value in the middle of the chain
* autowire="byType" ignores parameter name when choosing a primary bean, as defined
* ObjectFactoryCreatingFactoryBean creates a serializable ObjectFactory reference
* added ProviderCreatingFactoryBean, exposing a serializable JSR-330 Provider reference
* "conversionService" bean will be ignored if it is not of type ConversionService
* revised AbstractInterceptorDrivenBeanDefinitionDecorator for alignment with auto-proxying
* SimpleJdbcCall's "returningResultSet" accepts any plain RowMapper now
* added public "validateDatabaseSchema" method to Hibernate LocalSessionFactoryBean
* HibernateJpaDialect borrows JDBC Connection on demand (supporting aggressive release)
* JCA listener containers delegate to wrapped Transaction handle (for Geronimo compatibility)
* @Transactional qualifiers work in unit tests as well (TransactionalTestExecutionListener)
* @Value processing works in test instances (using the test context framework) as well now
* @DirtiesContext is now inherited for class-level usage
* NativeWebRequest detects native MultipartRequest when decorated by HiddenHttpMethodFilter
* WebRequestInterceptor exposes HttpServletResponse through NativeWebRequest (after downcast)
* WebContentInterceptor does not restrict HTTP methods by default anymore
* WebApplicationObjectSupport's initServletContext will be called only once in any scenario
* DispatcherPortlet passes handler instance into HandlerExceptionResolver for action exception
* DispatcherPortlet applies preHandleRender callbacks in case of action exception as well
* UrlPathHelper cuts off trailing servlet-path slashes for root mappings (on WebSphere)
* introduced support for HttpEntity and ResponseEntity wrappers, adding context to body values
* fixed DataBinder's conversion error handling for direct field access with ConversionService
* @InitBinder methods support all applicable Spring 3.0 parameter annotations as well
* fixed @RequestParam(required=false) regression for @InitBinder methods
* @ExceptionHandler methods consistently receive original exception
* fixed indexed property binding regression in form tag library
* fixed @Configurable issue with null bean name


Changes in version 3.0.1 (2010-02-18)
-------------------------------------

* upgraded to AspectJ 1.6.8
* full support for JPA 2.0 persistence schema and PersistenceUnitInfo SPI
* support for JPA PersistenceContext/Unit injection on Google App Engine
* support for Hibernate 3.5 (as native Hibernate API and as JPA 2.0 provider)
* support for Tiles 2.2.1 (preserving compatibility with Tiles 2.1.2 and above)
* consistent treatment of unresolvable placeholders for Resource and Resource array properties
* ConversionFailedException exDLBFposes offending value through public "getValue()" method
* fixed BeanFactory's "getBeansWithAnnotation" to ignore beans with non-determinable type
* widened FactoryBean's "getObjectType" signature to return any Class (Class<?>)
* do not ever consider Object as a candidate type for autowiring by type (autowire="byType") 
* BeanDefinitionReader and ClassPath/FileSystemXmlApplicationContext use varargs where possible
* introduced BeanDefinitionRegistryPostProcessor extension to BeanFactoryPostProcessor
* @Configuration classes support definition of BeanFactoryPostProcessor beans
* component-scan's scoped-proxy attribute applies to scope-annotated singleton beans as well
* generic ApplicationListener event type gets detected through AOP proxy as well
* ApplicationListeners will only be executed once per event (even for scripted objects)
* ApplicationListeners will get detected lazily as well (e.g. on @Bean's concrete result)
* inner bean ApplicationListeners will be invoked through their proxy (if any)
* fixed SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster's retriever caching to allow for proper removal
* context-specific "conversionService" bean may refer to annotation-configured converter beans
* refined DefaultLifecycleProcessor's start/stop logging and stop exception handling
* DefaultLifecycleProcessor allows for overriding specific hooks in subclasses
* BeanNameAutoProxyCreator detects alias matches for specified bean names
* proxies with AspectJ pointcuts are fully serializable within a BeanFactory now
* SharedEntityManagerCreator's EntityManager proxies are fully serializable now
* Query call chaining works with shared EntityManager proxy outside of transaction as well
* TransactionInterceptor is able to serialize "transactionManagerBeanName" as well
* non-matching @Transactional qualifier value will lead to IllegalStateException
* fixed WebSphereUowTransactionManager regression: correctly roll back in case of exception
* JndiObjectFactoryBean explicitly only chooses public interfaces as default proxy interfaces
* added vararg variants of query methods to JdbcTemplate (as known from SimpleJdbcTemplate)
* MBeanClientInterceptor/MBeanProxyFactoryBean understands CompositeData/TabularData arrays
* added "workManagerMBeanName" property to JBossWorkManagerTaskExecutor
* task:executor's id value is now used as thread name prefix of ThreadPoolTaskExecutor
* fixed @Scheduled processing to kick in once only even in an ApplicationContext hierarchy
* fixed MediaType's Comparable behavior to do a full comparison, aligned with equals behavior
* added "sortBySpecificity" method to MediaType, for typical use with accept header matching
* MimeMessageHelper encodes from, to, cc, bcc String addresses with given encoding as well
* changed HttpStatus.REQUEST_TOO_LONG constant to REQUEST_ENTITY_TOO_LARGE
* relaxed generic Class declaration in HttpMessageConverter's canRead/canWrite/read signatures
* fixed "mvc:view-controller" to work in a fully isolated fashion on Spring Dynamic Modules
* DefaultRequestToViewNameTranslator strips trailing slashes as well (can also be turned off)
* @RequestParam/RequestHeader/CookieValue's defaultValue allows for declaring empty String
* @SessionAttributes works when used on an annotated controller interface with AOP proxying
* WebRequest is a resolvable dependency in Servlet/Portlet web application contexts
* revised JSP-based views to never fail when trying to set Servlet API forward attributes
* lenient evaluation of boolean 'true' attribute expressions in JSP form tag library
* added new spring:eval tag for evaluating SpEL expressions from JSP pages
* SpringBeanAutowiringSupport works in extra ClassLoaders as well (e.g. WebLogic JAX-WS)


Changes in version 3.0.0.GA (2009-12-16)
----------------------------------------

* component scanning autodetects the new EE 6 "javax.annotation.ManagedBean" stereotype
* updated JPA 2.0 support to the final spec (tested compatibility with EclipseLink 2.0 GA)
* full support for GlassFish V3 GA (includes component scanning and load-time weaving)
* upgraded to JRuby 1.4 (while remaining compatible with JRuby 1.1 and above)
* bean property names are matched leniently ("title" and "Title"; "ISBN" and "iSBN")
* bean properties of type enum array/collection can be populated with comma-separated String
* removed getBeansWithAnnotation(Class,boolean,boolean) method from ListableBeanFactory
* PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer is compatible with Spring 2.5 extensions (again)
* SmartLifecycle beans will get auto-started on demand even if marked as lazy-init
* MBeanExporter detects FactoryBean-exported resources independent from declaration order
* refactored SpelExpressionParser to accept SpelParserConfiguration object with boolean flags
* revised TypeDescriptor's valueOf and forObject factory methods with some level of caching
* revised GenericConverter's "getConvertibleTypes" signature to return Set of ConvertiblePair
* GenericConversionService prefers matches against inherited interfaces over superclasses
* renamed ConverterRegistry's addGenericConverter(GenericConverter) method to addConverter
* no default converters for Object-to-Map and Map-To-Object anymore
* default converter for String-to-Properties parsing only applies for actual Properties objects
* default ObjectToStringConverter only stringifies objects that indicate proper toString behavior
* added "converters" property to FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean as well
* full support for formatters and formatting annotations on array/collection elements
* no default number formatter (relying on plain java.lang.Number parsing and rendering)
* no default formatters for Date/Calendar (requiring explicit use of @DateTimeFormat)
* BeanValidationPostProcessor runs in before-initialization phase (before init methods) by default
* removed MultipartRequest mixin interface again (avoiding a package dependency cycle)
* revised RestTemplate method signatures to accept Object values instead of just Strings
* revised path variable extraction to properly deal with dots in variable values (again)
* reintroduced createBinder template method in Servlet/Portlet AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter


Changes in version 3.0.0.RC3 (2009-12-01)
-----------------------------------------

* prepared for Grails and ROO requirements
* restored compatibility with Apache CXF
* fixed bean definition import via "classpath*:" URLs
* added chaining-capable "add" method to MutablePropertyValues
* constructor arguments can be overridden by name in child bean definitions
* BeanDefinitions return isSingleton()=true by default again, with scope name empty
* init/destroy methods get processed in the order of declaration at each hierarchy level
* fixed lookup of LifecycleProcessor bean in a Spring Dynamic Modules environment
* refined lifecycle processing through introduction of startup/shutdown phases
* fixed transaction synchronization setup with TransactionAwareDataSourceProxy involved
* added support for Hibernate 3.3 RegionFactory cache SPI to LocalSessionFactoryBean
* JSR-303 SpringValidatorAdapter uses field name as first argument (analogous to bind errors)
* replaced DefaultConversionService with ConversionServiceFactory(Bean)
* revised FormatterRegistry interface and FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean setup
* mvc:annotation-driven exposes default Validator and ConversionService as top-level beans
* mvc:annotation-driven registers applicable HttpMessageConverters by default, if available
* added interceptors support to mvc namespace, for path-based interceptor mappings


Changes in version 3.0.0.RC2 (2009-11-13)
-----------------------------------------

* updated to final versions of JSR-330 "javax.inject" and JSR-303 "javax.validation" APIs
* full compliance with the JSR-330 TCK (i.e. full compliance with the final specification)
* support for Hibernate Validator 4.0 GA (as the JSR-303 reference implementation)
* added support for load-time weaving in JBoss 5.x
* added support for recent EHCache 1.6 configuration properties to EHCacheFactoryBean
* added AnnotatedBeanDefinitionReader helper for programmatic registration of annotated classes
* added AnnotationConfig(Web)ApplicationContext for convenient registration/scanning of classes
* added GenericXmlApplicationContext with flexible configuration options for its XML support
* AbstractApplicationContext can also start up in case of system properties access failure
* internal MergedBeanDefinitionPostProcessors apply after all other post-processors
* inner beans detected as ApplicationListeners as well (only supported for inner singletons)
* child bean definition's scope attribute can be inherited from parent bean definition now
* introduced SmartLifecycle interface with auto-startup and shutdown order support
* introduced LifecycleProcessor delegate, customizable through "lifecycleProcessor" bean
* MessageListenerContainers and Quartz SchedulerFactoryBean start up on refresh instead of init
* added initialize-database tag to jdbc namespace for populating external data sources with data
* PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver leniently ignores non-existing root directories
* DefaultConversionService understands "on"/"off", "yes"/"no", "1"/"0" as boolean values
* CustomEditorConfigurer supports PropertyEditor instances again (with deprecation warning)
* revised MethodParameter's annotation accessor methods
* ClassUtils is now parameterized with Class<?> and Class<T> where appropriate
* DataBinder now accepts var-args to set allowed, disallowed, and required fields
* DataBinder auto-grows nested paths on traversal (avoiding NullValueInNestedPathException)
* fixed enum binding regression with WebRequestDataBinder (as used by @MVC data binding now)
* fixed FieldError to expose rejected input value as String value instead of as array
* JSR-303 Validator will only register validation failures if no binding failure happened
* ContentNegotiatingViewResolver works with ignoreAcceptHeader and defaultContentType as well
* added Spring MVC namespace, with convenient mvc:annotation-driven configuration element
* default number and datetime formatters configured when using the Spring MVC namespace
* full support for datetime formatting using the Joda Time library (automatically enabled)
* added convenient @NumberFormat and @DateTimeFormat annotations for declarative formatting
* implicit T.valueOf(S) and constructor T(S) lookup if no explicit S->T converter matches
* AbstractExcelView is compatible with Apache POI 3.0 as well as 3.5 now
* TilesConfigurer only sets up EL support if JSP 2.1 is present (for JSP 2.0 compatibility)
* re-introduced Struts 1.x support ("org.springframework.web.struts") in deprecated form
* deprecated scheduling support for JDK 1.3 Timer ("org.springframework.scheduling.timer")
* deprecated remoting support for JAX-RPC (in favor of JAX-WS)


Changes in version 3.0.0.RC1 (2009-09-25)
-----------------------------------------

* upgraded to CGLIB 2.2, AspectJ 1.6.5, Groovy 1.6.3, EHCache 1.6.2, JUnit 4.7, TestNG 5.10
* introduced early support for JSR-330 "javax.inject" annotations (for autowiring)
* introduced early support for JSR-303 Bean Validation (setup and MVC integration)
* added default editors for "java.util.Currency" and "java.util.TimeZone"
* refined PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver's treatment of non-readable directories
* PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver understands VFS resources (i.e. works on JBoss 5.x)
* revised AccessControlContext access from BeanFactory
* AbstractBeanDefinitionParser can deal with null return value as well
* PropertyOverrideConfigurer's "ignoreInvalidKeys" ignores invalid property names as well
* PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer supports "${myKey:myDefaultValue}" defaulting syntax
* BeanFactory's default type conversion falls back to String constructor on target type
* BeanFactory tries to create unknown collection implementation types via default constructor
* BeanFactory supports ObjectFactory as a dependency type for @Autowired and @Value
* BeanFactory supports JSR-330 Provider interface as a dependency type for @Inject
* BeanFactory prefers local primary bean to primary bean in parent factory
* protected @Autowired method can be overridden with non-annotated method to suppress injection
* private @Autowired methods with same signature will be called individually across a hierarchy
* @PostConstruct processed top-down (base class first); @PreDestroy bottom-up (subclass first)
* ConfigurationClassPostProcessor detect @Bean methods on registered plain bean classes as well
* support for default "conversionService" bean in an ApplicationContext
* MBeanServerFactoryBean returns JDK 1.5 platform MBeanServer for agent id "" (empty String)
* changed NamedParameter/SimpleJdbcOperations parameter signatures to accept any Map value type 
* refined logging in JMS SingleConnectionFactory and DefaultMessageListenerContainer
* introduced "ui.format" package as an alternative to PropertyEditors for data binding
* @RequestMapping annotation now supported for annotated interfaces (and JDK proxies) as well
* @RequestParam and co support placeholders and expressions in their defaultValue attributes
* @Value expressions supported as MVC handler method arguments as well (against request scope)
* JSR-303 support for validation of @MVC handler method arguments driven by @Valid annotations
* refined response handling for @ExceptionHandler methods
* @ResponseStatus usage in handler methods detected by RedirectView
* all @SessionAttributes get exposed to the model before handler method execution
* @Event/ResourceMapping uniquely mapped to through event/resource id, even across controllers
* MultipartRequest is available as a mixin interface on (Native)WebRequest as well
* removed outdated "cacheJspExpressions" feature from ExpressionEvaluationUtils
* introduced common ErrorHandler strategy, supported by message listener container
* Jpa/JdoTransactionManager passes resolved timeout into Jpa/JdoDialect's beginTransaction
* HibernateJpaDialect applies timeout onto native Hibernate Transaction before begin call
* Spring's Hibernate support is now compatible with Hibernate 3.5 beta 1 as well
* Spring's JPA support is now fully compatible with JPA 2.0 as in EclipseLink 2.0.0.M7
* SpringJUnit4ClassRunner is now compatible with JUnit 4.5, 4.6, and 4.7
* SpringJUnit4ClassRunner once again supports collective timeouts for repeated tests
* deprecated @NotTransactional annotation for test classes in favor of @BeforeTransaction


Changes in version 3.0.0.M4 (2009-08-10)
----------------------------------------

* upgraded to JUnit 4.6, TestNG 5.9, and EasyMock 2.5.1
* updated all Spring Framework OSGI manifests to list unversioned imports explicitly
* relaxed several OSGi bundle dependencies (optional, extended version ranges)
* revised Java 6 checks to test for the presence of specific Java 6 interfaces/classes only
* replaced Commons Collections dependency with Spring-provided LinkedCaseInsensitiveMap
* case-insensitive Maps and key Sets preserve original casing for introspection/logging
* constructor argument type matching supports arrays and simple class names now
* XML constructor-arg element allows for specifying a constructor argument by name now
* XML import elements with relative resource patterns are supported as well now
* introduced non-lenient constructor resolution mode for BeanDefinitions (for RFC-124)
* revised DefaultListableBeanFactory's access control when running within a SecurityManager
* BeanWrapper and DefaultListableBeanFactory accept a custom ConversionService now
* DefaultListableBeanFactory references are serializable now when initialized with an id
* scoped proxies are serializable now, for web scopes as well as for singleton beans
* injected request/session references are serializable proxies for the current request now
* Servlet/Portlet ApplicationContexts use a specific id based on servlet/portlet name
* ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource correctly calculates filenames for all locales now
* @PostConstruct works for multiple private init methods of the same name in a hierarchy
* @Primary/@Lazy/@DependsOn supported as meta-annotations as well
* @Bean/@Scope etc supported as meta-annotations on factory methods as well now
* @Required does not get processed on beans returned by @Bean factory methods
* @Import detects and accepts existing configuration class of the desired type
* @Transactional supports qualifier value for choosing between multiple transaction managers
* WebSphereUowTransactionManager falls back to UOWManagerFactory lookup by default
* JMS SingleConnectionFactory performs start call within connection monitor (for Oracle AQ)
* @ManagedResource is marked as inherited now, for generic management-aware base classes
* introduced dedicated @ManagedMetric annotation for metric attributes in a JMX environment
* added task namespace with scheduler/executor configuration and scheduled task definitions
* added jdbc namespace with embedded-database tag (supporting HSQL, H2, and Derby)
* Hibernate AnnotationSessionFactoryBean detects Hibernate's special @Entity annotation too
* added SimpleJaxWsServiceExporter workaround for WebLogic 10.3's address format requirements
* added support for @WebServiceProvider annotation to Spring's JaxWsServiceExporters
* updated Hessian support for Hessian 3.2 compatibility (requiring Hessian 3.2 or above now)
* updated Tiles support for Tiles 2.1 compatibility (requiring Tiles 2.1.2 or above now)
* Velocity/FreeMarker/TilesViewResolver only returns a view if the target resource exists now
* @DirtiesContext is now supported at the test class level with configurable class modes
* added beforeTestClass() and afterTestClass() to the TestExecutionListener API
* ProfileValueUtils now enforces class-level overrides for @IfProfileValue
* @ContextConfiguration's loader attribute is now inherited if not declared locally
* TransactionalTestExecutionListener no longer flushes transactions before rolling back


Changes in version 3.0.0.M3 (2009-05-06)
----------------------------------------

* Spring 3.0 includes reference documentation now
* Spring 3.0 is shipping with proper Maven POMs now
* updated to JRuby 1.2 (remaining compatible with JRuby 1.1 and above)
* updated to Hessian 3.2.1 (remaining compatible with Hessian 3.1.3 and above)
* updated to FreeMarker 2.3.15 (for exposure of FreeMarkerServlet-style HTTP scopes)
* removed Axis 1.x support package, keeping basic JAX-RPC support only (next to JAX-WS)
* introduced explicit XML array element in spring-beans-3.0.xsd
* introduced new type conversion SPI and converter API in spring-core convert package
* introduced annotated @Bean factory methods and JavaConfig-style @Configuration classes
* introduced @Primary, @Lazy and @DependsOn annotations for scanned components
* custom stereotype annotations can be meta-annotated with @Service, @Controller etc as well
* @Scope and @Transactional are now supported as meta-annotations on custom annotations
* @Autowired uses field/parameter name as fallback qualifier value
* qualifier annotations can be used at method level as well (applying to all parameters)
* @Value annotation can be used at method level as well (e.g. on bean property setters)
* @Value values may use ${...} placeholders (driven by PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer)
* @Resource names may use ${...} placeholders (driven by PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer)
* fixed EL evaluation of prepared constructor arguments for repeated prototype creation
* ConstructorArgumentValues exposed indexed arguments in the order of definition
* AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor calculates cached arguments in a synchronized block
* declarative destroy-method="..." specifications get validated at bean creation time
* component-scan's "base-package" attribute supports spaces as separators as well
* CachedIntrospectionResults always caches bean classes except in case of custom BeanInfo
* GenericTypeResolver's type variable cache uses weak values (for OSGi compatibility)
* fixed CachingMapDecorator to support garbage-collected weak references (again)
* AOP ProxyFactory excludes non-public interfaces when autodetecting proxy interfaces
* added DuplicateKeyException to DAO exception hierachy 
* added EmbeddedDatabase support in spring-jdbc embedded package, with initial HSQL support
* SessionAwareMessageListener supports generic declaration of concrete JMS Message type
* RmiServiceExporter and RmiRegistryFactoryBean synchronize registry lookup/creation
* added "unregisterManagedResource" method to MBeanExporter/MBeanExportOperations
* TimerTaskExecutor creates non-daemon Timer and uses bean name as default Timer name
* added TaskScheduler interface and Trigger abstraction
* added ConcurrentTaskScheduler and ThreadPoolTaskScheduler
* added CommonJ TimerManagerTaskScheduler
* added CronTrigger implementation for cron expression support
* renamed "contextProperties" attribute to "contextParameters" (matching web.xml naming)
* "contextParameters" contains Servlet/PortletConfig parameters as well
* added default "servletContext" and "servletConfig" environment beans
* added default "portletContext" and "portletConfig" environment beans
* added default web scope "application", wrapping a ServletContext/PortletContext
* JSF FacesContext and ExternalContext are resolvable dependencies by default, if available
* FacesRequestAttributes (as used by RequestContextHolder) can access global Portlet session
* revised @RequestMapping semantics for REST support purposes
* request handler methods with @ModelAttribute annotation always return a model attribute
* introduced @ExceptionHandler annotation for used in annotated web controllers
* introduced ModelAndViewResolver SPI for custom handler method return types
* FreeMarkerView can be initialized with ServletContext only (e.g. for testing)
* MockPortletSession supports destruction of session attributes on invalidation
* completed upgrade of the TestContext Framework to JUnit 4.5
* SpringJUnit4ClassRunner subclasses can now override the default ContextLoader class
* added "value" alias for @ContextConfiguration's "locations" attribute


Changes in version 3.0.0.M2 (2009-02-25)
----------------------------------------

* revised expression parser API design
* added SimpleThreadScope implementation
* refined OSGi version constraints for "javax.annotation" and "junit.framework"
* "systemProperties" bean is not considered a default match for type Properties anymore
* SimpleAliasRegistry's "getAliases" method returns transitive aliases now
* SimpleAliasRegistry detects resolved aliases that loop back to the original name
* PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer does not modify Map in case of equal String keys
* improved NoClassDefFoundError handling during constructor resolution
* inner class names in Java source style ("java.lang.Thread.State") supported as well
* pre-converted property values are preserved more eagerly for re-created beans
* prototype beans receive independent collection/array even when based on single value
* registered plain singletons will be fully matched according to their qualifiers
* @Qualifier value matching takes chained aliases of target beans into account as well
* ASM-based AnnotationMetadata fully resolves class arguments and enums into Java types
* ProceedingJoinPoint resolves parameter names using ASM-based parameter name discovery
* MethodInvocations and ProceedingJoinPoints always expose original method (not bridge)
* bridge method resolution works with Hibernate-generated CGLIB proxies as well
* generic collection type resolution respects upper bound (e.g. ? extends Number) as well
* TypeUtils detects variations of ParameterizedType/GenericArrayType assignability as well
* ReflectionUtils findMethod detects methods on "java.lang.Object" as well
* UrlResource eagerly closes HTTP connections in case of "getInputStream()" failure
* PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver avoids NPE when initialized with null ClassLoader
* all "taskExecutor" bean properties now accept any "java.util.concurrent.Executor"
* added "Future submit(Runnable)" and "Future submit(Callable)" to AsyncTaskExecutor
* SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor supports a custom "java.util.concurrent.ThreadFactory"
* SchedulingTaskExecutor interface extends AsyncTaskExecutor now
* added ThreadPoolExecutorFactoryBean (exposing the native ExecutorService interface)
* added ExecutorServiceAdapter class as a standard wrapper for a Spring TaskExecutor
* reduced backport-concurrent support to TaskExecutor adapters
* added @Async annotation and AsyncAnnotationAdvisor (namespace support coming in M3)
* EJB 3.1's @Asynchronous annotation gets detected and supported by default as well
* ApplicationListener beans get obtained on demand, supporting non-singletons as well
* ApplicationListeners will be called in the order according to the Ordered contract
* generified ApplicationListener interface, narrowing the event type to be received
* introduced SmartApplicationListener interface for supported event/source types
* generified Transaction/Hibernate/Jdo/JpaCallback with generic "doInXxx" return type
* HibernateOperations uses generic parameter/return types where possible
* JdoOperations uses generic parameter/return types where possible (following JDO 2.1)
* removed "flush" operation from JdoDialect (fully relying on JDO 2.0+ compliance now)
* added JDO 2.1 compliant StandardPersistenceManagerProxy/SpringPersistenceManagerProxy
* Spring-created EntityManagers support JPA 2.0 draft API ("unwrap", "getQueryBuilder")
* Spring initiates JPA 2.0 query timeout with remaining Spring transaction timeout
* added support for WebSphere's ResourceAdapter-managed messaging transactions
* made SpringBeanAutowiringInterceptor callback signature compatible with WebSphere
* WebSphereUowTransactionManager preserves original exception in case of rollback
* added "flush()" method to TransactionStatus and TransactionSynchronization interfaces
* test context manager automatically flushes transactions before rolling back
* DefaultLobHandler uses explicit Blob/Clob access for reading when "wrapAsLob"=true
* fixed JmsException/JmsUtils to fully avoid NPEs in case of cause messages being null
* fixed MessageListenerAdapter's "getSubscriptionName()" to work without delegate as well
* fixed HTTP invoker to support resolution of multi-level primitive array classes again
* deprecated support for JMS 1.0.2 providers (JmsTemplate102 etc)
* introduced top-level HTTP support package "org.springframework.http"
* introduced RestTemplate facility in package "org.springframework.web.client"
* introduced OXM support package (originating from Spring Web Services)
* introduced OXM-based MarshallingMessageConverter for Spring JMS
* introduced OXM-based MarshallingView for Spring MVC
* refined @PathVariable handling in MVC handler methods
* updated Spring Portlet MVC infrastructure and mocks for Portlet API 2.0
* added resource and event methods to Portlet HandlerAdapter/HandlerInterceptor
* added resolveException method for resource requests to HandlerExceptionResolver
* introduced Resource/EventAwareController subinterfaces of Portlet Controller
* introduced @Action/@Render/@Resource/@EventMapping annotations for Portlet MVC
* added @RequestHeader support for Portlet MVC (based on Portlet request properties)
* introduced @CookieValue annotation for Servlet and Portlet MVC handler methods
* @RequestMapping type-level param constraints taken into account consistently
* optional boolean parameters in MVC handler methods resolve to "false" if not present
* "url" macro in "spring.ftl" performs standard Servlet URL encoding automatically


Changes in version 3.0.0.M1 (2008-12-05)
----------------------------------------

* revised project layout and build system (module-based sources, bundle repository)
* updated entire codebase for Java 5 code style (generics, varargs, StringBuilder)
* updated to JUnit 4.5 and JRuby 1.1
* removed WebLogic 8.1 and WebSphere 5.1 support
* removed native TopLink API support (superseded by JPA)
* removed Commons Attributes support (superseded by Java 5 annotations)
* removed Jakarta JSTL support for JSP 1.2 (superseded by JSP 2.0)
* removed outdated Struts 1.x Action delegation support
* removed ContextLoaderServlet and Log4jConfigServlet
* deprecated form controller hierarchy in favor of @MVC form object handling
* deprecated JUnit 3.8 test class hierarchy in favor of test context framework
* revised TaskExecutor interface to extend "java.util.concurrent.Executor" now
* introduced Spring EL parser in org.springframework.expression package
* introduced #{...} expression support in bean definitions
* introduced @Value annotation for embedded expression support
* introduced @PathVariable annotation for MVC handler methods
* introduced ShallowEtagHeaderFilter
* introduced AbstractAtomFeedView and AbstractRssFeedView
* introduced default value support for @RequestParam
* introduced @RequestHeader annotation for MVC handler methods
* introduced "spring:url" and "spring:param" JSP tags
