There really isn’t anything too difficult about learning Spring. Spring, at its core, is a very simple and easy to learn “Inversion of Control” (IoC) container, and I’m going to show you just how easy it is to learn. But before you can learn how to leverage the benefits of a Spring IoC container, you have to have an environment setup that will allow you to write, test, compile and run some Spring-based code. And then, after you've done that, well, you've then got to actually go ahead and write and test that code.

At TheServerSide.com, we've put together a few great tutorials that will help get you started with Spring 3.0. Here's the first one:

Spring 3: Configuring the Development Environment

The tutorial itself is as simple and straight-forward as it gets, which is exactly what you need when you're learning something new. And just to make life even easier, I put together a little video tutorial that lets you follow me through all of the steps that are listed in the lesson above:

Video Tutorial on Configuring a Spring 3 Environment

Now, once you've got your environment set up, you're going to be antsy to start hacking out some code. That's where the second tutorial comes in:

An Introduction to Spring 3 IoC: With and Without XML

More and more people are interested in writing Spring applications without having to use those massive, unruly, XML configuration files. This tutorial demonstrates how to get Spring to spit back instances of your JavaBeans, both by using annotations without XML, and by using Spring XML configuration files too. It's a great way to compare the two approaches to performing Inversion of Control (IoC) with Spring.

I also put together a CBT covering this lesson as well:

Video Tutorial: An Introduction to IoC with Spring 3, Annotations and XML

So, if you're interested in learning the latest edition of Spring, then this is definitely the place to get started. And yes, these are just introductory tutorials. There are more coming, so stay tuned.

Recommended Books for Learning Spring

Spring in Action  ~ Craig Walls
Spring Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach  ~ Gary Mak
Professional Java Development with the Spring Framework ~ Rod Johnson PhD
Pro Java EE Spring Patterns: Best Practices and Design Strategies ~ Dhrubojyoti Kayal

Thanks for the Videos and Tutorials.

Looking forward for more indetail webcasts.

Thanks again.

There's alot more to come. More big comparisons between Spring with XML and Spring without XML, as far as configuring the container for IoC goes. Then it's on to Dependency Injection, which goes hand in hand with Inversion of Control, and then off to working with JSF, working with Spring Web Flow, and of course, doing data persistence, bit it JDBC or JPA or Hibernate with Spring.

I'm pretty sure this is going to become a very popular series.

Hello Mr. McKenzie,

I like this idea.  Spring is a very popular framework, and it's good to see a cohesive tutorial being put together that highlights how to get up to speed with it on TSS.

 

I also like the lineup of the coming tutorials as well.

 

As I have mentioned on a couple occasions before, it's nice to have a popular, mature Java web stack that's an alternative to Java EE.

And please, for all those who might read into what I have said in the last paragraph as taking a cheap shot at Java EE, I am a Java EE developer.  I also love Java EE.

 

Peace.

We'll see a few tutorials on Spring 3 and EJB 2.x and EJB 3. We'll certainly see Spring with JPA 2, which is essentially the EJB 3 "Entity Bean" replacement.

Of course, this is all going to lead into JBoss Seam, which will then bring together Java EE 6, JSF, JPA, EJB 3.x AND Spring in a way that will blow your mind.

 

Oh, and every time I post another article that says either IBM or WebSphere, I get nothing but backlash. So, just to ensure the TSS readership rolls their eyes one more time, I've asked technical trainer Sal Pece to write an article about deploying a Spring Portlet to WebSphere Portal Server 7.  

Of course, this is all going to lead into JBoss Seam, which will then bring together Java EE 6, JSF, JPA, EJB 3.x AND Spring in a way that will blow your mind. That's what I'm waiting for. Do you have a time line for it that I can put in my calendar?

That's funny, because the Editorial Director has been hounding me for that exact same thing.

Is it Seam you are looking for, or is it simply the EJB/JSF/Spring stuff? Seam3 comes out in a month or two, so the Seam tutorials were going to be synchronized with all of the hoopla that would go along with that.

Yes, it's Seam3 I'm looking for. Right now there are only 3 Seam3 modules on the download page and they are in alphaX or beta phase. I doubt that Seam3 will be fully completed in 1 or 2 months. What I want to learn most is the Seam3 security module.

They're talking about a release candidate in mid July. I plan on doing lots of coverage in and around then.

http://relation.to/Bloggers/TheTimelineForSeam3

When I was aiming for angajare videochat iasi , I ahd to know at least the basics of Spring3 inorder to get the job. The video tutorials you have poisted got me the head start I needed for my first interview. Later, I got to learn it well and now I have a permanent job. Such tutorials really help people.

Please update your Spring annotation tutorial to use @Inject (javax.inject) standard as defined in JSR-330, which Spring supports. Thank you.

I bet you went around to those big lineups for Return of the Jedi telling everyone that Vader was Luke's father, right??? Well, thanks for ruining the surprise with regards to the upcoming tutorials. Almost makes me not want to post them anymore. :(

This first tutorial just does the simplest IoC ever, and some might even say it's not really IoC without some form of dependency injection, and there's absolutely no dependencies at all in this example yet, let alone any dependency to inject. We're going to look at a few other ways to do simple IoC, like compare setting properties on a constructor with XML vs. Annotations, and things like that, but we will be getting into DI, and demonstrating both Autowiring and @Inject. Clearly, great minds think alike.

 

This is a wonderful tutorial. It's after an year, but you can't blame my age. Really nice Mike..

This is smart. Videos are clearly the easiest way for people to learn. Tutorials are quickly becoming the most searched thing on You Tube. Watch the trends, they speak volumes!

 

Rachel | <a href="http://www.webtrends.com/Products/Analytics/Facebook.aspx">Facebook Analytics</a> Expert

This is smart. Videos are clearly the easiest way for people to learn. Tutorials are quickly becoming the most searched thing on You Tube. Watch the trends, they speak volumes!

 

Rachel | Facebook Analytics Expert

Thank you for the post. The video clears a lot of confusion during startup's. It will be great? if you can add some video on integrating Hibernate with Spring. Thanks a lot.

Certainly! It was not hard learning Spring 3 especially with the aide of these videos and tutorials. The information are still traveling in my mind right now and I am digesting it slowly. Thanks for the article. Real help!

That was a great tutorial and videos on Spring 3. I was waiting for just such a guide which would be easy to understand and with everything explained in such simple language now it’ll be easy for me to have some fun with it!! Hope we get more interesting tutorials like this!!