Spring framework’s core features are around dependency injection and beans lifecycle management. What this means is that programmers don’t write code to inject bean definitions. Instead Spring framework injects the dependency to beans. Spring framework container manages this with the help of XML configuration files and Java reflection. Developers have to write code for the Java beans and create XML files for injecting dependencies in the beans. You can read more about it here - http://itsitspace.blogspot.com/2011/02/bean-definitions-for-spring-framework.html

quite a bizarre post, even if this was 2004 there'd only just be some information value

I agree with Matt - seems that there is no more moderation happening here and whatever is submitted will be published?

Yeh, please provide information of some value, esp. if the post is going to show up on the home page..

And I thought it was somewhat nostalgic to think, with all the stuff Spring does these days, that it also manages bean definitions. Remember when it was just a heretical book.

Good times.

While we appreciate the enthusiasm for the Spring framework, I wanted to take this opportunity to point people to some of the newer content on the Spring framework, and on configuration using Spring. Generally, blog.SpringSource.org is a great place to get new information. In particular, we have two series of posts right now that people might find helpful. The first series is called "Green Beans," which introduces many of the core concepts and technologies. There are posts on everything from configuration (for that one in particular, see http://blog.springsource.com/2010/11/09/green-beans-putting-the-spring-in-your-step-and-application/), service tiers, messaging, MVC, integration, etc: http://blog.springsource.com/category/green-beans/. The second series is on the recently announced Spring 3.1 M1 release, and introduces many of the key new features in the upcoming Spring framework 3.1, including some of the new configuration options: http://blog.springsource.com/category/spring/31/. 

Thanks Joshua for the link about Spring 3.1! The context configuration is a refreshing feature - although I am a bit envious, because I've just blogged about how I did this bootstrapping until recently:

http://www.drillio.com/en/software-development/spring/context-bootstrapping-with-different-environment-configurations/

Anyway, I hope it will help the folks still on 3.0 or 2.5.