Spring in Action, Third Edition has been completely revised to reflect the latest features, tools, practices Spring offers to java developers. It begins by introducing the core concepts of Spring and then quickly launches into a hands-on exploration of the framework. Combining short code snippets and an ongoing example developed throughout the book, it shows you how to build simple and efficient J2EE applications. The revised Third Edition explores the core Spring Framework issues, as well as the latest updates to other Spring portfolio projects such as Spring WebFlow and Spring Security. The result is a book that's both broader and deeper than previous editions. You'll learn the full range of new features available with Spring 4, including: More annotation-oriented options to reduce the amount of XML configuration Full-featured support for REST A new Spring Expression Language (SpEL) that makes short work of wiring complex values. Examples that illustrate the current best practices developed in the Spring community. This book assumes that you know your way around Java, but no previous experience with Spring is required.