Release candidate 1 (RC1) of the Spring Framework 3.2 has arrived courtesy of VMware's SpringSource division. Increasing in popularity as it is, this iteration of the Java-based application framework features support for the HTTP PATCH method and custom injection annotations. There is now a gateway to enable loading WebApplicationContexts in the TextContext framework and all of these new features will be included in the Spring MVC Test project.

Spring Framework cofounder and current project lead Juergen Hoeller describes this generation of the core Spring framework as a "straightforward next step" after last year's Spring Framework 3.1 and the developments it offered at that time.

Other new features in Spring Framework 3.2 include a new Gradle-based framework build designed to make it easier to contribute to the Spring Framework project on GitHub. Also here is an inlined CGLIB 3.0 and ASM 4.0, fully supporting Java 7 byte code and making CGLIB-based functionality available "without explicit declaration" of a CGLIB dependency.

The team has also worked to feature the inclusion of the formerly standalone Spring MVC Test project. This, says Hoeller, allows for "first-class testing" of Spring MVC applications. There is also early support for JCache 0.5 (JSR-107) as a backend for Spring's cache abstraction.

"We are working towards the 3.2 GA release now, with a further release candidate based on community feedback as well as remaining refinements on our side — coming in late November," blogged Hoeller. "We've received many pull requests in the course of the milestone phase already, so keep them coming on the way to GA (and beyond)!" he enthused.