Course Description:

Fast Track to Spring 3 and Spring MVC / Web Flow

Spring is a lightweight Java framework for building enterprise applications. Its Core module allows you to manage the lifecycle of your objects and the dependencies between them via configuration metadata (either XML or annotations) and Dependency Injection / Inversion of Control. Its advanced capabilities provide support for JDBC and persistence frameworks like Hibernate (DAO and ORM modules), Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP module), integration with Java Web technologies (MVC and Web Flow), security, transactions, and more.

This course is a new course based on the Spring 3 release. It includes complete coverage of the annotation based approach to configuration and the use of Java-5 capabilities that was first introduced in Spring 2.x, and which has been greatly enhanced in Spring 3. It also provides coverage of the traditional XML-based configuration that can still play an important role in existing and new projects.

The course starts with the basics of Spring and in-depth coverage on using the powerful capabilities of the Core module to reduce coupling, and increase the flexibility, ease of maintenance, and testing of your applications. It goes on to cover all the important capabilities of Spring 3, including using Spring to simplify the creation of a persistence layer with JDBC and/or persistence frameworks like Hibernate and JPA. It includes coverage of advanced capabilities such as using Spring's Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) to program cross-cutting concerns such as transactions and security. This includes an introduction to Spring Security v3, its architecture, and how to use it to secure both Web application requests and bean invocations

The course includes integration of Spring with Java EE Web applications, an introduction to Spring's Web MVC, and thorough coverage of Spring Web Flow 2 (which is still the latest version available). Spring MVC is a Web framework based on the powerful Model-View-Controller pattern, and the intoduction covers the basics of Spring MVC, and how it supports organizing your Web applications in a highly structured, loosely coupled manner. Spring Web Flow 2 is a Spring framework for defining user interface flow in a Web applicaiton. The course includes thorough coverage of Web Flow, including an overview of its capabilities and architecture, defning flows, flow variables and actions, the Unified EL, and flow programming. Note that Spring Web Flow 3, which will use annotation-based configuration, is still in a very early development stage.

This course is hands on with labs to reinforce all the important concepts. It will enable you to build working Spring applications, and give you an understanding of the important concepts and technology in a very short time.

The standard platform does all labs with the Eclipse IDE, and the lab instructions include detailed directions for setting up and using it. The course is available for all major development environments, including IBM RAD and IntelliJ.

Course Information

Duration: 5 days

Hands-on: 50% hands-on, 50% lecture

Supported Platforms: Spring 3, SWF 2, Tomcat/Eclipse, IBM RAD/WAS, IntelliJ, Weblogic AS, GlassFish AS

Skills Gained:

Understand the core principles of Spring, and of Dependency Injection (DI)/Inversion of Control
Use the Spring Core module and DI to configure and wire application objects (beans) together
Understand and use the complete capabilities of the Core module, such as lifecycle events, bean scopes, and the Spring API
Work with the DAO and/or ORM modules to create a well structured persistence layer with JDBC
Use Springs Data Integration with JDBC and technologies such as Hibernate or JPA.
Understand and use Spring's powerful new AOP capabilities for programming cross-cutting concerns across multiple points in an application
Understand and use Spring's transaction support, including its easy to use tx/aop XML configuration elements and Java 5 annotations
Integrate Spring with Java EE Web applications
Understand how Spring MVC works using the new @Controller model, and use it to build basic Web applications
Understand the basics of Spring Security, and how to secure Web apps and Spring managed beans with it
Understand and use Spring Web Flow 2 to define complex user interface flow in Web applications.

Course Details:

Session 1: Introduction

Overview of Spring Technology
- Shortcomings of Java EE, Spring Architecture
Spring Introduction
- Managing Beans, The Spring Container, IoC, DI
- Configuration Metadata - XML, @Component, Auto-Detecting Beans
Dependencies and Dependency Injection (DI)
- Dependency Inversion, Dependency Injection (DI) in Spring, DI Configuration - XML, @Resource

Session 2: More about Bean Properties

Working with Properties
- Configuring Value Properties, Property Conversions, Setter / Constructor Injection
Spring Expression Language for Configuration
Collection Valued Properties
- Configuring and using lists, sets, etc.
Additional Capabilities
- Factory Methods, Bean Aliases, Definition Inheritance (Parent Beans)

Session 3: The Spring Container and API

ApplicationContext
- ClassPathXmlApplicationContext, FileSystemXmlApplicationContext, Constructors, Usage
Resource Access - Overview, Resource Implementations
Validation
- Overview, JSR-303
- Declarative Validation, @NotNull, @Size, @Min, etc
- Configuration, Injection
Bean Scope and Lifecycle
- Bean Scope Defined, Configuring, Inner Beans, Bean Creation Lifecycle, Lifecycle Callbacks, BeanPostProcessor, Event Handling
MessageSources
- Defining and Using Resource Bundles, Localization/I18N
Annotation Driven Configuration
- Stereotypes: @Component, @Service, @Controller, @Repository
- Java EE 5 Annotation Support
- Defining Custom Annotations
- Autowiring
  - @Autowired on setters, constructures, methods, fields
  - Injecting resources like ApplicationContext
  - Fine tuning with @Qualifier
Java Based Bean Metadata (JavaConfig)
- Overview - code-centric Configuration
- @Confguration, @Bean, and @Value
- Importing and @Import
- Autowiring in Configuration Classes
- Mixing XML Configuraiton and @Configuration
- XML vs Annotation Based Configuration
Other Capabilities
- SpEL - Spring Expression LanguageValidation

Session 4: Database Access with Spring

Issues with JDBC / Typical JDBC Flow
Introduction to Spring DAO Support
- Spring Database API, (Simple)JdbcTemplate, (Simple)JdbcDaoSupport, DataSources,
- Working With and Configuring, <list>, <set>, With Bean Refs, <map>, <props>
Queries and Inserts
- RowMapper, ParameterizedRowMapper, Passing Arguments, queryForObject, query, update
Additional API Capabilities
- Additional query methods, Passing Type Arguments, queryForList, FetchSize, MaxRows
Using Spring with Hibernate
- Overview of Template Approach, SessionFactory configuration
- Using Contextual Sessions
Using Spring with JPA
- LocalEntityManagerFactoryBean, LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean, JNDI, PersistenceUnitManager
- DAO Support - @PersistenceUnit, @PersistenceContext

Session 5: Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP)

Overview of AOP
- AOP Basics, Aspect, Joinpoint, Advice, Pointcut
Introduction to Spring AOP
- Capabilities, Configuration (Annotation Based and XML), Weaving, Joinpoints
Using Aspects
- Defining Advice, Configuring Pointcuts, Targets and Proxies
- XML Configuration with <aop:>
- AspectJ Pointcuts, Autoproxies
Using @AspectJ Annotations
- @AspectJ Annotations, Declaring Advice

Session 6: Spring Transaction (TX) Management

Intro to Spring Transaction Management
- Overview, Component TX Model, TX Propagation, Declarative Transactions, TransactionManagers
Using Spring Transactions
Annotation Configured Transactions
- @Transactional and its settings
XML Configured Transactions
- new <tx:*> elements, Configuring tx:advice, and tx:attributes
- Defining the TX advisor

Session 7: Introduction to Spring Web Integration and Spring MVC

Integrating Spring with Java EE Web Apps, ContextLoaderListener, WebApplicationContext
Spring Web MVC Overview, Capabilities, Architecture
Spring MVC Basics
- DispatcherServlet, Configuration, mvc Namespace
- Controllers, @Controller, Handler Methods
- @RequestParam and Parameter Binding
- View Resolvers
- Writing Controllers, @Controller, @RequestMapping, @RequestParam, @PathVariable
- Forms and Binding, Spring Form Tags, @ModelAttribute
- Session Attributes, @SessionAttributes

Session 8: Overview of Spring Security

Overview - Capabilities, Architecture
Introduction to Spring Security
- HTTP Security
- Method Security
- Annotation-Based Security
- Expression-Based Access Control
Authentication Providers

Session 9: Introduction to Spring Web Flow 2

Overview - Need for Flow, Capabilities, Architecture
Defining Flows
- XML Flow Definition Language
- Flows, States, and Transitions
- Accesing Flows in Web Pages
- Exiting Flows - flowRedirect and externalRedirect
Configuring Web Flow - Flow Executor, Flow Registry, Integration with Spring MVC
Working with Data - Flow Instance Variables, Flow Inputs
View Pages and Model Binding
Flow Actions - evaluate, set, and render

Session 10: More on Spring Web Flow 2

Using the Spring Expression Language (SpEL) with Web Flow
- Syntax and Expressions
- Implicit Objects
- Flow Control
Using Data Scopes - Request, Flash, View, Flow, Conversation, and Session Scope
POST-REDIRECT-GET Idiom
Flow Language Elements
- More on States, Actions, and Other Elements
- Routing with action-state and decision-state

Session 11: Programming with Spring Web Flow 2

Creating Custom Actions
- POJO Based Actions vs the Action interface
- RequestContext and ExternalContext
Validation and Error Reporting
- Defining Validation in the Model and in a Validator Class
- ValidationContext, MessageContext, and Resource Bundles
Converters
Subflows
- Defining and Using
- Input/Output Variables
- Conversation Scope Variables
- Subflow End States