Summary
New features include annotation-based dependency injection, auto-detection of Spring components on the classpath via annotations, annotation support for lifecycle methods, a new web controller model for routing requests to annotated methods, a JUnit 4 and TestNG-based integration test framework, and additions to the Spring XML namespaces.

The Spring project released version 2.5 of the popular enterprise Java framework. New features include full support for Java 6, JDBC 4, JAX-WS-2.0, annotation-based dependency injection, auto-detection of components in the classpath, including the ability to automatically configure those components as Spring managed objects, new AOP features, and many enhancements in the Web tier.

Additional notable new features include:

• A new bean name pointcut element in AspectJ pointcut expressions
• Built-in support for AspectJ load-time weaving based on the LoadTimeWeaver abstraction
• New XML configuration namespaces "context" and "jms", for maximum convenience
• A completely revised integration test framework, with first-class support for JUnit 4 and TestNG
• A new annotation-based controller model for Spring MVC supporting Servlet and Portlet environments
• Extended SimpleJdbcTemplate functionality, including support for named SQL parameters
• Officially certified WebSphere support
• The packaging of Spring Framework jars as OSGi-compliant bundles out of the box
• The ability to deploy a Spring ApplicationContext as a JCA RAR file, for headless application modules
• JCA 1.5 message endpoint management, for Spring-managed JMS and CCI message listeners

What are your favorite new Spring 2.5 features?