Java Developer Magazine on Ulitzer

VMware's recent SpringSource acquisition, the Java widgetry folk, is moving to Spring 3.0, a major release of its vaunted Java development framework for building web and service-based applications.

It announced a feature-complete release candidate Monday and expects to go to GA soon.

The new release is supposed to make enterprise Java simpler; it includes full REST support as well as streamlined configuration of Spring beans and a new expression language.

The Eclipse-based SpringSource Tool Suite has also been updated.

The widgetry includes SpringSource tc Server Developer Edition, a freebie 100% Tomcat-compatible commercial platform that's supposed to improve the performance of Spring apps by giving developers debugging information and deep visibility into the performance characteristics and execution details of their applications.

A key component in the thing is the Spring Insight console, a graphical dashboard view of real-time Spring application performance metrics such as response time charts and histograms. Developers can detect, analyze and diagnose application performance issues from their desktop.

The server, based on the enterprise version of Tomcat, is integrated with the Eclipse SpringSource Tool Suite, which offers more understanding of how applications are functioning.