Understanding Spring Framework Modules and Maven Dependencies (Spring 3.2.17 and 4)

Many developers use Spring to build Java projects, but configuring Maven dependencies often becomes chaotic because the required JARs are not obvious. This guide shows exactly which Spring JARs are needed for a plain Java project and for a web project, using Spring 3.2.17.RELEASE as the reference version.

For a basic Java application you only need the

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.17.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

snippet.

To add Spring MVC in a web project, a single dependency is sufficient:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.17.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

The reason these minimal configurations work is that Spring’s JARs are organized into five logical parts: core, AOP, data access, web, and test. The official Spring 3 diagram (shown below) illustrates this structure.

core

The core part consists of four modules:

spring-core – basic IoC and DI implementation

spring-beans – bean factory and bean wiring

spring-context – the IoC container

spring-expression – Spring Expression Language

All core modules depend on spring-core, which in turn depends on commons-logging. If you provide your own logging implementation (e.g., Log4j), you can exclude the default commons-logging dependency as shown:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.17.RELEASE</version>
    <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
    </exclusions>
</dependency>

aop

The AOP part contains four modules:

spring-aop – aspect‑oriented programming support

spring-aspects – integration with AspectJ

spring-instrument – class‑level utilities and ClassLoader support

spring-instrument-tomcat – Tomcat‑specific instrumentation

data access

The data‑access part includes five modules:

spring-jdbc – JDBC support

spring-tx – transaction management

spring-orm – ORM integration

spring-oxm – object‑XML mapping

spring-jms – Java Message Service support

web

The web part consists of four modules:

spring-web – basic web utilities (e.g., file upload)

spring-webmvc – MVC implementation

spring-webmvc-portlet – Portlet‑based MVC

spring-struts – integration with Struts (deprecated in Spring 4)

test

The test part contains two modules, with spring-context-support also placed here:

spring-test – JUnit and mock testing support

spring-context-support – additional utilities such as mail service and view resolvers

With these diagrams, configuring Spring dependencies in Maven should no longer be confusing.

Spring 4 retains the same overall structure but removes the Struts integration and adds two new modules: spring-websocket (efficient communication for web apps) and spring-messaging (message‑driven applications). The Spring 4 diagram and its dependency graph are shown below.

Original source: www.cnblogs.com/ywlaker/p/6136625.html

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