Pro Spring MVC: With Web Flow

Pro Spring MVC provides in-depth coverage of Spring MVC and Spring Web Flow, two highly customizable and powerful web frameworks brought to you by the developers and community of the Spring Framework.

Spring MVC is a modern web application framework built upon the Spring Framework, and Spring Web Flow is a project that complements Spring MVC for building reusable web controller modules that encapsulate rich page navigation rules. Along with detailed analysis of the code and functionality, plus the first published coverage of Spring Web Flow 2.x, this book includes numerous tips and tricks to help you get the most out of Spring MVC, Spring Web Flow, and web development in general.

Spring MVC and Spring Web Flow have been upgraded in the new Spring Framework 3.1 and are engineered with important considerations for design patterns and expert object-oriented programming techniques. This book explains not only the design decisions of the frameworks, but also how you can apply similar designs and techniques to your own code.

This book takes great care in covering every inch of Spring MVC and Spring Web Flow to give you the complete picture. Along with all the best known features of these frameworks, you’ll discover some new hidden treasures. You’ll also learn how to correctly and safely extend the frameworks to create customized solutions. This book is for anyone who wishes to write robust, modern, and useful web applications with the Spring Framework.

What you’ll learn

• Key Spring Framework fundamentals
• How to use the Spring MVC architecture
• How to develop with the DispatcherServlet
• How to write Controllers
• How to work with Resolving and Implementing Views
• What are the supported View Types
• How to customize your website
• What is and how to use the Spring Web Flow framework
• How to test your Spring MVC applications
• How to implement Spring Security

Who this book is for

This book is for Spring or Java EE application developers who want to learn and fully leverage Spring's Web-tier creator and framework, Spring MVC. This book is also for experienced enterprise and Java programmers who are new to the Spring Framework.

About the Authors

Colin Yates is a J2EE principal architect who specializes in web-based development. He has been a freelance consultant for the past three years and has worked in a number of environments, both structured and chaotic. Since graduating with a software engineering degree in 1997, he has held a number of positions, including development lead, principal systems engineer, mentor, and professional trainer. His principal skill set includes mentoring others, architecting complex problems into manageable solutions, and optimizing development processes.

Colin was first introduced to the Spring Framework in January 2003 by his mentors, Peter Den Haan and David Hewitt, and he has never looked back. After a couple of years using the Spring and Hibernate technology stack to good effect, in May 2005 he became one of the early adopters of Spring Web Flow, finally finding the missing item in the web development toolbox. A self-confessed addict of the green bar that comes from following test-driven development and XP, Colin regularly frustrates new team members by introducing a continuous build environment.

Seth Ladd is a software engineer and professional Spring Framework trainer and mentor specializing in object-oriented and testable web applications. He started his own company building websites at age 17, but now enjoys having a real job. Currently working for Camber Corporation, Seth has built and deployed systems for NEC, Rochester Institute of Technology, Brivo Systems, and National Information Consortium. He has architected and developed enterprise applications in Java and C for both the server and remotely connected embedded devices. He enjoys speaking and teaching, and is a frequent presenter at local Java user groups and at corporate developer conferences.

Marten Deinum is a Java/software consultant working for Conspect. He has developed and architected software, primarily in Java, for small and large companies. He is an enthusiastic open source user and longtime fan, user and advocate of the Spring Framework. He has held a number of positions including Software Engineer, Development Lead, Coach, and also as a Java and Spring Trainer.

Koen Serneels is a Senior JAVA software engineer with several IBM, CISCO, and Oracle certifications. For more than 10 years he has developed enterprise solutions using Java(EE), Spring, Spring MVC, Web Flow, JSF, and Hibernate. He holds a keen interest in system architecture and integration, data modeling, relational databases, security and networks. Beginning his career with the Belgian federal government, Koen developed highly transactional Java-based applications with legacy integration. Currently, he is employed by Hewlett-Packard and is a Java software consultant and technical lead for the Flemish government in Belgium. He also teaches a graduate course on “Software Development with Java” at the Groep T Engineering School in Leuven, Belgium.