Following are some new features of Spring 3.0 Framework as :
1 Java 5 Support: The core API of Spring 3.0 framework is using JDK
5, so JDK 5 or above is required to run Spring 3.0 based applications. The
Spring 3.0 framework provides annotation-based configuration support. JDK 5
features such as generics, annotations and varargs can used in Spring 3.0 Framework based applications. The Spring 3.0 framework is based on JDK 1.5 and
it fully supports JDK 6. The Spring 3.0 is fully compatible with the JEE1.4 and
EE5.
2 Expression language - Spring Expression Language (SpEL): In this
release of Spring framework Expression language support is present. The Spring
Expression Language can be used while defining the XML and Annotation based bean
definition.
3 Support for Comprehensive REST Webservices: Spring 3.0 framework
supports REST web services.
4 Java EE 6 Support: Spring 3.0 supports many features of JEE 6
such as JAP 2.0 and JSF 2.0.
5 Annotation based formatting support: Spring comes with Annotation
based formatting support. For example bean fields can be automatically formatted
and converted using different annotations. For example you can use the @DateFimeFormat(iso=ISO.DATE)
and @NumberFormat(style=Style.CURRENCY) annotations to convert the date and
currency formats.