SpringSource Updates STS Tool Suite

SpringSource on March 17 announced the release of SpringSource Tool Suite 2.0, a "comprehensive environment for building Spring-powered Java applications."

Shaun Connolly, vice president of product management for SpringSource, said, "STS 2.0 introduces new features and enhancements, including Project Creation Wizards, a rich forms-based Spring Configuration Editor, Spring Configuration Auto-Discovery, Quick Fixes and Quick Assist, Bean Creation Wizards, Namespace Configuration Dialog, and many other visual tools."

Christian Dupuis, a senior software engineer at SpringSource, said, "Developers rely on STS as an Eclipse-based platform that speeds development, dictates best practices and assists with solving run-time problems while creating applications." The enhancements in STS 2.0 are designed to help make developers more efficient at creating applications and to establish STS as the primary tools environment for building enterprise Spring applications, the company said in a news release.

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"Businesses are aggressively looking for ways to increase productivity and decrease cost and complexity across the application life cycle," Connolly said. "SpringSource Tool Suite provides high-productivity tools for building Spring applications that run on application server platforms from SpringSource, IBM, Oracle and JBoss. STS also leads the charge with tools that target lean run-time environments that promote modularity such as the OSGi-based SpringSource dm Server."

Also included in STS 2.0 are "new tools that help visualize, package and deploy truly modular applications onto SpringSource dm Server—the industry's only application server built from the ground up to support OSGi [Open Services Gateway Initiative]-based applications. STS 2.0 provides an OSGi console, graphical bundle overview page, visual dependency graph, and the ability to test dependencies and specify bundle deployment order," SpringSource said in the release.

Connolly said, "STS 2.0 is a key element in SpringSource's product line," which overall is "designed to remove complexity, increase productivity and quality, and accelerate the application life cycle." Moreover, "SpringSource's software is 'lean,' providing the right balance of simplicity and power that developers require," Connolly said. The company said in its release:

STS 2.0 is available for free download as a 90-day evaluation. Unlimited access and use of STS 2.0 is included for every SpringSource Enterprise, SpringSource dm Server, and SpringSource tc Server customer.