Following up on my Spring Framework 4 webinar last week, I'd like to share the Spring Framework 4.1 plan introduced there. We have a few key themes that are being prepared towards 4.1, for a timely GA delivery in August 2014, with a 4.1 RC to appear in June:

Comprehensive web resource handling - resource pipelining, cache control refinements
Caching support revisited - aligned with JCache 1.0 final, user-requested enhancements
JMS support overhaul - aligned with our messaging module, annotation-driven endpoints
Performance improvements - application startup, SpEL expression evaluation

These themes are largely driven by our general Spring Framework 4 vision and turn out to be a good fit for this rather early 4.1 iteration. There are many specific features planned in the details, and I'm sure we are going to see fresh proposals that we'll still be considering.

Note that the Spring Framework 4.1 release is date-driven with its delivery in August. Features that won't make 4.1 will be considered for 4.2, scheduled for delivery in Q2 2015.

Also, a quick reminder that we have a Spring Framework 4.0.1 & 3.2.7 double-pack coming up next week: This is your chance to submit last-minute issues in time for those releases; we promise to consider them if still feasible. If you have older issue reports in JIRA, feel free to raise attention through comments, clarifying whether they are still relevant to you.

Note that the 3.2.x line is in maintenance mode already, so 3.2.7 will primarily fix bugs and regressions, next to fine-tuning its Quartz and EhCache support. That said, for 4.0.1, we are quite flexible still - and in particular open to pragmatically revisiting 4.0 feature details.

Check out our JIRA version roadmap at https://jira.springsource.org/browse/SPR#selectedTab=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.project%3Aroadmap-panel for all the associated issues, and let us know what you think...

Juergen

P.S.: In case you missed last week's webinar, there is a repeat planned for the day of the 4.0.1 release - Thursday, January 23rd. Stay tuned for the official announcement!