Spring Core Fundamentals

Dependency Injection

• Understand what Spring is useful for and state what Spring Core is meant to do
• Write XML bean definition to inject values and collaborators via setters
• Write XML bean definition to inject dependencies via a constructor
• Cite the different autowiring modes and describe how they work

Annotation Support

• Declare new Spring beans using the @Component annotation
• Configure the applicationContext.xml file elements to make Spring scan packages looking for annotated beans
• Know where @Autowired can be used and which mode it uses.
• Inject beans into each other using the @Autowired annotation

Beans Lifecycle

• State the differences between singelton- and prototyped-scoped beans and how to create either type
• Describe when init & destroy methods are called and how to define them
• Understand the InitializingBean and DisposableBean interfaces usage, what methods they define and when they are called

Utility Classes

• State what PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer and PropertyOverrideConfigurer are useful for.
• Write correct PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer and PropertyOverrideConfigurer xml bean definitions
• Handle both single and multiple property files
• State what MessageSources are useful for
• Define MessageSources xml beans
• Know the difference between ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource and ResourceBundleMessageSource
• Handle/Build hierarchical MessageSources xml beans

Persistence Integration

• Know about Spring's JDBC facilities: JdbcTemplate and how to configure it.
• Know about Spring's JPA facilities and how to configure them.
• Be able to describe why you would use Spring to integrate your persistence layer.

AOP

• Describe the terms: joinpoint, pointcut, advice and aspect
• Understand how to use annotations to create aspects and advice and how to configure them
• Understand the pointcut expression syntax and what an expression will match

Transactions

• Describe each items of the ACID acronym: Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability
• Configure a transaction manager in the applicationContext.xml
• Demarcate transactions using the XML syntax.
• Activate annotation support for transactions
• Use the @Transactional annotation.