In the previous section, we discussed how the first version of Spring brought a breath of fresh air to the Java EE world. In this section, let's look at how Spring evolved with the next versions of the Spring Framework.

An important thing Spring brings in is the umbrella of Spring Projects. While the Spring Framework provides the base for core features of enterprise applications (DI, web, and data), other Spring Projects explore integration and solutions to other problems in the enterprise space. Spring Projects helped Spring to stay ahead of the game by allowing innovation outside the core Spring Framework. We will discuss the important Spring Projects in a separate section in this chapter. 

As we move toward the last few years of the 2000 decade, enterprise applications started moving toward web services—initially SOAP Web Services and, by the end of the decade, toward RESTful web services.

Spring continued to evolve as follows:

• Introduced a Spring Project called Spring Web Services—to help the development of contract-first SOAP web services
• Enhanced the Spring MVC Module with excellent support for REST web services