SpringSource Brings Spring Framework to Android with Spring for Android 1.0

by Bienvenido David III on Jun 19, 2012 |

SpringSource has released Spring for Android 1.0. Spring for Android is an extension of the Spring Framework that helps simplify the development of native Android applications. This release features a REST client (RestTemplate) and OAuth support (Spring Social).

The first feature of Spring for Android 1.0 is the REST client. You can now use the Spring RestTemplate abstraction to consume RESTful services within your native Android application. Based on Google's recommendations, RestTemplate uses the J2SE HTTP client libraries for Android 2.3+, and HttpClient for Android 2.2 and below. It supports different HTTP Message Converters, and uses Jackson or Gson for JSON marshalling, Simple XML Serializer for XML marshalling, and Android ROME for RSS/Atom marshalling. RestTemplate also supports gzip compression. Here's a basic example of RestTemplate taken from the Spring for Android reference manual, which queries Google for the search term "SpringSource".

	String url = "https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/web?v=1.0&q={query}";
	RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
	restTemplate.getMessageConverters().add(new StringHttpMessageConverter());
	String result = restTemplate.getForObject(url, String.class, "SpringSource");

The other major feature of Spring for Android 1.0 is Spring Social support. You now have the ability to use Spring Social in your Android applications, which includes an OAuth client and implementations of popular social websites like Twitter and Facebook. This release provides OAuth 1.x and 2.0 support, and includes a SQLite repository, and Android compatible Spring Security encryption.

Developers familiar with the Spring Framework will naturally expect Dependency Injection to be part of Spring for Android. However, due to the way Android drives the application lifecycle using Intents, the way Dependency Injection can be implemented is limited. Please read Clean Code in Android Applications for more information on Dependency Injection options in Android.

For more information, please read the Spring for Android Reference Manual. Spring for Android examples are available at GitHub. To get started, you can download the release distribution, or add the Maven dependencies.

	<dependency>
		<groupId>org.springframework.android</groupId>
		<artifactId>spring-android-rest-template</artifactId>
		<version>1.0.0.RELEASE</version>
	</dependency>

	<dependency>
		<groupId>org.springframework.android</groupId>
		<artifactId>spring-android-auth</artifactId>
		<version>${spring-android-version}</version>
	</dependency>

Be sure to read Maven Dependency Management to utilize Maven's dependency management capabilities within an Android application.

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Community comments

Spring Android framework by Naresh Chintalcheru Posted

Is that even a good idea? by peter lin Posted

Re: Is that even a good idea? by Jonathan Allen Posted

Re: Is that even a good idea? by peter lin Posted

Summer is here! by C Curl Posted

negative comments?..interesting... by Jeryl Cook Posted

Spring Android framework by Naresh Chintalcheru

Limited functionality, like to see this framework evolve.

Is that even a good idea? by peter lin

Let me get this straight. Mobile devices need to be efficient and use a little memory as necessary. So the solution is to put spring on it? Shouldn't a server handle all these types of social networking operations? Why bog down a mobile device?

Is this all part of Spring's plans for world domination?

Summer is here! by C Curl

like the article says, just use j2se http libraries with jackson/json. No point in taking in the sugar coated bloatware in spring just to save handful of lines of code.

Re: Is that even a good idea? by Jonathan Allen

It's a horrible idea on the server, let alone a mobile device. But as smart phone CPUs continue to improve, we're probably going to see a lot more poeple trying to get away with this kind of thing.

Re: Is that even a good idea? by peter lin

It's a horrible idea on the server, let alone a mobile device. But as smart phone CPUs continue to improve, we're probably going to see a lot more poeple trying to get away with this kind of thing.

I agree it's horrible either way. Of course, people will still do it. Then again, I'm not a fan of social networking websites, or using Spring from first hand experience.

negative comments?..interesting... by Jeryl Cook

Spring is bloatware???, Spring should only be used on server???

Sounds like some posters need to read on what the Spring framework is suppose to solve first.

Spring Application Framework is simply implements Inversion of Control, and dependency injection, you...which by itself is very light pattern...in this Android release it "Injects" Httpclient, used via RestTemplate..., which one uses anyway when making HTTP client calls...

light reading:
martinfowler.com/articles/injection.html