Spring News Roundup: First Release Candidates of Boot, Security, Integration, Modulith, AMQP

The Spring ecosystem has seen significant activity with the release of first milestone versions for several key projects in April 2026. This roundup covers the latest developments in Spring Boot, Spring Security, Spring Integration, Spring Modulith, and Spring AMQP, highlighting key features, improvements, and bug fixes.

Spring Boot 4.1.0 Milestone 1

Spring Boot 4.1.0’s first milestone release introduces support for the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) SDK exporter via environment variables and adds support for the Spring Framework LazyConnectionDataSourceProxy class to improve transaction management. The release likewise includes bug fixes, documentation improvements, and dependency upgrades.

Spring Security 7.1.0 Milestone 1

Spring Security 7.1.0’s first milestone features a new anyOf() method in the AllRequiredFactorsAuthorizationManager class, enabling access to resources via the AuthorizationManager interface. It also introduces support for the new Spring Framework PreFlightRequestFilter class, a servlet filter designed to handle pre-flight requests. Additional improvements include bug fixes, dependency upgrades, and documentation updates.

Spring Integration 7.1.0 Milestone 1

Spring Integration 7.1.0’s first milestone introduces two new modules: spring-integration-cloudevents for CloudEvents transformation and spring-integration-grpc for gRPC protocol support. Correspondingly, the GrpcInboundGateway and GrpcOutboundGateway classes have been added as inbound and outbound gateways for gRPC client calls. The release also includes bug fixes, documentation improvements, and dependency upgrades.

Spring Modulith 2.1.0 Milestone 1

Spring Modulith 2.1.0’s first milestone brings a new @ModuleSlicing annotation that helps eliminate integration test failures. The release also includes bug fixes, dependency upgrades, and various improvements to enhance the developer experience when building modular applications.

Spring AMQP Milestone 1

Spring AMQP’s first milestone release focuses on bug fixes, documentation improvements, and dependency upgrades. While specific new features were not detailed in the sources, the update ensures compatibility with the latest Spring Boot 4.1.0 and Spring Framework versions.

Key Takeaways

• The Spring ecosystem is advancing with coordinated milestone releases across multiple projects.
• Spring Boot 4.1.0 enhances observability with OTLP support and improves transaction management.
• Spring Security 7.1.0 adds flexibility in authorization handling and pre-flight request processing.
• Spring Integration 7.1.0 expands capabilities for CloudEvents and gRPC integration.
• Spring Modulith 2.1.0 simplifies modular application testing with the @ModuleSlicing annotation.

FAQ

What is the significance of these milestone releases?

These milestone releases represent early access versions that allow developers to test new features and provide feedback before the final general availability releases. They are part of the Spring ecosystem’s regular release cycle, ensuring steady innovation and stability.

How can developers access these milestone releases?

Developers can access these milestone releases through Spring’s milestone repository by adding the appropriate repository URL to their build configuration (e.g., Maven or Gradle) and specifying the milestone version in their dependencies.

Are these releases suitable for production use?

Milestone releases are intended for testing and feedback purposes. They are not recommended for production use due to potential instability and incomplete features. Developers should wait for the general availability (GA) releases for production deployments.

Looking Ahead

As the Spring ecosystem continues to evolve, these milestone releases set the stage for more robust and feature-rich general availability versions expected later in 2026. Developers are encouraged to test these early releases and contribute feedback to help shape the final versions.