Back in 2004, a new revolution was brewing in the Java industry: the Spring Framework. It challenged the concept of monolithic, one-size-fits-all application servers by offering pragmatic solutions without heavy handed requirements. Contrary to previous frameworks, Spring did not require all-or-nothing adoption. Instead, it offered a practical approach by providing convenient abstractions over commonly used patterns. It also embraced the concept of dependency injection, allowing non-intrusive adoption of powerful options.
The Spring Framework doesn't hinge on the technology that it is coded in. The concepts and methods, known as the Spring way, work anywhere. In 2006, I created the Spring Python project. This was to combine the non-intrusive, powerful concepts of Spring with the nimble, dynamic flexibility of Python.
This book will guide you through the building blocks of Spring Python with the aim of giving you the key to build better Python applications.
The first seven chapters show you how to download and get started with Spring Python. Each of these chapters introduces a different module you can use to build applications with. The eighth chapter shows how to use the modules in concert to build a more powerful yet easier to maintain application. The ninth chapter introduces a command-line utility used to rapidly create applications. The final chapter shows how to integrate Python and Java together, quickly and easily.
I have written this book with the intention that developers can discover the scope and beauty of the Spring way and how it can enrich development, without complicating it. I often look at software development as more craftsmanship than science, and believe Spring Python can make for a valuable tool in any developer's tool box.
Chapter 1: Getting Started with Spring Python gives you a quick glance at various features of Spring Python, followed by information on how to download and install it.
Chapter 2: The Heart of Spring Python—Inversion of Control introduces you to Spring Python's core container which is reused through the rest of the book to empower testing and non-intrusive features.
Chapter 3: Adding Services to APIs shows how to smoothly add cross cutting services to your code using Spring Python's aspect oriented programming.
Chapter 4: Easily Writing SQL Queries with Spring Python shows you how to rapidly write pure SQL queries without dealing with mind-numbing boilerplate code. It also shows how Spring Python works nicely with ORM-based persistence.
Chapter 5: Adding Integrity to your Data Access with Transactions shows how to seamlessly wrap business code with SQL transactions.
Chapter 6: Securing your Application with Spring Python shows how to wrap web applications with flexible authentication and authorization services, while easily supporting policy changes. It also shows how to code custom extensions to integrate with security systems not currently supported.
Chapter 7: Scaling your Application Across Nodes with Spring Python's Remoting shows how Spring Python nicely integrates with Pyro, the RPC library for Python. This powerful combination will allow you to non-intrusively develop simple apps on your desktop and retool them for multi-node production systems
Chapter 8: Case Study I—Integrating Spring Python with your Web Application invites you to use all of Spring Python's components to build a strong, secured banking application. This shows how the various parts of Spring Python work together in concert to empower you the developer.
Chapter 9: Creating Skeleton Apps with Coily introduces Spring Python's plugin-based Coily tool to rapidly create web applications.
Chapter 10: Case Study II - Integration Spring Python with your Java Application ends the book by showing how easy it is to link Java and Python components together using Jython. This allows polyglot programmers to mix together their favorite services.