Acknowledgments

We would like to thank everyone at Manning who has been involved with this project. Writing the book became a journey in itself, and we had many excellent guides along the way. Mike Stephens, it all began with your patient assistance as we took the first steps and planned our roadmap. A number of editors and reviewers helped us navigate the terrain, but we would especially like to thank Cynthia Kane for rescuing us from writer’s block on so many occasions. The last mile felt like a marathon all by itself, but the production team kept us on track. Katie Tennant, we finally crossed the finish line thanks to you! We are likely missing several names, including those behind the scenes with whom we had no direct interaction, but in addition to those mentioned above, we sincerely thank Marjan Bace, Benjamin Berg, Nick Chase, Kimberly Dickinson, Gabriel Dobrescu, Candace Gillhoolley, Dottie Marsico, Mary Piergies, Christina Rudloff, Maureen Spencer, Elle Suzuki, Karen Tegtmeyer, Janet Vail, and Megan Yockey.

We also owe a special thanks to the following reviewers who read the manuscript at different stages in its development and provided invaluable feedback: Srini Penchikala, Bruce Snyder, Mick Knutson, Fabrice Dewasmes, Gordon Dickens, Michał Minicki, Dmitry Sklyut, Arnaud Cogoluègnes, Deepak Vohra, John Guthrie, Al Scherer, Rick Wagner, Jettro Coenradie, Pratik Patel, Holger Hoffstätte, Joshua White, Cos Difazio, Chris Wilkes, Roberto Rojas, Mykel Alvis, Vladimir Ritz Bossicard, Peter Pavlovich, Pierre-Antoine Grégoire, and Oliver Zeigermann.

We received quite a bit of constructive feedback from Manning Early Access Program subscribers via the forum, including Karen Christenson, Marten Deinum, Brian Dussault, Stephen Fenech, Ryan Fong, Michael Girard, Mark Spritzler, Mike Sweeney, Lynn Walton, and several others. We apologize if we have inadvertently overlooked any of your suggestions.

To our technical proofreaders, Neale Upstone and Doug Warren: your careful attention to the configuration and code has been greatly appreciated. We threw quite a few curveballs by updating examples as the framework evolved from version 1.0 to 2.0. Having such experienced technical reviewers gave us the confidence to make the necessary changes, and the reader will surely appreciate that as much as we do.

Last but certainly not least, we would like to thank those who provided the foundations for the Spring Integration framework itself. Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf: Enterprise Integration Patterns not only sparked the original inspiration, but it has essentially served and continues to serve as our specification. Arjen Poutsma: not only is your craftsmanship evident across Spring’s REST support, Spring Web Services, and Spring OXM—all of which Spring Integration builds upon—but your direct feedback in the early days of the project influenced some of the most important decisions in defining the core API itself. Juergen Hoeller and the rest of the core Spring team: the Spring Framework provides much of the underlying functionality that makes Spring Integration possible but, even more importantly, it provides the idioms and principles that keep Spring Integration moving in the right direction. Rod Johnson: we are truly honored that you wrote this book’s foreword; there could be no better way to start our story here than with the words of the one who started Spring itself.

Mark

I would like to thank my wife Janelle for helping me in so many ways, and for tolerating my absence—both physical and mental—on so many occasions since this book project began. To my daughter Evelyn, the image of uninterrupted weekends with you has been the inspiration driving me to finish. To my parents, I am grateful for a lifetime of encouragement. To the entire Spring team, past and present, thank you for maintaining such a high standard of quality with an even higher level of passion. I am fortunate to work with the current Spring Integration team—Oleg, Gary, and Gunnar—who make the framework more amazing every day. To my coauthors, I must say it’s incredible that four people with so many other responsibilities managed to complete a book, even if it took just a little bit longer than expected.

Jonas

I would like to thank friends and family for their ongoing support and their understanding when weekends and evenings have been taken up. Also thanks to Dr. Bob Coates for always having time and enthusiasm to share while I was an undergraduate.

Marius

I would like to thank Patricia, my wife and closest friend, for her support and patience during this long project, and for being there to discuss chapter plans and ill-attempted first drafts. Thanks also go to these individuals: to my coauthors, for the great experience of working together; to all my former and current colleagues, especially from the SpringSource and JBoss teams for helping me understand the real meaning of enterprise software; to my former teachers at the “Politehnica” University of Timisoara, for laying down the foundation of my career; to all my friends and family, for their continuous encouragements; to my parents and grandparents, for being excellent examples and instilling in me the love of all things technical; and to my father, especially—since early on, he’s been the model of what science and engineering teaching should be. I dedicate my share of the book to him.

Iwein

I would like to thank Marte Israël for being my wife and bearing with my staring in the distance for many evenings, and for reading and editing early drafts. Having a nerd for a husband is a challenge, but doubly so if he’s writing a book. I would like to thank my children for reminding me there is more to life than my computer. Thanks go to Wilfred Springer for inspiration and clever thoughts freely shared on our many commutes together, and to Nicholas Cage for his unwavering help regarding DocBook and other time-consuming technical obstacles.

I also thank my team members, family, and friends for letting me write during meetings, parties, and other occasions. Finally, I bow my head in respect to Mark, who has pushed us through the last barrier to get this book to print. I’m really glad you didn’t give up.