Spring IDE for Eclipse

If you're a Spring Framework developer using Eclipse, you'll want to get your hands on Spring IDE for Eclipse -- a set of plugins designed to simplify your work with Bean Factory configuration files. With Spring IDE, you get a Spring project nature that includes an incremental builder that validates your Spring bean config files, an image decorator that spruces up your Spring projects and files, as well as a Spring view that enables you to browse Spring projects and bean config files, along with their properties.

But the best part of all is the editor, which presents a detailed graph of single or multiple config files. Everything you need to easily work with Spring Framework is now right at your fingertips.

To install Spring IDE, open Eclipse and under Help, select Software Updates, and then Find and Install. From there, select "Search for new features to install" and hit "Next." You'll now see the option to create a new remote site, which you should label "Spring IDE updatesite" and leave the URL blank. Select OK, and you'll see the "Spring IDE updatesite" in the available options. Check "Spring IDE," then go back to "Eclipse.org updatesite" and select the version of GEF required for your version of Eclipse.

Hit "Next" and select the two features you need: "Graphical Editing Framework" and the latest version of "Spring IDE." Once you've done that, check "I accept" and hit "Next" again. From there, you can either select or enter the appropriate site to install your newly acquired features. Hit "Finish," then navigate through the warning dialogs during feature verification -- both features are not digitally signed.

After a successful download and installation of the product, hit "Yes" on the "Would you like to restart now?" dialog. You're off and running!