How does Spring fit into my application architecture?

Question

I'm currently rebuilding an existing PHP application using Java. I therefore have an existing frontend GUI and an existing database schema that I'm working with.

Here is the technology stack I'm working towards:

1. jQuery, client-side
2. Wicket, front-end
3. Spring, ???
4. Hibernate, ORM
5. MySQL, database

Before reading about Spring in both Wicket In Action and the Hibernate documentation, I envisioned wiring the two together through my own business logic. I have experience with JBoss Seam, but am told that Spring is hardly comparable (although the documentation suggests otherwise, IMO). Short of adding a book about Spring to my reading list (I haven't found an appropriate one with good reviews yet), I'm at a loss.

What benefit(s) will Spring provide in this technology stack?

Subjective & optional follow up question: what reference material (book, website, etc) will get me started with the portion of Spring 3 I may utilize?

Answer 1

First, you can make your web application without Spring. But Spring will greatly facilitate things. Spring framework is a lightweight, non-invasive. Spring is like a kind of conductor. Among other things Spring helps you in:

1. To keep your objects loosely coupled. This will make your application more flexible and open to future changes

2. Powerful support for transactions through the AOP (Aspect Oriented Programming).

3. Object-relational mapping (ORM) integration module. Spring doesn’t attempt to implement its own ORM solution, but does provide hooks into several popular ORM frameworks, including Hibernate, Java Persistence API, Java Data Objects, and iBATIS SQL Maps. Spring’s Transaction management supports each of these ORM frameworks as well as JDBC.

4. The Spring MVC framework. Even though Spring integrates with several popular MVC frameworks, it also comes with its own very capable MVC framework that promotes Spring’s loosely coupled techniques in the web layer of an application.

A good book about Spring: Pro Spring