Introduction

In this chapter, we will first cover the installation of some of the tools for Spring development:

• Java: Spring is a Java framework.
• Maven: This is a build tool similar to Ant. It makes it easy to add Spring libraries to a project. Gradle is another option as a build tool.
• Tomcat: This is a web server for Java web applications. You can also use JBoss, Jetty, GlassFish, or WebSphere.
• Eclipse: This is an IDE. You can also use NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA, and so on.

Then, we will build a Spring web application and run it with Tomcat.

Finally, we'll see how Spring can also be used in a standard Java application (not a web application).