Deprecated Classes in Spring

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1. Introduction

In this tutorial, we’re going to take a look at the deprecated classes in Spring and Spring Boot and explain what these have been replaced with.

We’ll explore classes starting from Spring 4 and Spring Boot 1.4.

2. Deprecated Classes in Spring

For easier reading, we list classes and their replacements based on the Spring release. And, within each grouping of classes, we’ve sorted them by the class name, irrespective of package.

2.1. Spring 4.0.x

org.springframework.cache.interceptor.DefaultKeyGenerator – replaced by the SimpleKeyGenerator or custom KeyGenerator implementations based on hash codes
org.springframework.jdbc.support.lob.OracleLobHandler – DefaultLobHandler for the Oracle 10g driver and higher; we should consider it even against the Oracle 9i database
org.springframework.test.AssertThrows – we should make use of JUnit 4’s @Test(expected=…) support instead
org.springframework.http.converter.xml.XmlAwareFormHttpMessageConverter – AllEncompassingFormHttpMessageConverter

The following class was deprecated as of Spring 4.0.2, in favor of CGLIB 3.1’s default strategy, and was removed in Spring 4.1:

org.springframework.cglib.transform.impl.MemorySafeUndeclaredThrowableStrategy

All deprecated classes, as well as deprecated interfaces, fields, methods, constructors, and enum constants for this Spring version can be found on the official documentation page.

2.2. Spring 4.1.x

org.springframework.jdbc.core.simple.ParameterizedBeanPropertyRowMapper – BeanPropertyRowMapper
org.springframework.jdbc.core.simple.ParameterizedSingleColumnRowMapper – SingleColumnRowMapper

We can find the full list in the Spring 4.1.x JavaDoc.

2.3. Spring 4.2.x

org.springframework.web.servlet.view.document.AbstractExcelView – AbstractXlsView and its AbstractXlsxView and AbstractXlsxStreamingView variants
org.springframework.format.number.CurrencyFormatter – CurrencyStyleFormatter
org.springframework.messaging.simp.user.DefaultUserSessionRegistry – we should use the SimpUserRegistry in combination with the ApplicationListener listening for the AbstractSubProtocolEvent events
org.springframework.messaging.handler.HandlerMethodSelector – generalized and refined MethodIntrospector
org.springframework.core.JdkVersion – we should perform direct checks for the desired JDK API variants via reflection
org.springframework.format.number.NumberFormatter – NumberStyleFormatter
org.springframework.format.number.PercentFormatter – PercentStyleFormatter
org.springframework.test.context.transaction.TransactionConfigurationAttributes – this class is removed along with the @TransactionConfiguration in Spring 5
org.springframework.oxm.xmlbeans.XmlBeansMarshaller – following the XMLBeans retirement at Apache

The following classes are deprecated in favor of Apache Log4j 2:

org.springframework.web.util.Log4jConfigListener
org.springframework.util.Log4jConfigurer
org.springframework.web.filter.Log4jNestedDiagnosticContextFilter
org.springframework.web.context.request.Log4jNestedDiagnosticContextInterceptor
org.springframework.web.util.Log4jWebConfigurer

More details are available in the Spring 4.2.x JavaDoc.

2.4. Spring 4.3.x

This version of Spring brought lots of deprecated classes:

org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.AbstractJsonpResponseBodyAdvice – this class is removed in Spring Framework 5.1; we should use CORS instead
org.springframework.oxm.castor.CastorMarshaller – deprecated due to the lack of activity on the Castor project
org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.CompletionStageReturnValueHandler – DeferredResultMethodReturnValueHandler, which now supports CompletionStage return values via an adapter mechanism
org.springframework.jdbc.support.incrementer.DB2MainframeSequenceMaxValueIncrementer – renamed to Db2MainframeMaxValueIncrementer
org.springframework.jdbc.support.incrementer.DB2SequenceMaxValueIncrementer – renamed to Db2LuwMaxValueIncrementer
org.springframework.core.GenericCollectionTypeResolver – deprecated in favor of direct ResolvableType usage
org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ListenableFutureReturnValueHandler – DeferredResultMethodReturnValueHandler, which now supports ListenableFuture return values via an adapter mechanism
org.springframework.jdbc.support.incrementer.PostgreSQLSequenceMaxValueIncrementer – we should use PostgresSequenceMaxValueIncrementer instead
org.springframework.web.servlet.ResourceServlet – ResourceHttpRequestHandler

These classes are deprecated in favor of the HandlerMethod-based MVC infrastructure:

org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping
org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.support.HandlerMethodInvoker
org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.support.HandlerMethodResolver

Several classes are deprecated in favor of annotation-driven handler methods:

org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.AbstractControllerUrlHandlerMapping
org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.multiaction.AbstractUrlMethodNameResolver
org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerBeanNameHandlerMapping
org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.multiaction.InternalPathMethodNameResolver
org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.multiaction.ParameterMethodNameResolver
org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.multiaction.PropertiesMethodNameResolver

There are also a lot of classes from Spring that we should replace with their Hibernate 4.x/5.x equivalents:

org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.AbstractLobType
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.AbstractSessionFactoryBean
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.annotation.AnnotationSessionFactoryBean
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.BlobByteArrayType
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.BlobSerializableType
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.BlobStringType
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.ClobStringType
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.FilterDefinitionFactoryBean
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateAccessor
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.HibernateDaoSupport
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateExceptionTranslator
org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaSessionFactoryBean
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTemplate
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTransactionManager
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.IdTransferringMergeEventListener
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalDataSourceConnectionProvider
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalJtaDataSourceConnectionProvider
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalRegionFactoryProxy
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalTransactionManagerLookup
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.OpenSessionInterceptor
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.OpenSessionInViewFilter
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.OpenSessionInViewInterceptor
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.ScopedBeanInterceptor
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.SessionFactoryUtils
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.SessionHolder
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.SpringSessionContext
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.SpringTransactionFactory
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.TransactionAwareDataSourceConnectionProvider
org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.TypeDefinitionBean

Several classes are deprecated in favor of FreeMarker:

org.springframework.web.servlet.view.velocity.VelocityConfigurer
org.springframework.ui.velocity.VelocityEngineFactory
org.springframework.ui.velocity.VelocityEngineFactoryBean
org.springframework.ui.velocity.VelocityEngineUtils
org.springframework.web.servlet.view.velocity.VelocityLayoutView
org.springframework.web.servlet.view.velocity.VelocityLayoutViewResolver
org.springframework.web.servlet.view.velocity.VelocityToolboxView
org.springframework.web.servlet.view.velocity.VelocityView
org.springframework.web.servlet.view.velocity.VelocityViewResolver

These classes are removed in Spring Framework 5.1, and we should use other transports instead:

org.springframework.web.socket.sockjs.transport.handler.JsonpPollingTransportHandler
org.springframework.web.socket.sockjs.transport.handler.JsonpReceivingTransportHandler

Finally, there are also a couple of classes without an appropriate replacement:

org.springframework.core.ControlFlowFactory
org.springframework.util.WeakReferenceMonitor

As usual, the Spring 4.3.x JavaDoc contains the complete list.

2.5. Spring 5.0.x

org.springframework.web.reactive.support.AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherHandlerInitializer – deprecated in favor of AbstractReactiveWebInitializer
org.springframework.web.util.AbstractUriTemplateHandler – DefaultUriBuilderFactory
org.springframework.web.socket.config.annotation.AbstractWebSocketMessageBrokerConfigurer – deprecated in favor of simply using the WebSocketMessageBrokerConfigurer, which has default methods, made possible by a Java 8 baseline
org.springframework.web.client.AsyncRestTemplate – WebClient
org.springframework.web.context.request.async.CallableProcessingInterceptorAdapter – deprecated since the CallableProcessingInterceptor has default methods
org.springframework.messaging.support.ChannelInterceptorAdapter – deprecated since the ChannelInterceptor has default methods (made possible by a Java 8 baseline) and can be implemented directly without the need for this no-op adapter
org.springframework.util.comparator.CompoundComparator – deprecated in favor of the standard JDK 8 Comparator.thenComparing(Comparator)
org.springframework.web.util.DefaultUriTemplateHandler – DefaultUriBuilderFactory; we should note that the DefaultUriBuilderFactory has a different default value for the parsePath property (changed from false to true)
org.springframework.web.context.request.async.DeferredResultProcessingInterceptorAdapter – since the DeferredResultProcessingInterceptor has default methods
org.springframework.util.comparator.InvertibleComparator – deprecated in favor of the standard JDK 8 Comparator.reversed()
org.springframework.http.client.Netty4ClientHttpRequestFactory – deprecated in favor of ReactorClientHttpConnector
org.apache.commons.logging.impl.SimpleLog – moved to spring-jcl (effectively equivalent to NoOpLog)
org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurerAdapter – WebMvcConfigurer has default methods (made possible by a Java 8 baseline) and can be implemented directly without the need for this adapter
org.springframework.beans.factory.config.YamlProcessor.StrictMapAppenderConstructor – superseded by SnakeYAML’s own duplicate key handling

We have two classes deprecated in favor of AbstractReactiveWebInitializer:

org.springframework.web.reactive.support.AbstractDispatcherHandlerInitializer
org.springframework.web.reactive.support.AbstractServletHttpHandlerAdapterInitializer

And, the following classes don’t have replacements:

org.springframework.http.client.support.AsyncHttpAccessor
org.springframework.http.client.HttpComponentsAsyncClientHttpRequestFactory
org.springframework.http.client.InterceptingAsyncClientHttpRequestFactory
org.springframework.http.client.support.InterceptingAsyncHttpAccessor
org.springframework.mock.http.client.MockAsyncClientHttpRequest

The complete list is available in the Spring 5.0.x JavaDoc.

2.6. Spring 5.1.x

org.springframework.http.client.support.BasicAuthorizationInterceptor – deprecated in favor of BasicAuthenticationInterceptor, which reuses the HttpHeaders.setBasicAuth(java.lang.String, java.lang.String) and now shares its default charset ISO-8859-1 instead of using UTF-8 as it did previously
org.springframework.jdbc.core.BatchUpdateUtils – no longer used by the JdbcTemplate
org.springframework.web.reactive.function.client.ExchangeFilterFunctions.Credentials – we should use the HttpHeaders.setBasicAuth(String, String) method while building the request
org.springframework.web.filter.reactive.ForwardedHeaderFilter – this filter is deprecated in favor of using the ForwardedHeaderTransformer, which can be declared as a bean with the name “forwardedHeaderTransformer” or registered explicitly in the WebHttpHandlerBuilder
org.springframework.jdbc.core.namedparam.NamedParameterBatchUpdateUtils – not used by the NamedParameterJdbcTemplate any more
org.springframework.core.io.PathResource – FileSystemResource.FileSystemResource(Path)
org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor – we should use constructor injection for required settings (or a custom InitializingBean implementation)
org.springframework.remoting.caucho.SimpleHessianServiceExporter – HessianServiceExporter
org.springframework.remoting.httpinvoker.SimpleHttpInvokerServiceExporter – HttpInvokerServiceExporter
org.springframework.remoting.support.SimpleHttpServerFactoryBean – embedded Tomcat/Jetty/Undertow
org.springframework.remoting.jaxws.SimpleHttpServerJaxWsServiceExporter – SimpleJaxWsServiceExporter

These are deprecated in favor of EncodedResourceResolver:

org.springframework.web.reactive.resource.GzipResourceResolver
org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.GzipResourceResolver

There are several classes that are deprecated in favor of Java EE 7’s DefaultManagedTaskScheduler:

org.springframework.scheduling.commonj.DelegatingTimerListener
org.springframework.scheduling.commonj.ScheduledTimerListener
org.springframework.scheduling.commonj.TimerManagerAccessor
org.springframework.scheduling.commonj.TimerManagerFactoryBean
org.springframework.scheduling.commonj.TimerManagerTaskScheduler

And, a few are deprecated in favor of Java EE 7’s DefaultManagedTaskExecutor:

org.springframework.scheduling.commonj.DelegatingWork
org.springframework.scheduling.commonj.WorkManagerTaskExecutor

Finally, one class is deprecated without a substitute:

org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactoryService

For more details, please see the official Spring 5.1.x JavaDoc on deprecated classes.

3. Deprecated Classes in Spring Boot

Now, let’s take a look at the deprecated classes in Spring Boot back to version 1.4.

We should note here that, for Spring Boot 1.4 and 1.5, most of the replacement classes kept their original names but have been moved to different packages. Therefore, we use fully qualified class names in the next two subsections for both the deprecated and replacement classes.

3.1. Spring Boot 1.4.x

org.springframework.boot.actuate.system.ApplicationPidFileWriter – deprecated in favor of org.springframework.boot.system.ApplicationPidFileWriter
org.springframework.boot.yaml.ArrayDocumentMatcher – deprecated in favor of exact String-based matching
org.springframework.boot.test.ConfigFileApplicationContextInitializer – org.springframework.boot.test.context.ConfigFileApplicationContextInitializer
org.springframework.boot.yaml.DefaultProfileDocumentMatcher – it is no longer used
org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.DelegatingFilterProxyRegistrationBean – org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.DelegatingFilterProxyRegistrationBean
org.springframework.boot.actuate.system.EmbeddedServerPortFileWriter – org.springframework.boot.system.EmbeddedServerPortFileWriter
org.springframework.boot.test.EnvironmentTestUtils – org.springframework.boot.test.util.EnvironmentTestUtils
org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.ErrorPage – org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.ErrorPage
org.springframework.boot.context.web.ErrorPageFilter – org.springframework.boot.web.support.ErrorPageFilter
org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.FilterRegistrationBean – org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.FilterRegistrationBean
org.springframework.boot.test.IntegrationTestPropertiesListener – it is no longer used by the @IntegrationTest
org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.MultipartConfigFactory – org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.MultipartConfigFactory
org.springframework.boot.context.web.OrderedCharacterEncodingFilter – org.springframework.boot.web.filter.OrderedCharacterEncodingFilter
org.springframework.boot.context.web.OrderedHiddenHttpMethodFilter – org.springframework.boot.web.filter.OrderedHiddenHttpMethodFilter
org.springframework.boot.context.web.OrderedHttpPutFormContentFilter – org.springframework.boot.web.filter.OrderedHttpPutFormContentFilter
org.springframework.boot.context.web.OrderedRequestContextFilter – org.springframework.boot.web.filter.OrderedRequestContextFilter
org.springframework.boot.test.OutputCapture – org.springframework.boot.test.rule.OutputCapture
org.springframework.boot.context.web.ServerPortInfoApplicationContextInitializer – org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.ServerPortInfoApplicationContextInitializer
org.springframework.boot.context.web.ServletContextApplicationContextInitializer – org.springframework.boot.web.support.ServletContextApplicationContextInitializer
org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.ServletListenerRegistrationBean – org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.ServletListenerRegistrationBean
org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.ServletRegistrationBean – org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.ServletRegistrationBean
org.springframework.boot.test.SpringApplicationContextLoader – deprecated in favor of @SpringBootTest; if necessary, we may also use the org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootContextLoader
org.springframework.boot.test.SpringBootMockServletContext – org.springframework.boot.test.mock.web.SpringBootMockServletContext
org.springframework.boot.context.web.SpringBootServletInitializer – org.springframework.boot.web.support.SpringBootServletInitializer
org.springframework.boot.test.TestRestTemplate – org.springframework.boot.test.web.client.TestRestTemplate

Since Velocity support is deprecated in Spring Framework 4.3, the following classes are also deprecated in Spring Boot:

org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.view.velocity.EmbeddedVelocityViewResolver
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.velocity.VelocityAutoConfiguration
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.velocity.VelocityAutoConfiguration.VelocityConfiguration
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.velocity.VelocityAutoConfiguration.VelocityNonWebConfiguration
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.velocity.VelocityAutoConfiguration.VelocityWebConfiguration
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.velocity.VelocityProperties
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.velocity.VelocityTemplateAvailabilityProvider

The Spring Boot 1.4.x JavaDoc has the full list.

3.2. Spring Boot 1.5.x

org.springframework.boot.context.event.ApplicationStartedEvent – deprecated in favor of org.springframework.boot.context.event.ApplicationStartingEvent
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfigurationImportSelector – deprecated in favor of org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.AutoConfigurationImportSelector
org.springframework.boot.actuate.cache.GuavaCacheStatisticsProvider – following the removal of Guava support in Spring Framework 5
org.springframework.boot.loader.tools.Layouts.Module – deprecated in favor of a custom LayoutFactory
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.MessageSourceAutoConfiguration – deprecated in favor of org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.context.MessageSourceAutoConfiguration
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.PropertyPlaceholderAutoConfiguration – deprecated in favor of org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.context.PropertyPlaceholderAutoConfiguration
org.springframework.boot.actuate.autoconfigure.ShellProperties – deprecated since CRaSH is not actively maintained

These two classes are deprecated since CRaSH is not actively maintained:

org.springframework.boot.actuate.autoconfigure.CrshAutoConfiguration
org.springframework.boot.actuate.autoconfigure.CrshAutoConfiguration.AuthenticationManagerAdapterConfiguration

There also a few classes without a replacement:

org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.cache.CacheProperties.Hazelcast
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.jdbc.metadata.CommonsDbcpDataSourcePoolMetadata
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.mustache.MustacheCompilerFactoryBean

To see the entire list of what was deprecated, we can consult the official Spring Boot 1.5.x JavaDoc site.

3.3. Spring Boot 2.0.x

org.springframework.boot.test.util.EnvironmentTestUtils – deprecated in favor of TestPropertyValues
org.springframework.boot.actuate.metrics.web.reactive.server.RouterFunctionMetrics – deprecated in favor of the auto-configured MetricsWebFilter

And one class doesn’t have a substitute:

org.springframework.boot.actuate.autoconfigure.couchbase.CouchbaseHealthIndicatorProperties

Please check out the deprecated list for Spring Boot 2.0.x for more details.

3.4. Spring Boot 2.1.x

org.springframework.boot.actuate.health.CompositeHealthIndicatorFactory – deprecated in favor of CompositeHealthIndicator.CompositeHealthIndicator(HealthAggregator, HealthIndicatorRegistry)
org.springframework.boot.actuate.health.CompositeReactiveHealthIndicatorFactory – deprecated in favor of CompositeReactiveHealthIndicator.CompositeReactiveHealthIndicator(HealthAggregator, ReactiveHealthIndicatorRegistry)

Finally, we can consult the complete list of deprecated classes and interfaces in Spring Boot 2.1.x.

4. Conclusion

In this tutorial, we explored deprecated classes in Spring since version 4 and Spring Boot from version 1.4, along with their corresponding replacements, where available.

Orkes is the leading workflow orchestration platform built to enable teams to transform the way they develop, connect, and deploy applications, microservices, AI agents, and more.

Try a 14-Day Free Trial of Orkes Conductor today.

Orkes is the leading workflow orchestration platform built to enable teams to transform the way they develop, connect, and deploy applications, microservices, AI agents, and more.

Try a 14-Day Free Trial of Orkes Conductor today.

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