# Spring News Roundup: Second Milestone Releases of Boot, Framework, Data, Security, Integration

> Source: <https://www.infoq.com/news/2026/09/spring-news-roundup-sep21-2026/?utm_campaign=infoq_content&utm_source=infoq&utm_medium=feed&utm_term=global>
> Published: 2026-09-29 12:00:00+00:00

There was a flurry of activity during the week of September 21st, 2026, highlighting: second milestone releases of: Spring Boot, Spring Batch, Spring Security, Spring AMQP, Spring Integration, Spring Data, Spring Framework, Spring for GraphQL and Spring for Apache Kafka. There were also first milestone releases of Spring AI, Spring Cloud, Spring Web Services and Spring LDAP.

#### Spring Boot

The [second milestone release](https://spring.io/blog/2026/09/25/spring-boot-4-2-0-M2-available-now) of [Spring Boot](https://spring.io/projects/spring-boot) 4.2.0 delivers bug fixes, documentation improvements, dependency upgrades and new features such as: the ability to auto-configure a named SSL Bundle with an instance of the Spring LDAP  class; and a new configuration property, **`management.observations.conventions=[micrometer|opentelemetry]`**, to switch semantic conventions to/from Micrometer and OpenTelemetry. More details on this release may be found in the [release notes](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/releases/tag/v4.2.0-M2) and this [wiki page](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/wiki/Spring-Boot-4.2.0-M2-Release-Notes).

#### Spring Framework

The *second milestone release* of [Spring Framework](https://spring.io/projects/spring-framework) 7.1.0 ships with bug fixes, documentation improvements, dependency upgrades and new features such as: improved null safety in the  class; and improved validation with the **`parse()`** method, defined in the  class, if the **` Set-Cookie`** HTTP response header is empty. Further details on this release may be found in the [release notes](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/releases/tag/v7.1.0-M2).

#### Spring Data

The [second milestone release](https://spring.io/blog/2026/09/23/spring-data-2026-1-0-M2-released) of [Spring Data](https://spring.io/projects/spring-data) 2026.1.0 provides notable changes such as: initial compatibility with [Hibernate ORM](https://hibernate.org/orm/) 8.0.0.Beta1 to support the upcoming [Jakarta Persistence 4.0](https://jakarta.ee/specifications/persistence/4.0/) specification, while still maintaining the baseline for Jakarta Persistence 3.2; and a refactor of support for the [Redis JSON API](https://redis.io/json/) with a new  interface that defines numerous subinterfaces for JSON operations along with the ability for the  and  classes to implement the  interface with raw-value slicing.

#### Spring Cloud

The [first milestone release](https://spring.io/blog/2026/09/24/spring-cloud-2026-0-0-M1-has-been-released) of [Spring Cloud](https://spring.io/projects/spring-cloud) 2026.0.0, codenamed Paddington, delivers notable changes such as: an new  interface that allows for applications to be notified through HTTP when a configuration change has been detected; and a refactor of the  and  classes to deny requests from an untrusted proxy. This release is based on Spring Boot 4.2.0-M2.

#### Spring Security

The [second milestone release](https://spring.io/blog/2026/09/24/spring-security-7-2-0-M2-available-now) of [Spring Security](https://spring.io/projects/spring-security) 7.2.0 ships with bug fixes, dependency upgrades and new features such as: the ability to annotate the  interface with ; and a simplified null provider check on the  class. More details on this release may be found in the [release notes](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-security/releases/tag/7.2.0-M2).

#### Spring for GraphQL

The *first milestone release* of [Spring for GraphQL](https://spring.io/projects/spring-graphql) 2.1.0 provides dependency upgrades and new features such as: the ability to reject unsupported HTTP methods at configuration time; and new builders added to the  and  classes to support HTTP GET requests. Further details on this release may be found in the [release notes](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-graphql/releases/tag/v2.1.0-M1).

#### Spring Integration

The [second milestone release](https://spring.io/blog/2026/09/24/spring-integration-7-2-0-m2-released) of [Spring Integration](https://spring.io/projects/spring-integration) 7.2.0 delivers bug fixes, documentation improvements, dependency upgrades and new features such as: a new  class that serves as an a message-driven inbound channel adapter to select between two listeners; and a migration from the Spring Framework  to  in the [Mail Java DSL](https://docs.spring.io/spring-integration/reference/mail.html). More details on this release may be found in the [release notes](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-integration/releases/tag/v7.2.0-M2) and [what's new](https://docs.spring.io/spring-integration/reference/7.2/whats-new.html) page.

#### Spring AI

The [first milestone release](https://spring.io/blog/2026/09/25/spring-ai-2-1-0-M1-available-now) of [Spring AI](https://spring.io/projects/spring-ai) 2.1.0 ships with dependency upgrades and new features such as: a new  interface, and corresponding implementations, for handling various parts of a message to accurately represent the messages that the current models actually return; and a new  class that communicates with the OpenAI **`/v1/responses`** endpoint and the existing  class. Further details on this release may be found in the [release notes](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-ai/releases/tag/v2.1.0-M1).

#### Spring Batch

The [second milestone release](https://spring.io/blog/2026/09/24/spring-batch-6) of [Spring Batch](https://spring.io/projects/spring-batch) 6.1.0 provides bug fixes, documentation improvements, dependency upgrades and new features such as: a new  class to define various Spring Batch constants; and the ability to accept a resource pattern in the  class to more conveniently specify resource locations. More details on this release may be found in the [release notes](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-batch/releases/tag/v6.1.0-M2).

#### Spring AMQP

The [second milestone release](https://spring.io/blog/2026/09/24/spring-amqp-4-2-0-m2-available) of [Spring AMQP](https://spring.io/projects/spring-amqp) 4.2.0 delivers bug fixes, documentation improvements, dependency upgrades and new features such as: improved null validation in the  and  classes; and the ability to register custom implementations of the  interface. Further details on this release may be found in the [release notes](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-amqp/releases/tag/v4.2.0-M2).

#### Spring for Apache Kafka

The *second milestone release* of [Spring for Apache Kafka](https://spring.io/projects/spring-kafka) 4.2.0 ships with bug fixes, documentation improvements, dependency upgrades and new features such as: support for applying nullability annotations defined in [JSpecify](https://jspecify.dev/); and an instance of the  class is now allowed to configure a  class. More details on this release may be found in the [release notes](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-kafka/releases/tag/v4.2.0-M2).

#### Spring LDAP

The *first milestone release* of [Spring LDAP](https://spring.io/projects/spring-ldap) 4.2.0 provides bug fixes, dependency upgrades and new features such as: enable post-processing of the  class in the  interface before being directed to a  or  interface; and the ability to customize the **`remove-by-value`** decision within the  class. Further details on this release may be found in the [release notes](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-ldap/releases/tag/4.2.0-M1).

#### Spring Web Services

The [first milestone release](https://spring.io/blog/2026/09/24/spring-ws-5-1-0-M1-available-now) of [Spring Web Services](https://spring.io/projects/spring-ws) 5.1.0 delivers bug fixes, dependency upgrades and new features such as: a new **`handleInvalidXmlException()`** method, added to the  class, to support implementation of SOAP/JMS when an  is thrown; and support for observability by integrating with the [Micrometer Observation API](https://docs.micrometer.io/micrometer/reference/observation.html) for metrics and tracing of web service exchanges. More details on this release may be found in the [release notes](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-ws/releases/tag/v5.1.0-M1) and this [wiki page](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-ws/wiki/Spring-Web-Services-5.1.0-M1-Release-Notes).
