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STS3 Features
This section explains the relationship between STS3 and Spring Tools 4 for Eclipse (aka STS4).
The default Spring Tools 4 distribution for Eclipse (aka STS4) comes with several components pre-installed that you are well familiar with from using STS3. Those components/features are:
- Boot Dashboard
- Snippet Completion Proposals for Request Mappings
- Spring Properties and YAML file editing support (although the Spring Tools 4 version is slightly different)
- Conversion of Spring Properties file to YAML file
- Spring Starter wizard (https://start.spring.io)
- Import Getting Started Content wizard (https://spring.io/guides)
- Quick Search
Open Symbol in Workspace features replaces it. Once the Open Symbol in Workspace dialog is opened type @/
to see all Request Mappings in the workspace.
There is no graph for the Live Beans, but there is information about Live Beans available in a different form:
- Live Bean data is available via Boot highlights, hovers and Code Lenses in the source code
- List of Live beans data is shown in the Beans tab in the Properties View for a selected running Boot application
Since Spring Tools 4 is re-implemented from scratch, the tooling had a sharp focus for the initial release. Spring Tools 4 focus on supporting Spring developers using Spring Boot and annotation-style Spring programming. Therefore, the following features of STS3 were NOT supported in the initial releases of the Spring Tools 4:
- Spring XML config support (including auto-completion for bean IDs, bean classes, etc.)
- Spring XML config validations
Since version 4.1.1, the Spring Tools 4 started to include early experimental support and first steps towards proving support for Spring XML configuration files and non-Boot projects. You can follow the progress here:
- XML config support in STS4 (#108)
- make Spring Tools 4 features available for non-boot Spring apps (#96)
In case you would like to continue to use specific features of STS3 that are not part of STS4 yet and use the new Spring Tools 4 at the same time, you can apply two different strategies:
- use separate workspaces and continue to use STS3 for specific workspaces while using STS4 for new workspaces
- install STS3 components into an STS4 installation
You can install the old STS3 tooling into an existing Spring Tools 4 distribution and use both side-by-side in the same workspace. This is not strongly recommended, but possible and supported.
In order to achieve that, you can use a fresh Spring Tools 4 distribution for Eclipse and go to the Eclipse Marketplace to install the "STS3 Add-On Extension" item. It will install all the well-known STS3 components into your Spring Tools 4 installation.
This works for the Eclipse-based distribution of the Spring Tools 4 only. There is no way to install or use STS3 components in Visual Studio Code or Atom.
- Installation (latest release + snapshots)
- User Guide
- Getting Started
- Navigation
- Live Application Information
- Content Assist
- Version Validation
- Upgrade Support
- Validations and Quick Fixes
- WebFlux Support
- Boot Properties Editor
- Boot Dashboard
- Other Editors
- STS3
- Custom VM args
- FAQ
- Changelog
- Known Limitations & Issues
- Report an Issue
- Developer Manual
- Overview
- Language Server Integration into Clients
- Communication with JDT LS
- STS4 Language Server Protocol Extensions