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Discussions on "Spring Framework Certification"

 
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Hi there,

Spring has been a much chosen framework for a lot of Java development in the field. Recently a certification program has been started for Spring. As of March this year (2008) it is possible to do the Spring Framework Certification for the Spring 2.5 platform, but (opposed to the Sun certifications) there aren't many resources (or forums) to prepare for this exam.

Has anybody done the exam already? What was your first impression? How did you prepare?

Is anybody out there training for this exam?

Should we start a separate "Spring Framework Certification" forum at Javaranch? What are your thoughts? Sounds like a plan? I'd certainly benefit from it (and I reckon so would many other Java ranchers)

Thanks in advance for your thoughts. I hope it will be a lively discussion and that there are more ranchers out there who want to benefit from this.

Cheers,

Johan

P.S. See http://www.springsource.com/certification
[ September 19, 2008: Message edited by: Johan Pelgrim ]
 
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I see one problem here.
Quote from the SpringSource site:
-----------------------------------------------------------

A person is eligible for registration if he or she has recently taken the 4-day �CoreSpring� class from SpringSource (or a SpringSource certified training partner) in the Americas, Europe, Africa, the MiddleEast and Asia/Pacific. A person may also be eligible for registration, without attending the 4-day course, if he or she can demonstrate having significantly contributed to the Spring community or can provide a reference to a Spring development effort in which he or she was actively involved. This person is referred to as a �grandfathered� candidate.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
If I have inferred correctly, a person who has not contributed to the Spring Source itself is required to attend their 4-day training course to become eligible for the exam. I have serious doubts about how many people will be willing to take that course(unless corporate sponsored) or on the other hand, how many have contributed to spring source development?
Most of the people fall in the Spring users category, not source developers.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
 
Johan Pelgrim
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Hi there Prashant,

The criteria you quoted describe the ways to wave the registration fees for this exam. In other words, if you do the course, or if you have contributed enough you can take the exam free of charge. If not you have to pay the $150 (or �125) to take the exam.

Cheers,

Johan
[ September 18, 2008: Message edited by: Johan Pelgrim ]
 
tapeshwar sharma
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No, you can simply pay cash and do the exam (like the Sun certifications)



Well, I quoted from the same url that you gave, but may be you are right.
If it is just like Sun Certifications, then where is the URL for registering online?
 
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Interesting, I just know that there are Spring certifications.
 
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Originally posted by Johan Pelgrim:
Hi there Prashant,

The criteria you quoted describe the ways to wave the registration fees for this exam. In other words, if you do the course, or if you have contributed enough you can take the exam free of charge. If not you have to pay the $150 (or �125) to take the exam.

Cheers,

Johan

[ September 18, 2008: Message edited by: Johan Pelgrim ]



Johan,

You are wrong. The message in the above post says what it means. You either should have contributed for Spring development or should have taken the course.
 
Johan Pelgrim
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Jothi,

I agree, the certification page is not very clear on this and probably describes the beta-program of this certification?! (I'll ask around)

As of September 8th however this certification is open for everybody (so I've been told). Read this announcement and simply register at a test site here

Cheers

Johan
 
tapeshwar sharma
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Read this announcement and simply register at a test site here


Thanks to you, now we have the link at least.
However, the Director still doesn't say anything about the eligibility.
He simply asks to back to the previous link to get more information about the certification.
Let me try call them at the number specified in the second link given in your post. Will get back soon.
 
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Originally posted by Johan Pelgrim:

As of September 8th however this certification is open for everybody (so I've been told).



The post you quoted doesn't seem to say anything that contradicts their other site. I shot them an email this morning (with a link to this conversation as reference) to ask them for clarification, since I think this sounds interesting....
 
tapeshwar sharma
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Johan and everybody interested,
I called up this number : 888-864-1713 that was specified in the link given in Johan's last post.
The person over there said that it is mandatory to attend the training and you get a exam voucher only after completing that training.

I contacted them again though the chat session, and asked the same question just to be doubly sure.
Following is the answer transcript(name withheld as per policy):


XYZ: You would need to either call to create an account, or create one online. Creating the account online can take up to 24 hours to process.
XYX: Then once you have that, you will need the voucher from attending the approved training to schedule your appointment.



How I wish that I were wrong.
 
Theodore Casser
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And I just received the same confirmation by email from SpringSource. It seems that you can't just take it.

Seems kind of self-defeating to me, if you ask me.
 
tapeshwar sharma
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Probably they find it profitable making fewer people attend the expensive training sessions than by making more people give just the less expensive exam.
This will also make sure that some kind of "brand value" and "elitism" is introduced in the Spring community.
You know, unlike Sun Certifications(may be except for SCEA) that have become so common that hardly any company gives any consideration.
I wouldn't hold it against the Spring Source. Everybody needs money. Since spring is available for free use, that's probably the only way left for them.
 
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Other bad news from Spring (besides the required course for the certification exam):

"New Spring maintenance policy"

It seems that we'll now need to _buy commercial support_ if we want maintenance releases after 3 months from the major new release

TheServerSide discussion thread: http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=50727

http://www.springsource.com/node/558

SAN MATEO, Calif.�September 17, 2008 � SpringSource, the company behind Spring, the de facto standard in enterprise Java, today announced that it has implemented a new maintenance policy for Spring. The policy provides Spring production users with a long-term, stable application platform to build, run and manage their Spring-powered applications.

Customers who are using SpringSource Enterprise, available under a subscription, will receive maintenance releases for three years from the general availability of a major new version. These customers receive ongoing, rapid patches as well as regular maintenance releases to address bugs, security vulnerabilities and usability issues, making SpringSource Enterprise the best option for production systems.

After a new major version of Spring is released, community maintenance updates will be issued for three months to address initial stability issues. Subsequent maintenance releases will be available to SpringSource Enterprise customers. Bug fixes will be folded into the open source development trunk and will be made available in the next major community release of the software . . .
 
Johan Pelgrim
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I posted this comment at the announcement from Springsource:

Hi Daryl,

The http://www.springsource.com/certification page is very clear about who can register for the test; only if you attended the Spring Core course, or have demonstrated that you contributed to the Spring community� If I have not done any of these two can I not register for the exam? That seems odd. If I should be able to register for the exam could you please make that clear on the http://www.springsource.com/certification page?

Thanks in advance for your clarifications!

Johan



Daryl replied as follows:

Hi Johan,

You state that it seems odd that you can not register for the exam if you have not satisfied any one of the criteria for a candidate. The certification provided by the successful completion of the exam is more than just "passing an exam." It is an acknowledgement by SpringSource, Inc. that you have the baseline knowledge and experience of an implementer that incorporates the Spring framework.

This is why we ask for some form of reference to the projects you have worked on if you wish to qualify as a "grandfathered" candidate. It is important that when prospective employers or hiring managers see "certified" framework professional, that they know that there is more than academic knowledge associated with the certification.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,
Daryl Heinz
Director of Training
SpringSource, Inc.



Well... that's it then. You have to take the course or contribute a lot to the Spring community. I don't understand Springsource's marketing model, but there are probably a lot of marketing folks at Springsource who think it's a great idea.

Thanks everybody, for asking around and clearing this up!
[ September 29, 2008: Message edited by: jpelgrim ]
 
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does this mean it is time to switch back to JEE 5/6 ?
 
Leonardo Pinho
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or switch to Jboss Seam...
 
Theodore Casser
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Originally posted by Leonardo Pinho:
It seems that we'll now need to _buy commercial support_ if we want maintenance releases after 3 months from the major new release



Aside from this really being unrelated to what is being discussed... you're missing a few points here.
  • It's three years, not three months, as mentioned in the section you quoted.
  • This only pertains to their Enterprise product - I don't know that it's necessarily the same for the framework
  • The framework itself is open-source, so... your support there already is "community based" rather than from them, no?
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    Leonardo Pinho
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    1. Sorry, but unfortunetly it is three months from the major release (read the text again please)

    2. The enterprise product http://www.springsource.com/products/enterprise is the spring framework with maintenance/support and additional features, like SpringSource Tool Suite, SpringSource AMS, etc.

    3. Yes, but the big difference is now we won't have access to the minor releases after 3 months (from the major release). At least we will still have access to the source code from the public trunk, so you can build a release by yourself.
     
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