:star: New Features

• Avoid unnecessary list creation and processing in AbstractTestContextBootstrapper #35995
• AbstractTestContextBootstrapper should resolve ContextLoader only once #35994
• Log RetryException for @Retryable methods #35983
• Consistently stop already started Lifecycle beans on cancelled refresh #35964
• Support timeouts in @Retryable and RetryPolicy #35963
• Use == instead of instanceof for primitive array type checks #35962
• Introduce MultiValueMapCollector for use with streams #35958
• Avoid package cycle caused by use of UriComponentsBuilder in ServletServerHttpRequest #35952
• Target type in Converter interface should be @Nullable #35947
• Provide access to attempt count in RetryListener as well as callbacks for the initial attempt #35940
• DefaultHandshakeHandler should not log client faults on error level #35930
• Log warning when meta-annotation is ignored due to types not present in classpath #35927
• Revise ApplicationContext#getId() nullability to non-null #35925
• Use concurrent set behind reactive TransactionSynchronizationManager#registerSynchronization #35921
• Refine AbstractKotlinSerializationHttpMessageConverter#canWrite #35920
• Register bean dependency for Optional injection point as well #35919
• Change canRead/canWrite overrides to Class ones in AbstractSmartHttpMessageConverter #35916
• Do not make HttpHeaders read-only in HttpEntity #35888
• Add WebFlux SSE support with GSON #35884
• Different ReactorNettyWebSocketSession call getId() may return the same value #35883
• Refine nullability of Assert#noNullElements #35868
• Allow configuring default maxIdleTime on InMemoryWebSessionStore. #35866
• Refine BindingReflectionHintsRegistrar with ObjectToObjectConverter hints #35847
• Add resetCaches() method to general CacheManager interface #35845
• Enhance handleTypeMismatch error message in ResponseEntityExceptionHandler #35837
• Add support for package-private BeanRegistrar in Spring AOT generated code #35803
• Use ExtendedServletRequestDataBinder/ExtendedWebExchangeDataBinder for functional request binding #35800
• Expose Collection on FragmentsRendering to facilitate Unit Tests #35775
• Improve i18n-support for NoResourceFoundException #35758
• Cache resolved singleton beans in injected Provider instance #35373

:lady_beetle: Bug Fixes

• ContextConfigurationAttributes(Class) constructor incorrectly sets inheritLocations to false #36000
• NullPointerException thrown from JdkClientHttpRequestFactory for null request header value #35996
• State inconsistency in LazyConnectionDataSourceProxy when connection settings fail #35980
• SubscriberInputStream#resume misuses parked thread reference #35978
• Shared EntityManager returned by AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean cannot be advised by AspectJ interceptor #35974
• RestClient cannot make HEAD requests when the response declares gzip Content-Encoding #35966
• ServerRequestObservationContext(s) miss Propagator.Getter method implementation #35965

:notebook_with_decorative_cover: Documentation

• Correct link to Reactive Libraries in reference docs #35970
• Document that annotations are ignored if attributes reference types not present in the classpath #35959
• Remove JUnit 4 based meta-annotation example #35903
• Refer to "Spring Tools" instead of "Spring Tools for Eclipse" in reference manual #35901
• Document that SpringExtension requires JUnit Jupiter 6.0 or higher #35900
• Fix broken Javadoc links to methods #35899
• Clarify JMS sessionTransacted flag for local versus global transaction #35897
• Reference docs should not use obsolete "junit5" links #35892

:hammer: Dependency Upgrades

• Upgrade to json-path 2.10.0 #35924
• Upgrade to Micrometer 1.16.1 #35984
• Upgrade to Reactor 2025.0.1 #35985

:heart: Contributors

Thank you to all the contributors who worked on this release:

@JohnNiang, @Pankraz76, @florianhof, @ivonaest, @izeye, @jnizet, @ngocnhan-tran1996, @remeio, and @zamzterz