Updated 10/8/14: In reality you only need a couple of the core jars because all the others will be pull in as dependencies. For example, for a 3.2.11 web app using Spring MVC, these two are sufficient:
<dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId> <version>3.2.11.RELEASE</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId> <version>3.2.11.RELEASE</version> </dependency>
Starting a new Spring-based project from scratch, what Spring libraries do you need in your maven pom file? This post has a good list with an explanation of each – here’s the list from the article (for Spring 3.0):
<!-- Shared version number properties -->
<properties>
<org.springframework.version>3.0.0.RELEASE</org.springframework.version>
</properties>
<!--
Core utilities used by other modules.
Define this if you use Spring Utility APIs (org.springframework.core.*/org.springframework.util.*)
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.core</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
Expression Language (depends on core)
Define this if you use Spring Expression APIs (org.springframework.expression.*)
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.expression</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
Bean Factory and JavaBeans utilities (depends on core)
Define this if you use Spring Bean APIs (org.springframework.beans.*)
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.beans</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) Framework (depends on core, beans)
Define this if you use Spring AOP APIs (org.springframework.aop.*)
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.aop</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
Application Context (depends on core, expression, aop, beans)
This is the central artifact for Spring's Dependency Injection Container and is generally always defined
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.context</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
Various Application Context utilities, including EhCache, JavaMail, Quartz, and Freemarker integration
Define this if you need any of these integrations
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.context.support</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
Transaction Management Abstraction (depends on core, beans, aop, context)
Define this if you use Spring Transactions or DAO Exception Hierarchy
(org.springframework.transaction.*/org.springframework.dao.*)
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.transaction</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
JDBC Data Access Library (depends on core, beans, context, transaction)
Define this if you use Spring's JdbcTemplate API (org.springframework.jdbc.*)
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.jdbc</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
Object-to-Relation-Mapping (ORM) integration with Hibernate, JPA, and iBatis.
(depends on core, beans, context, transaction)
Define this if you need ORM (org.springframework.orm.*)
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.orm</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
Object-to-XML Mapping (OXM) abstraction and integration with JAXB, JiBX, Castor, XStream, and XML Beans.
(depends on core, beans, context)
Define this if you need OXM (org.springframework.oxm.*)
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.oxm</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
Web app development utilities common across Servlet/Portlet environments (depends on core, beans, context)
Define this if you use Spring MVC, or wish to use Struts, JSF, or another web framework with Spring (org.springframework.web.*)
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.web</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
Spring MVC for Servlet Environments (depends on core, beans, context, web)
Define this if you use Spring MVC with a Servlet Container such as Apache Tomcat (org.springframework.web.servlet.*)
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.web.servlet</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
Spring MVC for Portlet Environments (depends on core, beans, context, web)
Define this if you use Spring MVC with a Portlet Container (org.springframework.web.portlet.*)
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.web.portlet</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!--
Support for testing Spring applications with tools such as JUnit and TestNG
This artifact is generally always defined with a 'test' scope for the integration testing framework and unit testing stubs
-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.test</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
For a Spring 3.1 MVC web app, here’s a similar list (also including JSTL jars) – notice the artifact id names changed between Sprintg 3.0 to 3.1:
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
<artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
<version>1.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>taglibs</groupId>
<artifactId>standard</artifactId>
<version>1.1.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
<version>3.1.0.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
<version>3.1.0.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
<version>3.1.0.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
<version>3.1.2.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
<version>3.1.2.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<pre></dependencies>