Just now getting my hands on the SpringSource Application Platform. It's deceptive, because there's very little functionality exposed when you run it. It starts up with less ceremony than Apache or Tomcat. (Which is kind of funny, when you consider that it includes Tomcat.)

When you look at the bundle repository, though, it's clear that a lot of stuff is packaged in here. In a way, that's like the Spring framework itself. On the surface, it looks like just a bean configurator. All the really powerful stuff is in the libraries built out of that small core.

Here's a quick listing of the bundles in version 1.0.0.beta: 

./bundles/ext/com.springsource.com.google.common.collect-0.5.0.alpha.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.edu.emory.mathcs.backport-3.0.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.activation-1.1.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.annotation-1.0.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.ejb-3.0.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.el-2.1.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.jms-1.1.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.mail-1.4.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.persistence-1.0.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.servlet-2.5.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.servlet.jsp-2.1.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.servlet.jsp.jstl-1.1.2.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.xml.bind-2.0.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.xml.rpc-1.1.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.xml.soap-1.3.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.xml.stream-1.0.1.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.javax.xml.ws-2.1.1.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.json-1.0.0.BUILD-20080422112602.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.antlr-3.0.1.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.aopalliance-1.0.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.apache.catalina-6.0.16.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.apache.commons.fileupload-1.2.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.apache.commons.io-1.4.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.apache.commons.logging-1.1.1.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.apache.coyote-6.0.16.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.apache.el-6.0.16.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.apache.jasper-6.0.16.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.apache.jasper.org.eclipse.jdt-6.0.16.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.apache.juli.extras-6.0.16.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.apache.taglibs.standard-1.1.2.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.aspectj.runtime-1.6.0.m2.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.org.aspectj.weaver-1.6.0.m2.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.slf4j.org.apache.commons.logging-1.5.0.jar
./bundles/ext/com.springsource.slf4j.org.apache.log4j-1.5.0.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.aop-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.aspects-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.beans-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.context-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.context.support-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.core-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.jdbc-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.jms-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.orm-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.osgi.core-1.1.0.M2A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.osgi.extender-1.1.0.M2A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.osgi.io-1.1.0.M2A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.transaction-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.web-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.web.portlet-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.web.servlet-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/ext/org.springframework.web.struts-2.5.4.A.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.common/com.springsource.platform.common.env-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.common/com.springsource.platform.common.math-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.concurrent/com.springsource.platform.concurrent.core-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.config/com.springsource.platform.config.core-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.control/com.springsource.platform.control.core-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.deployer/com.springsource.platform.deployer.core-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.deployer/com.springsource.platform.deployer.hot-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.ffdc/com.springsource.platform.ffdc.core-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.io/com.springsource.platform.io.core-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.kernel/com.springsource.platform.kernel.core-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.kernel/com.springsource.platform.kernel.dm-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.management.proxy/com.springsource.platform.management.proxy-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.profile/com.springsource.platform.profile.core-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.serviceability/com.springsource.platform.serviceability.ffdc-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.serviceability/com.springsource.platform.serviceability.ffdc.aspects-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.serviceability/com.springsource.platform.serviceability.tracing.aspects-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.servlet/com.springsource.platform.servlet.core-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.servlet/com.springsource.platform.servlet.tomcat-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.system/com.springsource.platform.system.core-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.web/com.springsource.platform.web.core-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.web/com.springsource.platform.web.dm-1.0.0.beta.jar
./bundles/subsystems/com.springsource.platform.web/com.springsource.platform.web.support-1.0.0.beta.jar

There's clearly a lot of functionality built in, but how do you get at it? The SAP, erm, SpringSource AP documentation screams for improvement. Maybe they think that, because all the parts are documented elsewhere, there's no need for any integrated docset. If so, they would be wrong. Despite that, I'm interested enough to keep poking away at it.

Oh, and one other thing: the default administrator account is admin/springsource. (It's actually defined in servlet/conf/tomcat-users.xml.) For some reason, that's buried in chapter 5 of the user guide. It would be handy to make that more prominent.