The Spring Framework provides abstractions for asynchronous execution and scheduling of tasks with the TaskExecutor and TaskScheduler interfaces, respectively. Spring also features implementations of those interfaces that support thread pools or delegation to CommonJ within an application server environment. Ultimately the use of these implementations behind the common interfaces abstracts away the differences between Java SE 5, Java SE 6 and Java EE environments.

Spring also features integration classes for supporting scheduling with the Timer, part of the JDK since 1.3, and the Quartz Scheduler (http://www.opensymphony.com/quartz/). Both of those schedulers are set up using a FactoryBean with optional references to Timer or Trigger instances, respectively. Furthermore, a convenience class for both the Quartz Scheduler and the Timer is available that allows you to invoke a method of an existing target object (analogous to the normal MethodInvokingFactoryBean operation).