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<chapter>
  <title>What This Guide Covers</title>

  <para>
    Snowdrop is a utility package that contains JBoss-specific
    extensions to the Spring Framework. These extensions are
    either:
  </para>
  <itemizedlist>
    <listitem>
      <para>
        extensions to Spring Framework classes that can be used
        wherever the generic implementations provided by the framework do
        not integrate correctly with JBoss AS.
      </para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
      <para>
        extensions for deploying and running Spring applications with 
        JBoss AS.
      </para>
    </listitem>
  </itemizedlist>

  <para>
    This user guide aims to cover the functionality of Snowdrop, to
    describe its components, and to provide information on how to use it
    optimally for running Spring applications in JBoss AS.
  </para>

  <important>
    <title>Supported Spring Version</title>
    <para>
      Snowdrop 2.0 and subsequent micro-release versions (2.0.1, 2.0.2,
      etc.) should be used with Spring 2.5 (preferred version being
      Spring 2.5.6.SEC03) or Spring 3.0 (preferred version being
      3.0.6.RELEASE and above). Later Spring versions (3.1, 3.2. etc.) may
      be compatible with Snowdrop 2.0 as long as they maintain binary
      compatibility with Spring 3.0. In such cases, the instructions
      regarding Spring 3.0 apply to Spring 3.1 and later as well.
    </para>
  </important>
  
   <important>
    <title>Supported JBoss Version</title>
    <para>
      Snowdrop 2.0 and subsequent micro-release versions (2.0.1, 2.0.2,
      etc.) should be used with JBoss AS 5.x, JBoss AS 6.x or JBoss AS 7.x.
    </para>
  </important>
</chapter>