⭐ New Features

• Add native reflection hints for StepContext and JobContext #4228
• Add Micrometer counter for job launches in JobLauncher #4226
• Add full support for MariaDB as a separate product #3891

🚀 Enhancements

• Improve @SpringBatchTest to autowire the job under test in JobLauncherTestUtils if it is unique #4218
• Improve Micrometer's meter registry customization #4224
• Improve Micrometer's observation registry customization #4222

Deprecations and API changes

• Change return type of counting methods in various DAOs from int to long #4227

🔨 Dependency Upgrades

• Upgrade to Spring Framework 6.0.0-RC4
• Upgrade to Spring Data 2022.0.0-RC2
• Upgrade to Spring Integration 6.0.0-RC2
• Upgrade to Spring AMQP 3.0.0-RC1
• Upgrade to Spring for Apache Kafka 3.0.0-RC2
• Upgrade to Spring Retry 2.0.0-RC2
• Upgrade to Micrometer 1.10.0

❤️ Contributors

We'd like to thank all the contributors who worked on this release!

Full Change log: 5.0.0-RC1...5.0.0-RC2