|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pro Java EE 5; Performance Management and Optimization
Steven Haines |
|
|
Apress
Published: 11 May, 2006 | |
This is a one of a kind book. It is the only one that discusses performance maintenance and optimization for all your Java EE applications, from code to servers.
The first section covers processes that you need to have in the full lifecycle of your application. Starting monitoring and performance tuning early on in the process to make it easier to keep your app performing at its best.
The second part covers performance tuning, where to best tune your application for the biggest bang for your buck, from the JVM, first place to tune, to your pooling and other configurations.
The third part covers tuning your production environment, which should be easy, as long as you have statistics already from your development to test server load balancing.
And finally the last part has tips and tricks.
For just the 10 pages on JVM Heap/Garbage Collection and tuning alone is worth the price of the book.
This book should be your single source of performance tuning and monitoring for all Java EE Applications. It is your bible on performance.
(Mark Spritzler - Sheriff,
September 2006)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Effective Enterprise Java
Ted Neward |
|
|
Addison-Wesley Professional
Published: 05 September, 2004 | |
"Effective Enterprise Java" is similar in format and quality to "Effective Java". It is written at a higher level as it applies to J2EE systems, rather than the Java language. The 75 items include architecture/design (batch SQL to avoid server round trips) and coding level (serialverUID) tips. They do lean toward the architecture/design level tips as the author refers to "Enterprise Java" for more lower level ones.
The tradeoffs of various techniques are highlighted rather than just relying on best practices. For example, "use object-first persistence", "use relational-first persistence" and "use procedural-first persistence" are all included as tips. Obviously, you wouldn't want to do all of these at once. However, the discussion of when to use each is extremely valuable.
All the trips are grouped by topic. Where appropriate, code snippets are used quite effectively (no pun intended.) Examples and anecdotes prevent the material from getting dry. This book is destined to become a classic. I highly recommend it for any J2EE developer, designer or architect.
(Jeanne Boyarsky - Bartender,
December 2005)
| |
|
Addison-Wesley Professional
Published: 05 September, 2004 | |
|
As anyone who has programmed using Servlets, JSPs, and EJBs knows, the complexities of integrating multiple layers of code can drive you to distraction. If you aren't careful, you can create an application that performs poorly under load, is difficult to maintain, and is impossible to port from one platform to another. The tricks that a programmer needs to avoid these problems often come painfully with experience. The author has taken his experience and given us a book that is well-written, easy to understand, and provides excellent advice to help you produce superior applications. The best part is that the advice you get is practical advice from someone who has actually experienced the pain and suffering of J2EE development. This book deals in the reality of development and not pie-in-the-sky theory.
The book contains seventy-five items of discussion covering a wide range of topics from the broad, "Keep it simple" to the specific, "Never cede control outside your component while holding locks." The items cover everything from architecture to coding. Even if a particular item is not of interest to you, there will be plenty of other items that will be of interest.
This book is not a tutorial or beginner's book. It is expected that the reader already has experience with J2EE. If that describes you, get this book to avoid more pain and suffering. You will end up a better developer and your applications will be cleaner and easier to maintain.
(Thomas Paul - Sheriff,
November 2004)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Struts Design and Programming
Budi Kurniawan |
|
|
BrainySoftware.com
Published: 01 April, 2005 | |
You can save lot of time on browsing Internet on finding tutorials on Struts, yes this book gives you everything that you need to know on programming Struts.
Best buy for both the beginners and the experts, also tips you as a handy reference.
This book serves more than a tutorial on Struts. Even though you can find lot of free short online tutorials, this book made a great deal on putting together explaining every concept of the framework in a precise and down to earth manner.
You don't have to refer other books/sites, because each chapter is fully driven with examples, screen shots of application output framed on a browser, screen shots of webapp directory structure and the code snippets.
I particularly liked the chapters that covered the tasks like file upload, dataacesss,l18n and paging-sorting. I also liked the table listing the attributes, type and a short definition of every tag which is something that every programmer will look for.
The example codes were made ready to use with no complexity on configuring and understanding the package structure. (A little work is needed anyway).
Overall this is one of the effective Struts tutorial available in the market now.
(Balaji Loganathan - Bartender,
May 2005)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions
Gregor Hohpe, Bobby Woolf |
|
|
Addison-Wesley Professional
Published: 20 October, 2003 | |
Enterprise Integration Patterns is part of Addison-Wesley's new Martin Fowler Signature Series, which Fowler's Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (PoEAA) is also a part of. I was very satisfied with PoEAA and the same can be said about Enterprise Integration Patterns. It has the potential to become a classic.
The authors' writing style is a pleasure to read -- no ambiguous statements, no unnecessary babbling. The book is structured to suit both cover-to-cover reading and a "dive-in" approach for situations where you're looking for a solution to a particular problem. After an introduction to the field of enterprise integration, and a discussion of why the book concentrates on the messaging integration style in particular, the reader is given a hierarchical catalog of patterns revolving around a small set of "core" patterns. The book's coverage is in my opinion very well scoped.
I must also praise the look of the book; besides the layout being familiar from prior works and the proven pattern catalog structuring, the authors have used graphics very efficiently. Not only the authors define a vocabulary for integration patterns, but they have also come up with an expressive visual language for illustrating the patterns using simple notations that can be easily drawn without CASE tools.
I found only two downsides for this book. First, the title can be slightly misleading as the book focuses on messaging as an integration style and only briefly mentions alternatives such as RPC, file transfer, and shared databases. However, I don't know a single person who doesn't read the back cover before buying a book, so I wouldn't count this as a big issue. Furthermore, the reason for focusing on messaging is thoroughly argued in the book. The second downside is the code examples, which are presented using varying languages and products and seem somehow disconnected from the text.
In summary, Enterprise Integration Patterns is a great book. It's worth reading and re-reading if you're working with systems integration projects or writing integration software yourself. Yet another book that makes me think, "I wish I had it back then..."
(Lasse Koskela - Bartender,
December 2003)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
Martin Fowler, et al |
|
|
Addison-Wesley Professional
Published: 15 November, 2002 | |
Simply put, you can't go wrong with a Martin Fowler book and this one is no exception. If you climbed the mountain to get advice from the IT guru at the top, he'll probably quote from this book.
Born on the web and rarefied by reviews and discussions with Fowler's colleagues and peers, including JavaRanch bartender Kyle Brown, this book is full of ideas that will help you make decisions related to enterprise applications architecture.
Writing in the same easy-to-read style as his past works, Fowler presents over fifty patterns that are mainly focused on layered architectures. And while Fowler readily admits that none of the ideas are new, developers, experienced or otherwise, will nonetheless benefit from the collective wisdom and experience of Fowler and all who contributed to the book.
To get the most out of this book, be sure to read the introductory chapters and understand the author's intent. There are many code examples, mostly in Java with a few in C#. I doubt though that you can use the code without some sort of tweaking; they are all meant to show the core of the pattern. Ultimately, you have the best understanding of your requirements and you have to make the decisions that affect your application's architecture. To paraphrase Fowler, don't use the examples as glorified macros but as a way to stimulate your own thinking. And believe me, this book has more than enough to get you thinking.
(Junilu Lacar - Bartender,
March 2003)
| |
|
Addison-Wesley Professional
Published: 15 November, 2002 | |
|
It's a patterns book, it's by Martin Fowler, and it's good. But how good is it?
It is actually two books in one. This is discussed in the book, but the second half is a list of patterns including the information required to make them useful. Reasonably standard, except that the patterns are presented in a language neutral manner that gives Java developers a view into the .Net world and vice versa.
The best part is still the first section. There is a general discussion on enterprise applications including common problems and ways to solve them depending on the way it shows up in your application. Not all of it will be new to everyone, but I'd challenge anyone not to learn anything. Even if you don't agree with all the solutions posed, it has very concise coverage of the problems.
There appeared to be the assumption of a respectable level of experience in the reader, so the book may not be useful to programmers with less than 3-5 years under their belts. This isn't necessarily a down side, but it should be considered if you're considering purchasing the book.
Now a small complaint. Although the first section was great, it discussed the patterns from the section in too much detail. There were some patterns I wasn't familiar with and some that I knew by different names, and it made some sections confusing.
Still well worth a place on the shelf.
(David O'Meara - Bartender,
March 2003)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Professional Java E-Commerce
by Subrahmanyam Allamaraju, et al |
|
Sample chapter6
Sample chapter15
|
Peer Information
Published: February, 2001 | |
|
Despite the size of the book, it covers so many technologies that it cannot be the authoritative reference on any of them. Thus if you want to become a real expert on J2EE then you need the Wrox Professional J2EE book, or if you want to become an expert on JSP Wrox have a big fat book on JSP (recently updated) . Don't buy it if you don't like large chunks of program code within the text, it is physically rather heavy to carry around.
Pros
High level coverage of a wide range of related Java technologies by people who appear to have actually worked with them on real world projects. The authors seem to have actually used the technologies in the real world rather than just read the documents and played with a few toy applications. It gives gives you enough to evaluate how and where you would use each of the technologies and examples of how people have used it in real projects.
Should you buy it?
If you want to be aware of what technologies are available and find out how they can be applied then this is an excellent buy. If you want to start to learn and implement any of the topics mentioned from scratch, you would be better off buying a book that caters specifically for that topic. I will post a more detailed review in the book review forum.
(Marcus Green - ranchHand,
July 2001)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Struts 2 Design and Programming
Budi Kurniawan |
|
|
BrainySoftware
Published: 25 January, 2008 | |
I'm convinced this is and will remain the authoritative book on Struts 2. I know that more are being written but I don't care. You will not find one better.
I've never worked with Struts 2 in the past yet I was able to get a pretty solid understanding of it in a very short amount of time. Granted, I've had plenty of experience with the original Struts, JSF, and other web technologies, but I think even a beginner could pick this up fairly easily.
I let a friend of mine who had used Struts 2 on a project before skim through my copy of Struts 2 Design and Programming to check for any gaping holes or errant information before writing this review. It passed his inspection. (Thanks, Eric!)
I initially was a little skeptical when I saw that this Struts 2 book includes many other topics like DAOs, Velocity, FreeMarker, Dojo, and JFreeChart. These sections actually were quite pleasant to read and were great introductions to those topics without taking anything away from the main topic.
When you start making your way into chapters 5 and 6, feel free to jump around to other chapters. Come back to these chapters every once in a while to chew off two or three of the tags at a time. This tip will add to your reading enjoyment.
Overall, this is a terrific book and I highly recommend it to anyone working with or curious about Struts 2.
(Marc Peabody - Bartender,
February 2008)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Java EE 5 Development using GlassFish Application Server
David R. Heffelfinger |
|
|
Packt Publishing
Published: 30 September, 2007 | |
GlassFish is Sun's open source Java EE application server. It's the reference implementation for the Java EE standard. This book is about GlassFish version 2.
The book starts with a chapter about downloading, installing and configuring GlassFish, followed by nine chapters in which the major Java EE 5 technologies and APIs are explained: servlets, JSP, database connectivity using JDBC and the Java Persistence API, JSTL, JSF, JMS, security, EJB and web services. Chapter 11 goes beyond Java EE and describes facelets, Ajax4jsf and Seam. Finally there are two appendices, about sending e-mail from Java EE applications and about IDE integration (NetBeans and Eclipse).
The book is aimed at Java developers with some experience who want to learn Java EE using GlassFish. The book moves at a fast pace, and gives a good overview and some examples of each of the Java EE APIs. It's not a reference manual that describes the APIs into every detail. Because Java EE is so extensive and the book moves so quickly, I can imagine that it can be overwhelming if you've never seen Java EE before.
The book is really focused on Java EE programming, it does not cover setting up and configuring GlassFish in detail, nor does it cover advanced topics such as clustering and high availability.
I would recommend this book to Java developers who want to learn Java EE. It's a good introduction and gives you a good overview of what Java EE is and shows you by example how to program with Java EE. After this book, you'll want a reference manual that goes into all the details.
(Jesper de Jong - Bartender,
December 2007)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Pro JSF and Ajax: Building Rich Internet Components
Jonas Jacobi, John R. Fallows |
|
|
Apress
Published: 13 February, 2006 | |
When I first saw this title, I thought it was going to teach me how to do JSF and how to hook up JSF to make web pages that use Ajax, so I could create that great app I always wanted. But that is not what this book is about. I just wanted you to know up front.
So what is this book about? It shows you how to create your own custom JSF tags and create some really cool UI widgets. It expects you to have the basic JSF knowledge already, hence the "Pro" in the title. Since I had no JSF background, I had to read another book to get me up to speed.
This book teaches you all about the JSF phases and steps you need to take to create your cool widget. The book uses a Data Picker and a Deck component as their guides, both of which you can use in your own apps. The Deck component is really cool for that MS Outlook Toolbar look and feel. Anyway, I thought they did a great job, I feel confident that I could create my own JSF tags, and that there isn't any other book like it on the market.
If you really want to do some cool stuff, get this book.
(Mark Spritzler - Sheriff,
August 2006)
| |
|
Apress
Published: 13 February, 2006 | |
|
First of all, let it be known that I have no working experience with JSF. As such, I could imagine it not being too pleasant a surprise to some readers that the authors start by recommending other, more basic JSF books because the content will dive right into the deep end. It would be quite alright--it is a "Pro" book, after all--except that the graphic on the back cover implies that no prior JSF knowledge is required. Probably not an issue with most readers, but still worth mentioning, I think.
Regarding the book's content, there's a quite robust structure in place where the authors begin by developing a couple of JSF components (a "deck" container and a date field) through chapters 2 and 3, after giving a run-through overview of JSF in chapter 1. Even though the examples are growing in somewhat large leaps, it is helpful to see the components develop rather than getting them "off the shelf"--otherwise chapters 6 and 7 where the authors show us how to Ajaxify the two JSF components (deck and date field) would've likely been too much information in too short a timeframe.
The examples are thorough and come with loads of readable code listings. In addition, many complex topics were further clarified with a good use of graphics.
The book's scope is a bit too scattered, I think. The authors have dedicated chapter 5 for a useful open source add-on called Weblets, which I consider a good decision. I do not, however, agree with the decision to allocate over a hundred pages for Mozilla XUL and Microsoft HTC. XUL, for example, is a nice technology and serves as a good example of an "alternative" render kit for the de facto HTML one. Still, I would've preferred seeing more complex Ajax techniques such as file uploads demonstrated with JSF instead of just talking about them.
To summarize, I consider the strengths of this book being the thorough examples developed through the chapters and the effective use of graphics to illustrate architectures, execution sequences, and class diagrams. On the negative side, the text was rather heavy and thus difficult to keep up with. Furthermore, some of the more "exotic" content should've been traded in for additional Ajax material, in my opinion. All in all, there's a bunch of information packed into these covers that you're not likely to find elsewhere in such a compact format. I'm giving this one 7 horseshoes.
(Lasse Koskela - Sheriff,
May 2006)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Expert Spring MVC and Web Flow
Seth Ladd, Darren Davidson, Steven Devijver, Colin Yates |
|
|
Apress
Published: 21 February, 2006 | |
While many of the top notch Spring books offer reasonably thorough coverage of the Spring MVC framework along with other core Spring modules, there's not much printed material on Spring Web Flow. This book gives the Spring community a fix that'll keep us satisfied for the time being.
The authors do a good job at introducing in just a dozen pages enough fundamental concepts that a Java web developer needs in order to be ready for the rest of the book. In other words, no long-winded descriptions of the XML configuration files needed for configuring Spring, no detailed descriptions of how to wrap your beans into proxies, etc. Instead, you're taken straight down to business.
The core of the book starts out by first describing the Spring MVC architecture, including the role of controllers and views. Followed by the description of the architecture, the authors take the reader to a rollercoaster ride through the Spring MVC processing pipeline, including how to customize URL mappings, for example.
The chapter on controller components covers everything I can think of and the chapter on views and different view types does a great job at showing how to configure alternative view resolvers, how to internationalize your application's message resources, and how to render alternative content types such as PDF and Excel sheets in addition to covering the mainstream templating languages used for generating HTML, including JSP and JSTL as well as open source frameworks such as Velocity and FreeMarker.
An extra bonus point goes to the authors for including a section on testing Spring applications, even though the focus is mostly on unit testing controllers which is kind of a low-hanging fruit anyway. On the other hand, while topics such as validation and internationalization are discussed, the equally essential aspects of authentication and authorization are not given any attention.
The last two chapters, approximately 60 pages, are devoted to the brand new Spring Web Flow framework. I was glad to see the authors' pragmatic approach to stating the sweet spot for using Web Flow rather than proposing it as the "golden hammer" as they say. The explanation of the Web Flow concepts as well as the examples the authors use for guiding the reader through them are easy to understand.
As a summary, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and got a lot out of it. The only reason I'm not giving this book the absolute best rating possible is that there's a couple of security-related topics missing that I consider essential for any book dedicated to developing web applications.
(Lasse Koskela - Sheriff,
May 2006)
| |
|
Apress
Published: 21 February, 2006 | |
|
This is a very good book for learning the Spring MVC framework. While the authors explicitly state that the book is not an introduction to Spring, they do provide a chapter to introduce Spring as a foundation for the remainder of the book.
The purpose for each topic is clearly described, with easy to understand examples provided, then some sample code is presented with explanations.
In the introduction to the book, the authors describe their “aha” moment, where they first understood the ramifications of using this framework. Their desire to share this feeling shows through in their writing without becoming tiring.
I heartily recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn the Spring MVC framework.
(Andrew Monkhouse - Bartender,
May 2006)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Java Enterprise in a Nutshell
|
Third edition
David Flanagan, Jim Farley, William Crawford |
|
|
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Published: 22 November, 2005 | |
"Java Enterprise in A Nutshell" preserves the spirit of the Nutshell series, but weighs in a t 837 pages. Each chapter covers a different technology in a nutshell. Many of J2EE technologies, such as EJBs and JNDI. Others are J2SE technologies, such as JDBC and XML. There are also chapters on open source tools including Struts, JUnit and Hibernate.
Each chapters aims to be both a short tutorial to the topic containing the most important details. It isn't a complete reference because it is a nutshell, but the chapters still serve as a reference for common tasks. The appendencies contain a more detailed reference on certain topics, such as EJB-QL.
The authors are good about walking you through configuration files and the steps to do common tasks. Conceptual topics and terminology are also included, such as the servlet lifecycle and J2EE security. There are many code examples throughout. In addition to noting best practices, the authors explain when techniques are debated among developers.
The book moves at a fast pace for beginners, but I recommend it for any experienced developers who want a tutorial on different technologies. The only downside is that so many topics are covered, the book can't go into enough depth on each one.
(Jeanne Boyarsky - Bartender,
January 2006)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Second edition
David Flanagan, Jim Farley, William Crawford |
|
|
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Published: April, 2002 | |
This most recent in a nutshell offering from O Reilly hardly seems like it ll fit into a nutshell, at least not any nutshell I ve ever seen. Despite the increase in size (almost double the size of the 1st edition), this book still manages to deliver a concise introduction to Enterprise Java. Part of the increase is the addition of chapters on JSP, XML, JMS, and Java Mail. Many of the chapters carried over from the 1st edition have been updated to the most recent specifications; JDBC 2.0, Servlets 2.2 and 2.3, and JSP 1.2. The entire book is an excellent reference to Enterprise Java, I would not advise it as the only book you have on the subject because it is very concise and an alternative source with different explanations would be very helpful (you can say that about almost any programming book though, so that is hardly an failing). The condensed API at the end of the book is very helpful and its expanded explanations of the different APIs makes it easier to understand them, as opposed to going straight from the Java Docs. Packed with both snippets and full length, compilable code, the examples are very helpful and help to illustrate all of the key concepts of Enterprise Java and go along way to improving the readers understanding. Even if you already have the first edition the additional, and updated content made this second edition a valuable edition to my reference collection.
(David Vick - Bartender,
August 2002)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
First edition
David Flanagan, Jim Farley, William Crawford |
|
Sample chapter
|
O'Reilly
Published: 01 September, 1999 | |
One of the seemingly endless "in a Nutshell" series from O'Reilly, this book follows the basic series format. A few chapters of concise introduction followed by a detailed, if compressed, API reference. In this case the book covers a lot of ground - all the Java APIs which form part of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition: JDBC, RMI, CORBA, JNDI, Servlets, EJB as well as some material on JMS. The edition reviewed is beginning to date a little, as it only covers version 2.1 of Servlets with no JSP, but the vast majority is still solidly useful.
I was worried when I bought this book that they were attempting to cover too much, but I think they have done a remarkable job. This book really is the most readable introduction to J2EE I have found so far. It's small enough to carry about (unlike the massive Wrox tomes), and the API reference can help to keep it useful after you've absorbed the introductory material. It even has a basic SQL reference, which you don't get in some JDBC books!
(Frank Carver - Sheriff,
November 2000)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
An Introduction to IBM Rational Application Developer - A Guided Tour
J. Fung, et al |
|
|
Mc Press
Published: 01 June, 2005 | |
"An Introduction to IBM Rational Application Developer - A Guided Tour" is a good beginners book. The book does not assume you know J2EE. For example, it walks you through what a Servlet is. Each chapter begins with an overview of the technology, which is even more useful for advanced topics like JMS.
The authors walk you through tutorials for the common RAD tasks. If you are already using WSAD, some of the tutorials are overkill. However, the advanced ones are still useful. The authors also provide tips of things that would be good to experiment with. I also found the example projects on CD to be extremely useful.
This IBM Press book doesn't contain much IBM slant. The book uses many common databases including db2, Oracle and SQL Server in each example. Tons of screenshots and code snippets are provided. The authors provide tips on the tool throughout that make you a more efficient developer.
Each chapter stands alone, making the book a good one to read before you try out a new part of RAD. I recommend this book to people new to the WSAD/RAD family of tools or those who want a detailed walkthrough of how to create a basic application in new technologies.
(Jeanne Boyarsky - Bartender,
December 2005)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Pro Spring
Rob Harrop, Jan Machacek |
|
|
Apress
Published: 31 January, 2005 | |
Looking at "Pro Spring", one can immediately see that it packs a lot of information. The page count almost reaches 800 and the table of contents does indeed seem to cover pretty much anything there is to know about the Spring Framework. The first parts of the book introduce the Spring Framework on a bird's eye level, the sample application used throughout the book as a playground for the examples, and explain some basic concepts like Inversion of Control and Spring's basic bean-wiring facilities. After page 150 or so, it's all about digging deep inside the vast number of features and modules under the Spring umbrella.
The Spring AOP framework is introduced quite well, starting from the fundamentals like what is a pointcut, what is a joinpoint, etc. One really understands what the framework is about after reading through the AOP chapters. The data access part, which no doubt is of high interest to most readers, also does a good job on showing how the Spring JDBC framework works. It also presents a very nice "tutorial" on integrating Hibernate with Spring, although it's certainly not by any means a complete resource for learning Hibernate itself. The data access part also covers the iBATIS SqlMap framework for object-relational mapping (and actually uses more pages on that than for the Hibernate integration) which, on the other hand, was a nice surprise. Then again, the authors had decided not to cover Spring's JDO integration at all (only a brief mention somewhere near the beginning) which I would've expected. I gather JDO is not that widely used to date so maybe that isn't a problem (and the Hibernate stuff is very close to what the JDO integration looks like anyway). One specific thing I especially liked about the Hibernate chapter was that the authors had gone through the trouble of actually showing the SQL being generated for the different kinds of mappings. That's not really relevant for Spring but it was such a nice surprise that I felt like mentioning it anyway.
The heart of the book then covers "Spring in the middle tier", i.e. transaction management, integrating J2EE components such as Enterprise JavaBeans, job scheduling, sending email, and remoting with the various protocols supported by Spring. The technologies and APIs are not all there is to this part, though. Chapter 11 provides a more thorough discussion on good design practices and common pitfalls. Actually, the authors have managed to sprinkle these also elsewhere in the book in smaller amounts. The only thing that's really missing here is security, partly because the Spring core project doesn't provide much support for authentication and authorization (that's being handled either by custom frameworks or by the Acegi Security Framework project).
The last 100 pages before appendices have been dedicated to using Spring in web applications. The Spring MVC framework itself was described quite nicely, although I was left hanging a bit trying to wrap my head around the different base classes for controllers, resolvers, and so forth. Then again, I've had the same feeling with all (2) Spring books I've read so far. In addition to the standard JSP view, integration with the Velocity template engine and other alternative view technologies such as XSL transformations, the Tiles framework, PDF generation with iText, and Excel generation with the POI library are briefly demonstrated with JSP tags and Velocity macros getting most of the attention. One short chapter has also been dedicated for presenting the integration between Struts and Spring--a topic that many have struggled with.
Finally, the appendices showcase the Spring Rich project for building rich clients on top of Spring, the Spring IDE Eclipse plugin, and some features that are coming (or have already by now) soon such as JMX integration. Perhaps the most important appendix is, however, the one titled "Testing with Spring", which gets you going with unit and integration tests that use the Spring bean container. I would've loved to read more about this topic but even these few pages are a big help for a beginner since the first steps are often the most critical ones and having someone show initial direction can save the day.
In summary, "Pro Spring" is a good book and a valuable reference in learning Spring. It's not a book you'll want to carry around too much but it does include plenty of sample code (with just a few obvious typos that are easy to figure out) both Java code and the corresponding configuration elements. It's not the be-all-end-all reference for Spring but it's pretty close. A second edition with JDO and Acegi covered could be a full 10 horseshoes.
(Lasse Koskela - Sheriff,
April 2005)
| |
|
Apress
Published: 31 January, 2005 | |
|
Unless you have been living in a cave over the past 18 months, you have most certainly heard of the Spring Framework, the next generation lightweight framework, which integrates numerous widely supported technologies into a well-designed and extensible infrastructure that finally makes J2EE accessible to any frustrated expert and novice developer.
Aside from its impressive set of technical features, Spring's second invaluable asset is incontestably its extensive documentation and examples suite. However, note that Pro Spring is not a blatant clone of the supplied documentation. Instead, it takes a different route in that the authors gracefully introduce Spring by adopting a very pragmatic approach based on their real-world experiences with the framework. What you will read in this book is not theory at all. Fasten your seatbelts and get ready to see Spring at work in all its splendor. The authors spend over 700 pages showing you how to use Spring in practice when dealing with inversion of control, data access with JDBC, Hibernate and iBATIS, AOP, transaction management, EJB, JNDI, JMS, e-mail, Struts, MVC, and much more. Once you'll get through this book, you'll confess that Spring truly is an impressive framework and you'll even ask yourself how you could manage to develop your applications without it.
Finally, note that to get the most out of this book, you should be comfortable with J2EE concepts and the Java platform in general as the authors deliberately stay focused on Spring and its novelties.
(Valentin Crettaz - Sheriff,
March 2005)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Java Network Programming
|
Third edition
by Harold, Elliotte Rusty |
|
|
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Published: October, 2004 | |
In a world where people and machines get more and more connected everyday, it is reasonable to consider the network as being an intrinsic part of nature. No matter whether it is wired or wireless, the network is ubiquitous and it wouldn't be exaggerated to state that 99.9% of all human activities heavily depend on it. Take the network down and get ready to experience chaos! On one hand, such a vision might trigger the scariest nightmares. On the other hand, this massive dependence justifies that we take network concerns very seriously and adopt a mindset that forces us to consider networking as a vital aspect of any information system.
This fully revised edition includes all updates introduced by the latest Java 5 release into one of the most complete and comprehensive reference about Java network programming available today. In order to show you what kind of support Java provides for making sense of all those bytes transiting on the network, the author first discusses some basic network and web concepts and then delves into more specific topics, such as streams, threading, URIs, client and server datagrams and sockets, asynchronous I/O, protocol and content handlers, RMI, the JavaMail API, and many other attractive subjects illustrated by relevant pieces of code.
Whether you consider yourself a novice or advanced Java programmer and you are willing to build network aware applications, don't wait any further and rush to your local store. You won't regret it!
(Valentin Crettaz - Sheriff,
March 2005)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
First edition
by Harold, Elliotte Rusty |
|
Sample chapter
|
O'Reilly
Published: 22 August, 2000 | |
UPDATE - Second edition (August 2000) A brand spanking new copy of an old favorite. Mr. Harold always seems to write books that are way ahead of their time. Then things change, his book becomes outdated and he never updates it. This is the first exception (that I know of). He has an excellent writing style, so the concepts in this book are easy to digest. I've read most of it already and forsee getting a lot of mileage out of this book.
(Paul Wheaton ,
October 2000)
| |
|
O'Reilly
Published: 22 August, 2000 | |
|
I bought this book a year and a half ago. It's good, but outdated. The author, Elliotte Rusty Harold is a good writer and has been on the Java scene a long time. His web site Cafe au Lait is one of my favorites. He must update the site a few times a day. Back to the book review: I do still look stuff up in this book. Mostly things involving network ports, etc. But now I have other books that do a better job of that. It would be great if a second edition of this book came out that included more on RMI and other modern Java network stuff.
(Paul Wheaton ,
January 2000)
| |
|
O'Reilly
Published: 22 August, 2000 | |
|
This book is old (1997) but still relevant and VERY helpful. Harold emailed me a one-word response to this message I sent: "Will there be an updated version"? His response: "yes". I've been too embarrased to write back and ask my second question..."when"?
(Kathy Sierra,
May 1999)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
The Best of Verity Stob
Verity Stob |
|
|
Apress
Published: 24 January, 2005 | |
All Hail to Ve Ri TyStob!
Who else would give you an insight to Mrs Gates and her plights at the Gates Mansion? And introduce the most revolutionary computer game to ever be conceived.
Who is Verity Stob? Good question I have never heard of her before. But, I think that is because I live in the US. And I really don't/didn't read EXE, Dr Dobbs, or The Register. But those are the exact publications Verity has written these columns for.
This book is a collection of Verity's best works, some more hilarious than the others. It really shows us a history of the computer world through a funny satirical eyes of Verity. Some of the stuff goes back to a time where the world invented the wheel, and not living back then, their humor gets lost on me, but some of it still hits the funny bone, even today. The Borland stuff itself is worth getting this book.
I really enjoyed reading this book, it is great to read a computer book that didn't bore you with all that technical stuff.
(Mark Spritzler - Sheriff,
March 2005)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
IBM(tm) WebSphere(tm): Deployment and Advanced Configuration
Roland Barcia, Bill Hines, Tom Alcott, Keys Botzum |
|
|
IBM Press
Published: 05 September, 2004 | |
When a book makes me miss my stop on the bus, I know it's a good book. "IBM WebSphere Deployment and Advanced Configuration" is the WebSphere 5 book I have been waiting for. It is the final one in a series of three, but stands alone if you are familiar with J2EE. (The first book in the series is Kyle Brown's WSAD book -- also excellent and they complement each other well.)
Four IBM WebSphere specialists write the book. They manage to explain everything in a way that is easy to understand, yet detailed. After explaining the WAS (WebSphere Application Server) architecture, the book focuses on major J2EE components. The authors include best-practices and recommendations throughout. Even an appendix on Web Services.
The first three parts of the book cover the portion of WAS applying to all versions. The fourth part covers the Network Deployment version and its specific features. There is also an incredibly useful problem solving section.
While this is not a development book, the authors do highlight deployment decisions that should be made in the development phase and describe the ideal development/testing environment. Except for a few pages, the book is IDE neutral. However, WSAD users will find many things can be done on the IDE or the server.
In the week and a half I've had this book, I have used it as a reference many times. It has already helped me solve several problems. I only wish I had it sooner.
(Jeanne Boyarsky - Bartender,
October 2004)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
J2EE AntiPatterns
Bill Dudney, Stephen Asbury, Joseph K. Krozak, Kevin Wittkopf |
|
|
Wiley
Published: 11 August, 2003 | |
Did you ever have the feeling that there was something wrong with your application design but you just couldn't put your finger on the problem? The authors of this book have taken their own experience developing J2EE applications and produced a book that will help you avoid many mistakes in application design. The book is geared toward helping the experienced designer/developer produce robust, maintainable applications and fixing applications that are not robust and not easily maintained.
The book covers most of the J2EE spectrum. There are sections on JSPs, Servlets, Entity and Session Beans, JMS, and Web Services. There are also sections on general J2EE architecture including distribution, scaling, and persistence. Each chapter gives a background on a specific antipattern, discusses the typical symptoms of the antipattern, and then covers various refactorings that can be used to correct the antipattern. Some of the antipatterns discussed may sound familiar ("too much code in JSPs") but the list of refactorings will provide useful information for even these obvious coding errors if you happen to be supporting an application that suffers from that antipattern.
The authors have done a great job of clearly explaining each antipattern, both explaining why it is an antipattern and what you can do to fix the problem. Each refactoring is demonstrated with code samples as well as with UML diagrams where appropriate. Overall, this is an excellent book that should be on the shelf of anyone involved in designing J2EE applications.
(Thomas Paul - Sheriff,
December 2003)
| |
|
Wiley
Published: 11 August, 2003 | |
|
J2EE AntiPatterns is a must read for any developer that wants to improve their architectural skills. If understanding basic design patterns in software development is necessary then so is the understanding of patterns that are detrimental to overall performance, scalability and maintainability.
Each AntiPattern is presented with a synopsis of aliases, scale, refactorings, refactor type, root causes, unbalanced forces (forces that work with the root cause to realize the AntiPattern) and anecdotal evidence (what a development team may say when stuck in the AntiPattern). Background info, general form, symptoms and consequences, typical causes, exceptions, refactorings, variations, an example and related solutions are provided for each AntiPattern.
The only problems I noted with the book were a few typos and it seemed that some of the AntiPatterns were duplicated under different technologies. This is a reference that all serious J2EE architects should keep along with their copy of the GOF patterns.
(Michael Morris - Bartender,
October 2003)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
J2EE Security for Servlets, EJBs, and Web Services
Pankaj Kumar |
|
|
Prentice Hall PTR
Published: 14 September, 2003 | |
Security is like spinach - it's good for you but not too many people like it. Most security books bore me to tears with page after page of description accompanying three lines of code. This book is different. This book is geared towards actual developers who are looking for not just explanations of security but useful examples showing how to make security work in their applications.
The first section of the book is an introduction to security in general and Java security in particular. The next section looks at the basic technologies and APIs used for encryption, authentication, and authorization. This section starts with a look into cryptography and covers JCA and JCE. It continues with coverage of digital certificates and then looks at controlling access to resources by using policy files. This section ends with a look at SSL and securing XML messages. The final section examines using these technologies in various J2EE applications such as RMI, Servlets, EJBs, and Web Services.
The explanations throughout the book are clear and easy to follow with plenty of code samples to demonstrate how to use the various APIs associated with security in Java programs. The best part of the book is the many code samples provided and the detailed descriptions accompanying these code samples. In addition, the author has provided a group of tools to assist with security development. Over all this is one of the best J2EE security books on the market.
(Thomas Paul - Sheriff,
October 2003)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Core J2EE Patterns: Best Practices and Design Strategies
|
Second edition
by Deepak Alur, John Crupi, Dan Malks |
|
|
Prentice Hall PTR
Published: 10 May, 2003 | |
There are two obvious changes between this second edition and the first edition of this book. First, some new patterns have been added mostly dealing with web services. Second, the book has been released as a hard cover book, presumably because the publisher expects this to last on your shelf as long as the original "Design Pattern" book. The new patterns dealing with web services are a welcome addition to the book although anyone who is interested in this subject will probably want more detail such as found in Paul Monday's book.
Part 1 is an introduction to design patterns and the J2EE platform followed by a catalog of design considerations, bad practices and refactorings. Part 2 is the collection of design patterns and strategies. Each pattern is described in a format which will remind you of the GoF book. Since this has become the standard ormat for presenting design patterns this should not be a surprise. The patterns are well thought out, explained clearly, and demonstrated with some good code samples. If you have the first edition you will be very impressed with the improvements made in this new edition. It appears that virtually every pattern has been reworked to make the pattern easier to understand and use.
This is the book that every J2EE architect and programmer should have on their desk. Anyone designing, architecting, or coding with J2EE will find this book to be extremely useful.
(Thomas Paul - Sheriff,
August 2003)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
First edition
by Deepak Alur, John Crupi, Dan Malks |
|
|
Pearson Education
Published: 26 June, 2001 | |
Not another line of code for Servlets, JSPs, or EJBs should be written by anyone who hasn't read this book and understood the concepts explained. This book is about best practices in designing and coding J2EE applications. The lessons explained here were developed by the Sun Java Center based on their work in the field. As they developed applications for clients they noticed that the same problems occurred over and over again. This book documents the standard solutions to solve these problems that were built as a catalog of design patterns and best practices.
Part 1 is an introduction to design patterns and the J2EE platform. Part 2 is a catalog of bad practices (the authors describe these as, "less than optimal ways to solve problems"), and refactorings (ways to correct these problems). Developers working with poorly designed J2EE applications will find this section especially helpful.
In Part 3, fifteen separate design patterns and strategies are explained. Each pattern is described in detail with the motivation for using the pattern and the design goals to be achieved. UML class and sequence diagrams are included along with detailed code examples that serve to further clarify the pattern. These patterns aren't theoretical constructs but rather are practical strategies that can be applied to real world applications. Using the strategies in this book will make you more productive and your code easier to understand and maintain.
Anyone designing, architecting, or coding with J2EE will find this book to be extremely useful.
(Thomas Paul - Bartender,
November 2001)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Enterprise Java Programming with IBM WebSphere
Kyle Brown, Gary Craig, Greg Hester, Jaime Niswonger, David Pitt, Russell Stinehour |
|
|
Pearson Education
Published: 11 May, 2001 | |
It is a pity that this book might end up being labeled out-of-date because it uses the now already "outdated" VAJ as its IDE.
I requested to review this book because I hoped that I would get the updated book using WSAD 5.0. But after reading the book I realized there was no need to have the updated book. Sure it teaches how to implement certain solutions with VAJ 3.5 and Websphere, but that is not what this book is about. It teaches one what to THINK about when creating web based enterprise solutions, it teaches one to understand what J2EE is all about !!!
What this book also did for me is finally to understand what patterns are all about and why they are needed in the Java world. I for one will start digging into patterns thanks to this book.
It is a well-written book by professionals that clearly know what they are talking about and I highly recommend it. Even though the software the book uses is out of date the knowledge it imparts surely is not.
If you are interested Kyle has a pretty useful site.
As a parting shot, we are planning to use the example project of this book to test our conversion strategy from VAJ 3.5.3 to WSAD x
(Johannes de Jong - Bartender,
August 2002)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Java Programming with Oracle JDBC
by Donald K. Bales, Don Bales |
|
|
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Published: 15 December, 2001 | |
A workmanlike book which achieves its aims.
This book is for Java developers who need to get the most out of using JDBC and Oracle (version 8.1.6). Choosing a specific database allows a lot more detail. Other JDBC books may skip database-dependent parts of the API; this book even gives code examples for the hard stuff. It is slow to read end-to-end, but "dipping" works well - there's almost always a helpful code example nearby.
There are problems, though. The author is obviously very familiar with Oracle, but lacks the experience to make comparisons with other products, this book won't help you choose when to use Oracle. Also I noticed other signs of lack of research - he sometimes gets abbreviations wrong, and the Java code is not particularly well-written.
The big problem for me is that the book assumes you only ever use Oracle. There is no consideration of code portability, it offers no wisdom about avoiding proprietary Oracle-specific extensions. The techniques in this book could easily lock your product into Oracle.
The book has minor discussion of extra features in Oracle8i and Oracle9i, but nothing about JDBC 3. It's less helpful if you are using a version older than 8.1.6, too.
If you have already sold your soul to Oracle, get this book. If you might use other databases, get a more generic book, and keep this one for emergencies.
(Frank Carver - Sheriff,
August 2002)
| |
|
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Published: 15 December, 2001 | |
|
An excellent coverage of Oracle's implementation of JDBC, this book beats your expectations.
Meet the middle ground where the strengths of Java and Oracle work in synergy - the JDBC. Whether making simple database connections or using the Oracle 8i's sophisticated object-relational features, the authors peel the onion very well with detailed information and cleverly written examples. After a brief overview of JDBC, several different types of database clients are discussed in detail - the applets, the Servlets, the Server side internal drivers and those managed by J2EE using JNDI and connection pooling.
A whole section is dedicated to traditional uses of JDBC API such as cursors, submitting prepared statements and ResultSet manipulation. The chapter on Object-Relational SQL covers broad ground on both Weakly Typed Object SQL and Strongly Typed Object SQL.
Enterprise essentials such as Security, locking, transaction management supports for data encryption and SSL issues, performance tuning and testing strategies - are addressed in detail. This book is treasure trove if newer feats of Oracle are of Interest to you. I found immediate application for features such as creating object tables and column objects based on user-defined data types, support for really big streaming BFILEs and LONG RAW data types and batch processing for my project.
Overall, this book has everything you need to learn, know and master in order to leverage the essential two great technologies - JDBC and Oracle. Every serious Java developer should have this at arms reach.
(Ajith Kallambella - Sheriff,
February 2002)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
Designing Enterprise Applications with the J2EE (Second Edition)
by Nicholas Kassem, Enterprise Team |
|
|
Prentice Hall PTR
Published: 04 April, 2002 | |
This review is for the first edition of this book
First of all, the purpose of this book is to describe the big picture of an Enterprise Application in a very simple way. The MVC fundamentals are the basis for this goal and are applied in a perfect manner.
It's a great overview of the APIs involved in J2ee, and it also gives you an idea of the tools that can be used to simplify your work. It doesn't go deep into any topic, but as the title says, it's a book about designing and that's what it covers. It goes over all the existing tiers, explaining in detail the design concepts for each one. I recommend this book to people who have knowledge of the technical aspects but can't figure out how to best apply all these topics together in a large application, and/or have to review a summary of the concepts involved in developing large scale applications.
Each chapter is written by a different author, all Sun experts who lead teams on the subjects they cover, so there we get the added value of an explanation of how the creators think we have to apply the tools they design. Some aspects are out of date, for example the small coverage on xsl, but nothing really crucial.
The sample application is a great example. You can download the whole book and the sample application at the Enterprise Edition Blueprints.
(Marcela Blei - Bartender,
August 2001)
| |
|
More info at Amazon.com ||
More info at Amazon.co.uk
| |
| |
