Java Enterprise in a Nutshell: A Practical Guide - Softcover

Farley, Jim; Crawford, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0596101422 ISBN 13: 9780596101428

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, 2005

Synopsis

Nothing is as constant as change, and this is as true in enterprise computing as anywhere else. With the recent release of Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4, developers are being called on to add even greater, more complex levels of interconnectivity to their applications.

To do this, Java developers today need a clear understanding of how to apply the new APIs, use the latest open source Java tools, and learn the capabilities and pitfalls in Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4 -- so they can plan a technology and implementation strategy for new enterprise projects.

Fortunately, this is exactly what they get with the new Java Enterprise in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition. Because most integrated development environments (IDE) today include API lookup, we took out the main API sections from our previous edition to make room for new chapters, among others, on Ant, Cactus, Hibernate, Jakarta Struts, JUnit, security, XDoclet, and XML/JAXP.

Revised and updated for the new 1.4 version of Sun Microsystems Java Enterprise Edition software, Java Enterprise in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition is a practical guide for enterprise Java developers.

About this title

Review

For the intermediate to advanced Java developer, Java Enterprise in a Nutshell shows how to work with all of today's relevant Java APIs. Plus, it's a topnotch reference for all enterprise classes. Part tutorial and part reference work that you can use everyday at your desk, this title is a worthwhile resource for any Java developer building Web or enterprise software.

The practical, succinct focus here on actual Java enterprise APIs helps distinguish this text from the pack. Early sections provide short, clear examples along with just enough background to help you use APIs like JDBC, servlets and JSPs, EJBs, and others. Coverage of Java's ability to interface with legacy CORBA systems is just excellent, with a full tour of Java IDL, CORBA services, and Remote Method Invocation (RMI). Typically, readers will be familiar with some J2EE APIs and not others. This book can help fill in the gaps.

Updated with the latest standards from Sun, including JDBC 3.0, Servlet 2.3, and EJB 2.0, this is an essential primer for today's high-end (and high-paying) Java. The basic presentation of servlets/JSP and EJBs (among the most important APIs for current Java Web development) is concise and nicely digestible. We also liked the chapter on JMS for messaging (also a hotbed of Java job activity).

The second half of this text lists every J2EE class, along with methods and properties, in a very valuable reference section that makes good use of two-toned shading for easy access. Entries are organized by package name. (One small oversight here is that an index of cross-listed packages, classes, and methods omits page numbers.)

Overall, this book is truly indispensable for any working Java programmer. The second edition of Java Enterprise in a Nutshell is a fully up-to-date tutorial and reference that lives up to the standards of O'Reilly’s Nutshell series. Both thorough and concise, it's a handy resource for anyone who works with the hundreds and thousands of Java enterprise APIs on a regular basis. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Introduction to enterprise computing with the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), survey of Java enterprise APIs, JDBC 3.0 (including database connections, ResultSets, prepared statements, BLOB fields, transaction support, stored procedures), the JDBC Optional Package (and connection pooling), Remote Method Invocation (RMI) described (building stubs and skeletons, dynamically loaded classes and remote object activation, RMI over IIOP), in-depth tutorial for Java IDL (with CORBA) and designing remote objects, Java Servlet 2.3 APIs (basic servlet processing and the servlet lifecycle, chaining and filters, thread safety, managing state, cookies, servlets used with JDBC), JavaServer Pages (JSP): including custom tags, JNDI and directory tutorial (contexts, looking up objects, accessing and modifying directory entries), Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) 2.0 (conventions for entity, session and message beans, using transactions), Java XML APIs (DOM, SAX and XSLT), Java Message Service (JMS), point-to-point and publish-subscribe messaging models, message selectors, JavaMail, reference to SQL and relational databases, RMI tools, reference to all IDL keywords, data types and declarations; CORBA services, Java IDL tool reference, Enterprise JavaBeans Query Language (EJB QL) 2.0 query language, and an alphabetical listing of all APIs for Java enterprise programming (listing of classes, methods, and properties).

About the Author

Jim Farley is a technology strategist, architect, manager and author. His current focus is his role as the technology solutions architect for the Harvard Business School, working to assemble enterprise systems for both the instructional and back-office operations at the school. Jim also consults for various organizations in strategic technology and development, lectures in the computer science department at Harvard's Division of Continuing Education, and publishes articles in a number of forums. Jim's history with computing, enterprise and otherwise, has spanned numerous domains, including manufacturing, artificial intelligence, multimedia, collaboration tools, and content management.

William Crawford has developed web-based enterprise applications since 1995, including one of the first web-based electronic medical record systems, and some of the first enterprise-level uses of Java. He's also consulted for Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical Center, and several Fortune 500 companies. He was Chief Technology Officer at Invantage, Inc., and Principal Software Architect at Perceptive, Informatics, Inc. He is also the co-author O'Reilly's of "J2EE Design Patterns" and "Java Servlet Programming." Will has taken a temporary leave from Enterprise Java development to pursue MBA and MS degrees at MIT.

John G. Norman has been developing web-based products and services for more than 10 years, and has been working with technology since he was introduced in the mid 70s to an IBM 1130 running FORTRAN and APL. Since 1999 he's worked on social networking products, business analytics, and e-commerce at companies such as Cambridge Incubator, Veritas Medicine, Elytics, and, currently, H3.com, where he is the Chief Software Architect. John has taught literature at Ohio State, new media at the New School, and engineering at Harvard University's Extension Division. He holds a PhD in English Literature from Harvard.

Justin Gehtland, a professional programmer, instructor, speaker and pundit since 1992, has developed real-world applications using VB, COM, .NET, Java, Perl and a slew of obscure technologies since relegated to the trash heap of history. His focus on "connected" applications led him to COM+, ASP/ASP.NET and JSP. Justin is the co-author of "Effective Visual Basic" and "Windows Forms Programming in Visual Basic .NET" (both Addison Wesley). He is currently the Agility columnist on The Server Side .NET, works as a consultant through his company Relevance, LLC, and teaches for DevelopMentor.

Prakash Malani has extensive experience in architecting, designing, and developing software in many application domains, such as entertainment, finance, retail, medicine, communications, and interactive television. He practices and mentors leading technologies such as J2EE, the Unified Modeling Language (UML), and XML. Prakash also teaches (and preaches) best practices and design patterns at institutions such as California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He has published various articles in industry leading publications such as JavaWorld and WebLogic Developers Journal.

Edition details

• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0596101422
• ISBN 13: 9780596101428
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 892