[ale] Re: Making sense of the Java mess....

[Robert Gash]

On Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:12:25 -0500 (EST), John Wells was overheard saying:
|  Is there a good book out there that provides an introduction encompassing
|  most of these technologies?  If not, what would Ale'rs recommend as a good
|  starting point or learning path?

I have worked with J2EE technologies (primarily open source) for a
number of years and I haven't found a single comprehensive book that
provides a respectable taxonomy of the J2EE technology spectrum.
However, there are individual resources that are quite good that can
give you a good start:

1) For EJB information, check out two books, one is "Mastering EJB 2"
and the other is "EJB design patterns."  Both of these books are
available as free PDFs from http://www.theserverside.com (the Slashdot
of the J2EE/Java world).  Check under their "Books" section.  Both are
also available as paperbacks from your favorite bookseller.

I have read a number of the books relating to EJB and I have been the
most impressed with Mastering EJB 2.  In addition to the wonderful
price for the electronic copy it provides a good overview of how,
what, and where to use EJBs.  Coupled with EJB Design Patterns, which
covers architectural patterns useful when developing systems with EJB,
you get a wonderful kickstart into the world of EJB.

If you're looking for a good container to test your EJBs in, check out
Orion (http://www.orionserver.com/) or JBoss (open source,
http://www.jboss.org).  Orion is essentially sold as a white label
product by Oracle as their Oracle 9i Application Server (AS), and
JBoss is based out of Atlanta.

2) For general web framework overview check out the Wafer project
(http://www.waferproject.org/).  Each framework is different, and
there are a LOT of web frameworks available.  Don't ignore the
alternatives to Struts because everyone is using Struts, WebWork and
Tapestry are very good choices and can be easier to use than Struts.

The wafer project attempts to provide a catalog of web frameworks,
with feature lists and an implementation of a dummy application that
is available for every framework, designed to allow you to see how an
application written for that framework is built.

3) For JSP and Servlet information, the Core Servlets and More
Servlets books are wonderful starting points.  The Core Servlets book
is now available as a free PDF from http://www.moreservlets.com/.  I
own copies of both books and I have been very pleased with them.

These are just a few of the many books available on the subject, but
should serve to get you started in the J2EE technology space.

Also of interest may be the Atlanta Java User's Group
(http://www.ajug.org).  They have monthly meetings covering a wide
variety of Java topics, with a heavy focus on enterprise technologies.

-R

-- 
Robert Gash, gashalot at gashalot.com
(Web) http://gashalot.com/
(PGP) http://gashalot.com/pgpkeys.txt

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