XDoclet in Action

A guide to the XDoclet development tool that eliminates programming busy work by automatically generating code and other deployment artifacts, this book enables developers who place meta-data in a single source code file, to use XDoclet to generate additional source code and other files that are required in a project. Using both smaller code examples and a full-scale J2EE examples, everything needed to employ XDoclet code generation into a development cycle is provided. In addition to the typical uses of XDoclet in J2EE development, also covered are other uses of XDoclet with non-J2EE technologies such as JDO, Hibernate, JMX, SOAP, and MockObjects. Also, if none of these out-of-the box XDoclet tasks meet the developer's needs, information on how to extend XDoclet to generate practically any code your project requires is furnished.

User review
Excellent Book
I got this book and within the first week had all of my ejbs, struts framework, web descriptors created thru xdoclet. Now I just need to convince the client that the rest of the developers need to jump on board for their other projects and use this excellent tool. A must have for any web/j2ee java developers.

User review
Excellent
This book starts with an overview of code generation and how and why XDoclet fits into your development projects. Xdoclet can generate code, deployment descriptors and configuration files. The authors fully explain how XDoclet integrates with Ant. If you understand Ant, you can easily follow the examples.

The authors then go through tutorials on how to use XDoclet with different aspects of Java development, EJB, web layer, JMX, Struts, etc. The example code and xml files are well documented and easy to follow. One of the best parts is the summary sections that how you how you benefited from using XDoclet and the number of files (code and deployment descriptors) that XDoclet generated for you. The last part of the book is a reference section, so this book is all you need to start using XDoclet.

Reading this book will also give you guidelines on the proper way to code a J2EE application using design patterns and source code organization. The authors cannot explain every topic covered in great detail, so you must understand the underlying framework (Struts, Hibernate, etc.) to use XDoclet, which is summed up by their admonition, `Don't generate what you don't understand.` This book shows you how to solve real-world problems with XDoclet solutions. I would recommend this book (and XDoclet) to every Java developer.

User review
All cool stuff, serious book to serious Java developer
When reading one of the reviews about this book before buying, I hisitated a little due to someone made it `down`. But where is the other option. I got this book and started reading it,,.I cannot put it down. This book is really good one if you are serious J2EE developer and if you've been following up with most of cool Java technologies. The writing style and techical part of this book should be a model for most of those books about J2EE. This book helps me brush up J2EE from frontend to backend, with a lot of little trick and details I cannot get from XDoclet's website.

If you are J2EE developer, a serious one, you must get this book! It not only helps you create code, but it creates thoughts!


User review
XDoclet in Action is an in-depth start at learning XDoclet
Are there plenty of code examples? Yes
Is the book easy to understand? Yes
Does it trivialize complex topics? No
Does the reference section add value? Yes
Is this book useful? An unqualified yes!

My needs in technology books are straightforward: give me a quick introduction and lots of examples. Walls and Richards have done a great job of explaining the nuts-and-bolts of XDoclet in a very lucid way. In working with an Eclipse plug-in that uses XDoclet as its code generation engine I was able to solve an XDoclet problem within a few minutes because I was able to look through the book's reference section and compare the information to a code sample earlier in the book.

I found the book covered so many areas that I hope the author's are working on a follow-on book where they discuss some of the thornier issues in J2EE development and how XDoclet can be brought to bear to solve them. Based on the depth of this book, they still have a lot to say about J2EE development using code generation tools.

User review
A superbly accessible and useful primer
The collaboration of XDoclet seasoned experts and enthusiasts Craig Walls and Norman Richards, XDoclet In Action is a truly user-friendly introduction and guide to the metadata-driven, code generation engine for Java called XDoclet, and its many uses. A wealth of instructions, examples, and sample code lay out how XDoclet can be used with EJBs, Servlets, JMX, and other technologies, as well as customized or out-of-the-box uses to which XDoclet can be put for one's specific needs. A superbly accessible and useful primer, reference, and self-teaching tool, XDoclet In Action is a welcome addition to the computer reference shelf.