Rapid J2EE Development : An Adaptive Foundation for Enterprise Applications

Praise for Rapid J2EE Development `The author provides a good survey of the technologies and approaches for rapid development in the J2EE arena. He touches on all areas that should be of interest to a reader, from design through testing. He illustrates the different phases of rapid development by going into several technologies in depth, and he also lists or otherwise mentions other available technologies. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to get started with developing J2EE applications.` --Beth Stearns, Consultant, ComputerEase Publishing `This book has a lot of great material in it. The author really shows his experience in the subject matter. The content is excellent. I haven't seen another book that is as comprehensive or contains as many real-world lessons learned.` --Madhu Siddalingaiah, Consultant, SEA Corporation `I think the book does a good job of presenting a set of processes and technologies that enable rapid development. I think this is an extremely useful book, and I would recommend it to others.`--Satadip Dutta, Software Engineer, HP `The author skillfully presents a collection of tools, technologies and processes that facilitate rapid development of J2EE applications. I see this book as a valuable addition to any company bookshelf, especially given its broad application across the software lifecycle. It's also quite amazing that a Google search does not reveal any existing publications with this title. This book should neatly fill that hole.` --Martin Westacott, Director and Senior Consultant, Solstice Software Limited, U.K. `If you ever needed to put some polish to your J2EE development understanding or would like to move into the role of Senior J2EE Developer, then this is the book for you. The author covers everything you need to take you from design to coding to build process. Along the way he introduces some new valuable 'leading-edge' technologies. All this will leave you with good capabilities to tackle most J2EE projects confidently.` --Shane Griggs, J2EE Architect Learn to accelerate J2EE development, from design through testing and beyond.Covers agile development, model-driven architecture, code generation, aspect-oriented programming, test-driven development, and much more. An essential resource for every J2EE developer, project leader, and manager. J2EE is today's premier platform for enterprise-level development, but it's difficult to deliver J2EE solutions as quickly as today's businesses need them. This book presents a complete, practical foundation for rapid development throughout your entire project lifecycle. Its best-practice techniques and tools don't just accelerate development--they help you adapt smoothly to increasing complexity and non-stop change. You'll learn how to make the most of iterative development, model-driven architecture (MDA), code-generation tools, aspect-oriented programming (AOP), test-driven development, and much more.Coverage includes * Defining end-to-end J2EE development strategies that promote speed without compromising quality * Understanding how your design-time decisions impact overall project schedules * Building agile application architectures that promote rapid development * Using UML modeling to streamline system design and validation * Speeding database development with code generation and object-relational mapping * Practical test-driven development: constructing automated unit test suites and using mock objects to `test from the inside out` * Leveraging the full value of Eclipse and other IDEs If you're a J2EE developer, project leader, or manager, you're under constant pressure to deliver quality applications more rapidly. Rapid J2EE Development gives you all the skills and resources you need to respond. A(c) Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

User review
An Excellent Agile Development Primer
This book contains enough useful information on Rapid Application Development that it should be considered an ideal primer for the fundamental aspects of agile development. It also provides a good review on the other development methodologies and techniques that are practiced in the IT industry today. This book also has some newer concepts in the agile arena which I found of particular interest like Aspect-Orientated Programming.

I found the clear and concise writing style very easy to read and definitely assisted in my understanding of the topic under consideration. The author clearly demonstrates a breadth and depth of knowledge for the subject matter acquired from experience in software development. This is highlighted with the excellent use of a case study which draws on personal experience to provide an insight as to why an agile development process is beneficial to all the stake holders in a software project. Such was the value of this case study that I would have liked to seen them used elsewhere in the book.

Although the book targets the J2EE platform in the title and worked examples, a significant amount of the book can easily be applied to other software development environments, like .NET in general.


User review
Essential Reading
Anyone who works in the IT industry knows that the one resource you never have enough of is time. This book will tell you how to make the most of this most precious resource. By using the open source tools discussed in this book, true rapid J2EE development is a practical and achievable goal for anyone working in this field.

I found this book to be extremely readable and full of valuable information. The author writes in a clear, clean style with easy to understand examples and, unusually, he writes without the unnecessary technical jargon usually found in other IT books.

Who should read this book? Anyone who works on J2EE projects and has a deadline to meet, anyone who has any influence over the way their company implements their SDLC and development frameworks or anyone who wants an excellent overview of current J2EE technology without having to swallow a technical dictionary.

I would consider this book to be mandatory reading for any project manager who has to meet a deadline and is using, or thinking of using, J2EE as the development platform. Junior and mid level J2EE developers would also find this an invaluable resource but, as some senior developers/architects tend to think they know it all already, only those senior types enlightened enough to realise that there is always something more to be learned should read this book.

User review
Good overview of Java open-source projects.
In one sentence, this book is an overview of Java open-source projects that complement the development cycle. It is a very good overview, actually. Alan Mannox packs a lot of good advice on good development techniques. He mixes it up with a good pragmatic approach.

The author has a very good way of writing. He's very pragmatic. The book is easy to read. He tells you why you should use a tool or technology, how to use it (by giving a short example), and why you should not use it.

I got a feeling that the author is a detail oriented, good-practices driven developer. I got that feeling throughout the book.

What are the areas covered in the book? Overview of development processes, modeling, code generation, MDA, scripting, AOP, builds, testing, and quality assurance. As you can see, the spectrum is fairly broad, and that's why I think he did not go into too much detail -- it would have been a huge book.

Should you get it? If you're a senior Java programmer, or if you just not sure what the hype about open-source projects is, or if you are like me, who wants to know the whole development scoop, then you'll like this book. Just remember (how many times am I saying that?), this is just an overview. I don't think this is a good book for starters (less than 3 years of experience). A very good book for managers, though. Overall, a good J2EE book. A good reference to open-source projects.

User review
It depends on your experience level
I was very disappointed with this book. I was expecting lessons learned on the battlefield, like Rod Johnson's `J2EE Development without EJB`, but what I got instead was essentially an extended series of book reports on books and papers covering a very broad range of J2EE topics. Unfortunately, I already knew literally almost everything in this book because I have already read all of the other books.

If, on the other hand, you are relatively new to the field, you might find this broad reference useful since he does cover a lot of ground and does point you to a lot of references. But, be forewarned, you are still going to have to buy and read the books he talks about on any subject that interests you since he is merely talking _about_ rather than _in_ any of these topics. I cannot see how you could learn enough about any topic to actually use it, you will only learn enough to get interested in studying a topic. Think of this book as a detailed course catalog that you used in college to pick which course you wanted to take.

While I don't doubt the author's professional qualifications, this book does not prove that he has actually used any of this technology in production, merely that he has read about it. And, I think he misunderstood Rod Johnson's book, to boot.

One last quibble, while the writing is acceptable, it is entirely devoid of passion, conviction, or the scuffs that come from experience. It might as well have been written by a librarian reviewing the latest accounting periodical.

I am giving it 3 stars instead of 2 since it might be a very useful survey for relative beginners, but I really found it a waste of my time.

User review
Rapid application development - but not just for J2EE
Overall I can recommend this book for the breadth of topics covered and because it may make you rethink parts of how you develop Java applications today.

While the author is focusing on J2EE applications, the various chapter topics can be used independently and in general Java programs. Think of this as a well thought out and documented series of brainstorms on faster development approaches.

For example, the (unfortunately short) chapter on Scripting is a good intro to the use of scripting for code generation or developing UIs more quickly. The author uses Jython for his examples, but you could just as easily use Ruby. You might even consider providing a scripting interface to your application so that users can control the application behavior using scripts.

Initially I discounted some of the approaches (UML, AOP). As I read the book, I found that it did make me rethink some of the assumptions that I've built up over the years. And Monnox gives enough examples to whet my appetite to experiment some more.

Although no area is covered in enough detail to make you an expert, many of the tools covered have plenty of supporting online documents so you can use them fully. And I found myself thinking about old problems in new ways.

The text is fairly readable and many sections might be useful to give to a manager as a way of getting support to try out a new approach.