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).
User review
Disappointing
Warning to all buyers, the 3rd edition of this book does not include the J2EE library reference. While I realize this information is available online, having a printed form of library references is the primary reason I buy the `in a nutshell` series. Included in this book is a very general overview of various enterprise technologies, which unlike the very useful language reference include in other `in a nutshell` books, seems too broad and shallow to be useful. Any developer serious about working in JSP, for example, would be better served buying a book on JSP. Admittedly I just received this book so I can provide a cursory commentary on the usefulness of the material, but the lack of library details alone would have made me not purchase it if I was browsing in a store.
User review
Very good
I'm very happy, i have got `java in a nutshell` too and I was very satisfied of my purchase, the book is simple and written very well, a `must` for a Java programmer.
User review
VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
Do you have all of the tools you need to build enterprise-class applications? If you don't, then this book is for you! Authors Jim Farley, William Crawford, Prakash Malani, Justin Gehtland and John G Norman, have done an outstanding job of writing the third edition of a book that provides a pragmatic introduction to the latest release of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE).
Farley, Crawford, Malani, Gehtland and Norman, begin by presenting the general model that J2EE supports for assembling components and resources into full services or applications and how they are deployed to their runtime environments. Then, the authors demonstrate the basic techniques that are used to write servlets using the Sevlet API, including some common web development tasks such as cookie manipulation and session tracking. Next, they look at JSP from a Java programmer's perspective as opposed to that of a web site designer. The authors then provide a whirlwind introduction to programming with JavaServer Faces. They continue by providing a basic introduction to Enterprise JavaBeans. Then, the authors take a quick look at Sun's Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) Version 1.2, which provides a standardized approach to processing XML files in Java. Next, they focus on the JDBC 3.0 API, which includes a modest yet variable set of new features. The authors then provide an overview of transport and application security as well as defining the important concepts of authentication and authorization. They continue by focusing on developing, deploying, and using web services in your enterprise applications. They also examine the Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) API--Java's native scheme for creating and using remote objects. Then, the authors look at an overview of the CORBA architecture and how it allows you to create, export, access, and manage remote objects. Finally, they give a brief overview of transaction terminology, including ACID properties and transaction isolation levels as well as the concepts of local and distributed transactions.
This most excellent book provides concise, fast paced tutorials on a broad range of enterprise Java tools and APIs. More importantly, this book is both a practical guide and quick reference for Java programmers who are writing enterprise applications.
User review
Java developers will want this as an essential desk reference
Jim Farley and William Crawford's Java Enterprise In A Nutshell: A Practical Guide packs in tutorials on a number of enterprise Java tools, offering new material covering Xdoclet and Java 5.0 Annotations, JavaServer Faces, and the Hibernate API. Also included are open source testing and build tools, tips on writing SOAP-based web services, J2EE security issues and operations, and much more. Serious Java developers will want this as an essential desk reference.
User review
Great reference for an immense topic
Java Enterprise in a Nutshell tries to do the impossible - fit Enterprise Java into a nutshell. I don't think it matters how big of a nutshell you have, it would be a truly impossible task. Farley and Crawford, though, do a nice job shoe-horning as much Enterprise Java as they can into an 800+ page book. They go over many topics including all the J2EE standards like EJBs and JSPs to open source tools like JUnit, Cactus, and Hibernate. The book goes into enough detail to get more than just the gist of the subjects, but not so much detail to overwhelm someone looking for information on a particular topic. The book also has relevant code sections for the various topics outlining how that technology might be used. Overall, a compact, clear, well written reference.
