Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development

This is the one if not the only book on the market that can truly serve you as a comprehensive manual for J2EE solution architectures. Every line in this book is worth of gold. It personally helped me justify, reinforce, discover or solidify some very important architectural desicions in my practice. For instance there is a whole section on presentation tier technology choices. That section covers all of the popular frameworks and technologies (JSP, Struts, XSLT,...).Each technology is described in terms of what it is, and what are its benefits and drawbacks. Then there is a very good code samples section. Author uses one application throughout the book, and then implements it using various technologies.Moreover, he suggests you when does it make sense, and when does it not to implement the technology as a solution. It is amazing how much wisdom is built into this book.Of course some of the APIs covered in the book will be outdated (EJB 2.1), but that does not bother me much. The wisdom is what matters.Writing in general is very thorough, very practical and reinforced with some very strong real life examples. Author obviously posseses the maturity and experience that is so rare to find. It is a great professional resource, and career builder.

Even though this book is named "J2EE design and development", it seems to be much more than that. This seems to be the book in which the author attempted to put, in a crystallized form, most of his expertise not just in J2EE (that would be trivial), but in programming and (particularly) architecture in general. Given that the author is a true expert in the field (this is clear after reading just a few pages), this book has a value beyond anything I can express here in my words. I learned from this book more than from any other book on programming and architecture, with a possible exception of GOF "Design Patterns" classics.No other book on web programming that I know of comes even close to this one. Some noteworthy features:-- Always framework-oriented approach (which in my view is the only possible choice for real-world projects)-- Heavy emphasis on architectural side of web development (follows from the previous point)-- Comparison of different view technologies from practical point of view, w/o exclusively subscribing to a particular one which seems popular (like, JSP).-- Excellent coverage of MVC paradigm, again, w/o subscribing to a particlar implementation (like Struts, etc)-- Extensive coverage of all levels ("tiers") of a web application.But what really shines, are the insights on architecture, namely the things which is impossible to find out by theoretically studying J2EE specifications and books such as "Enterprise Java Beans" and the like. For example, why Entity EJBs don't work. Or when is collocated EJB architecture is more appropriate than the distributed one, and why. After reading the book, many concepts just clear up. Not to say that everything is written in a clear and concise language (despite a few typographical errors that Wrox books are notorious for).In short, this book is simply amazing.

First of all, this is a fine book. It is loaded with valuable nuggets and insight that I have yet to find in similar books. I agree with all of the other reviewers that Rod's style is great and that his strong opinions (based on obviously extensive experience) are a welcome relief to the simple re-organization of Sun's specification and/or design pattern recommendations. ONE CAUTION! Some of the framework code outlined in the book COULD be considered overly complex for many circumstances. Ironically, Rod would probably respond that the high degree of abstraction would IMPROVE the usability and maintainability of any J2EE application. However, I believe that excessive abstraction, in an of itself, can become a maintenance (and training) nightmare (look at the sheer complexity of the interface inheritance in the data access framework from Chapter 9 alone). His solutions to Data Access and Application infrastructure are so sophisticated that they qualify as a framework worthy of open source momentum on their own. The downside of this, of course, is that your development team must invest in understanding these sophisticated hierarchies since they are unlikely to have encountered them in any previous role. Unless you have a VERY stable team of highly skilled designers/developers, be cautious of trying to implement such frameworks. Instead, the downsides of more simple (albeit less flexible) approaches are usually outweighed by the reduction in training or the likelihood that transient resources will be able to contribute more quickly. Nonetheless, a great book and worthy of my ** All-Star ** category.

The real differentiator of this book is that its focus is on how to use J2EE to solve real-world problems, rather than providing an overview of the J2EE specification itself. As such, it's a much more pragmatic approach to using J2EE than the other books I've read on the subject. The author starts by taking high-level perspective on the subject, showing the different design considerations that need to be applied when choosing which J2EE technologies to use. A case study (a ticket booking system) is described and elaborated on throughout the book, showing how these design considerations affect a real-world solution. The book also provides a load of coding tips I found useful, from better use of reflection, to judicious use of design patterns, to how to minimise your refactoring. The author assumes the reader is an experienced developer, so doesn't focus on rudimentary Java and architecture. I found this useful, but it means the book is more focussed to a specific audience.Amazingly, the book also provides an entire framework based on J2EE on which you can put your application logic. My only complaint is that this is not included in a companion CD - you have to download it.Overall, the book works because it shows you how build solutions, not just understand the technology.