Java Enterprise in a Nutshell: A Practical Guide

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.

The book "Java Enterprise in a Nutshell" is a dense overview of some of the packages in J2EE. The book has three parts: An introduction, an enterprise reference and an API reference. The introduction describes each package, gives some examples and pointers for further readings. The second part contains reference material on SQL, RMI Tools, IDL and IDL tools and CORBA Services. The API reference lists the complete API of the packages covered by this book. This text is very well written and does an exceptional job in describing the J2EE packages JDBC, RMI, JNDI as well Servelets, EJB and the Java IDL. The chapters are well structured and very clearly written. And they achieve their goal without filling hundreds of pages. Very good. Unfortunately the book does not cover all of today's packages of J2EE but I guess that's the price to pay if the book has to be on the market early enough. The book has some holes, but for the material it covers, it is one of the best, if not the best, books available.

This is a great book... provides short descriptions of the technologies in the Java Enterprise Edition. For each one, covers the architecture, use, and provides examples... everything you need to get started (and for the JavaDoc to make sense). The explanations of the architecture of each technology is especially clear and well written. Also contains the necessary reference material for each technology.This should be next to Java in a Nutshell on the bookshelf of anyone who uses any part of Java Enterprise.

A great reference for the experienced programmer, definitely not a beginner's manual. The API listing takes up over half the book and can be easily found in online JavaDocs, but the actual book is great. I compared the chapter on JDBC to the Java Tutorial Continued - and it covered the same material (very clearly, too) in 1/3 as many pages.

This book is absolutely indespensible for anyone programming Java Servlets, EJB, and CORBA applications. I do all of the above, so this reduces the weight of paper I need to carry around by tenfold. Clear, concise, correct.