XDoclet in Action

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!

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.

Manning has done it again! XDoclet in Action is a must-have for all Java developers. Craig Walls and Norman Richards have toiled long and hard to create this masterpiece. "All you need to know about J2EE, you can learn from this book". Each chapter is not about code generation, it is about solving problems we face as Java developers. If you are frustrated by the duplicate manual work you face in your development efforts, XIA will help. My favorite quote from the book: "Don't generate what you don't understand." - this shines through in each section, as each technology (EJB, web, JMX, mock objects, Hibernate, etc) is presented accurately and clearly first as it stands alone, then the problem of the real-world enter the picture, followed by the solutions XDoclet brings to the situation.

This book is great for developers who want to learn XDoclet from scratch and XDoclet power users. It is also divided up in such a way that, depending on where you are in the XDoclet learning curve, there is always a natural place to start.It begins by covering code generation in general and why it can be beneficial. It then give some basic examples of how to integrate XDoclet (and Ant) into your project to generate code.A good chuck of the book after this is broken down into the different domains XDoclet supports - servlets, EJBs, Hibernate, custom JSP tags, etc. As a Hibernate user, I have found XDoclet very useful, but having this book by side would have made getting started much easier!This brings me to the last big thing I like about this book's organization - about the last third of the book is strictly reference. So, even if you are an XDoclet expert, it still makes a very handy desk reference for the tags.So, if you want to learn XDoclet or if you want to become a more effecient XDoclet user, but this book.Ryan

Remember your first J2EE Hello World app? Just to make that client work, you had to write the remote and home interfaces, and a deployment descriptor. If you wrote the Web version, add web.xml to your list. Let's not forget those configuration files for your app/web servers. Now, think of a framework that fabricate all the nuts and bolts for you -- generating deployment descriptors, EJB homes, remotes, app server files, struts-config.xml and more. No, you are not day dreaming, XDoclet can do all and more!Quoting several opportunities that exist for automated code generation, authors introduce XDoclet framework as an indispensable tool that actually works! Focusing on every day J2EE development, chapters in "Enterprise Java" section talk about the application of XDoclet in EJB layer and Web application layer. Following are chapters in the "Other XDoclet applications" category that introduce advance applications such as code generation for persistence frameworks, JMX, SOAP/WebServices and mock objects. The concluding section on "Extending XDoclet" deals with custom code generation and XDoclet patterns.Abundant practical help and many working examples are offered throughout the book including the process of tool adoption for J2EE efforts that are already underway. The working J2EE application that is included in the book can be used as a reference implementation.In essence, this book does more than just teaching - it helps you realize the benefits of XDoclet in days and start saving valuable time and money.Ajith Kallambellahttp://www.javaranch.com/contact.jsp#AjithKallambella