Building Java Enterprise Applications, Vol. 1: Architecture (O'Reilly Java) [Paperback]

Brett McLaughlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2002

What are the key decisions and tradeoffs you face as you design and develop enterprise applications? How do you build the back end so that it not only handles your current needs but is flexible enough to allow your system to evolve as your needs expand? Answer these questions and many more with Building Java Enterprise Applications, an advanced guide to building complex Java Enterprise Applications from the ground up that addresses design issues along the way. These practical books take a step back from detailed examination of the APIs and focus on the entire picture, so you can put the pieces together and build something that works!

This book explores the infrastructure issues so important to good application design. It isn't just a book about doing things with Entity Beans, JDBC and JMS and JNDI. It takes you step by step through building the back end, designing the data store so that it gives you convenient access to the data your application needs; designing a directory; figuring out how to handle security and where to store security credentials you need; and so on. On top of this, it shows -- as easily as possible --how to build the entity bean layer that makes information available to the rest of the application.

Throughout this guide, author Brett McLaughlin uses his wealth of real-world experience with enterprise development to show you one step at a time how to design and build a comprehensive enterprise application from the ground up, starting with the back end.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Aimed at the more experienced Java developer, Building Java Enterprise Applications provides a detailed tour of the best practices for today's J2EE architecture. Filled with particularly good advice on using Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) and LDAP directory services, this title lays the groundwork for building the next generation of Java software.

As volume one of a planned three-volume series, this book centers on "blueprints" for using the best of J2EE technologies for creating scalable software. The focus here is on a meaningful, single practical case study on a database for a brokerage house. The selection of leading-edge technologies (EJB and LDAP) are what real Java developers are likely to face on the job, and the author's knowledgeable and thorough explanation of all the relevant details of implementing the sample system sets a high standard.

Early sections define the scope and requirements of the model database and directory server. The author then turns to implementing the database, including building tables. (Actual SQL for different databases including Oracle and MySQL is included in an appendix.) Similarly, the "real" details of modeling a directory server (using LDAP) is set out to show how users, passwords, and other information can be leveraged across a larger organization. After the groundwork is in place, this text zeroes in on using Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 2.0 to model each business entity in the system (as well as application logic). Standout material shows off building an entity EJB with multiple interfaces, classes, and deployment descriptors all clearly presented.

The use of the manager session bean to hide the details of JNDI and LDAP comes next, and this bit of intellectual property will surely justify the price of this book for anyone seeking to combine EJBs and LDAP. From here, the application logic gets filled in using other EJB features (like session beans, both stateful and stateless). A later chapter adds asynchronous processing abilities using the Java Message Service (JMS) and the new message bean type, new for EJB 2.0. The assembled system then gets a simple front end to test it out, though the focus clearly is on the data tier. (More on user interfaces is promised in the second volume of this series, which will concentrate on Web applications.)

Useful appendices provide the nuts and bolts of running actual software, like OpenLDAP, a free directory server, BEA WebLogic, plus full source code for all beans discussed in this text. All in all, this book is a worthwhile choice for understanding the right ways for designing on the Java platform today when it comes to higher-end enterprise software. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Introduction to architecture for Java Enterprise applications; case study for a client/broker database for a brokerage with scheduling support, data, business, and presentation layers explained; primer for database design (including SQL, constraints, and tables); designing an LDAP directory (plus directory hierarchies); Enterprise JavaBean 2.0 basics (remote, local, and local home interfaces, plus primary keys); EJB deployment descriptors; implementing sequences for new records in EJBs (a sequence bean); using a manager EJB for JNDI/LDAP processing; connection sharing for performance; adding sample data; deployment; using patterns for business logic with EJBs (the Facade pattern); stateful vs. stateless beans; asynchronous processing and message beans (including JMS basics); extending the data architecture for Web applications (and Web services); appendices for sample SQL scripts and database-specific hints for MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL; and a reference to running OpenLDAP, iPlanet Directory Server, and BEA WebLogic Application Server.

About the Author

Brett McLaughlin has been working in computers since the Logo days. (Remember the little triangle?) He currently specializes in building application infrastructure using Java and Java-related technologies. He has spent the last several years implementing these infrastructures at Nextel Communications and Allegiance Telecom, Inc. Brett is one of the co-founders of the Java Apache project Turbine, which builds a reusable component architecture for web application development using Java servlets. He is also a contributor of the EJBoss project, an open source EJB application server, and Cocoon, an open source XML web-publishing engine. He is author of the soon-to-be-released O'Reilly book, Building Java Enterprise Applications.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596001231
• ISBN-13: 978-0596001230
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,897,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Brett D. McLaughlin is a bestselling and award-winning non-fiction author. His books on computer programming, home theater, and analysis and design have sold in excess of 100,000 copies. He has been writing, editing, and producing technical books for nearly a decade, and is as comfortable in front of a word processor as he is behind a guitar, chasing his two sons around the house, or marveling at Damages with his wife.

Miracle is Brett's first fiction novel, but his short stories and writing skills have been garnering lots of attention in 2007. He is a book reviewer for Infuze Magazine, and a regular guest lecturer in First Baptist Academy, Dallas's creative writing course. He's been asked to teach a concentrated course in Professional Writing for students intending to major in writing-related degrees. His short story 'Change of Heart' was published online at the Relief Writer's Network, and is set for inclusion in the second issue of Coach's Midnight Diner, a genre publication of Christian-influenced short stories.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too basic, July 12, 2002

By 

Johannes Brodwall "Software architect" (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building Java Enterprise Applications, Vol. 1: Architecture (O'Reilly Java) (Paperback)

I really wanted to like this book, but I simply could not. I enjoyed Brett's Java & XML quite a bit, and my hopes for Java Enterprise Applications were quite high. The idea behind the series, to show how everything in J2EE fits together, sounded really appealing.

Alas, the book did not live up to my expectations. I am an experienced Java developer currently studying for the Sun Certified Enterprise Architect certification. For me, the contents of the book were on the verge of being trivial. I learned a little about LDAP, but the rest of the book was very much fluff, and not very filling.

Even more annoyingly, the book contains some subtle errors and bad practices, like Double-Checked Locking on page 135 ...pooling of potentially broken connections on page 139, arguments from "security through obscurity" on page 151, and suppressed exceptions on page 155. J2EE contains enough pitfalls for practitioners even without experts teaching bad practices.

This book has its good sides, too. It contains much source code, making it a fast read. The amount of source code really highlights some of the very negative aspects of EJBs (especially Entity beans), but the author did give any suggestions for improvements.

If you have just encountered J2EE and EJBs, this book might be good for you. I would rather recommend reading Monson-Haefel on EJBs and the JMS tutorial trail on java.sun.com.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good for getting started w/ J2EE, BUT TOO MANY ERRORS, August 28, 2002

By 

Andrew Lukasik (Lowell, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building Java Enterprise Applications, Vol. 1: Architecture (O'Reilly Java) (Paperback)

I've often seen complaints about O'Reilly's editing in reviews like this. Now I know what all those folks are complaining about. The diagrams and examples in this book are just plain *BAD*. In the section on DB design I don't think there wasn't one ER diagram with out MULTIPLE errors. Where's the quality control? I would have given 4 stars if the diagrams and examples were corrct.

The textual content of the book is actually pretty good, easy to read, but a little slow paced for me. I was initially attracted to the book because of it's promise of bringing multiple J2EE concepts toghether in one read. I'm afraid tho that if I'm left to analyzing and correcting errors in areas that I'm familiar with that I'll be very confused and frustrated by errors in areas I'm not so familar with.

I will certainly scrutinize the next two volumes in the series much more closely before I consider buying.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Extremely disappointing, July 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Building Java Enterprise Applications, Vol. 1: Architecture (O'Reilly Java) (Paperback)

I was extremely disappointed by this book. I thought it was a book about how to architect Java applications. It is not. While I appreciate the book's goal of providing practical examples, it is nothing but an example of building one particular application. It's not much more than a tutorial. I want a book of principles, guidelines, best practices for building Java applications - a series of general principles that I can apply to any situation. O'Reilly books are normally great; I bought this book largely because it was from O'Reilly. Big mistake. If you want a book of general principles for how to design a Java enterprise app, Core J2EE Patterns is excellent and much better than this one.