Customer Reviews

Building Spring 2 Enterprise Applications

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I expected much more from Interface21 (now SpringSource), the developers of Spring. There is a good discussion on architecture and separation of concerns via dependency injection. There is also a good introduction to Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP). Too much space is dedicated to Spring MVC which is probably the weakest and least popular part of the Spring framework.

Integration with ORMs like Hibernate and iBatis is mentioned in passing, but there are no concrete examples. There is very little in the way of explaining integration with other web tier frameworks such as Struts, WebWork, Tapestry, etc. Given that Spring is supposedly lightweight and not intrusive,integration with other frameworks should be covered in depth. No mention of common issues like trying to inject a Spring bean into a Servlet.

This book does a fantastic job introducing the reader to the main benefits of using Spring2.

For all the key features, such as Dependency Injection, AOP, simplified Data Access, cross cutting concerns such as Transactioning, and templates for easy integration of other popular open source frameworks, the authors first cover the problem space itself, then the easy to understand Spring solutions, than any gotchas or caveats related to coding your specific Spring based solutions.

Excellent book at just the right level of detail.
Simplifies key points without forcing user to slog through the lengthy reference guide, or some of the longer Spring books available.

After reading the book, the authors correctly recommend checking out the open source code which implements Spring framework to get further confidence and knowledge of how the magic works. I have also been pleased with responsiveness of springframework.org's support forum since reading the book.

This book was exactly what I was looking for - short (300+ pages), covers several areas in both a concise and easily understandable manner. What I was looking for was a more in-depth explanation of configuring the applicationContext.xml, which I felt the authors covered well. The bonus was an excellent introduction to Spring AOP. I didn't really buy the book for that purpose, but the AOP introduction gave me enough footing to feel like I can begin introducing its concepts into my projects.

The authors of Building Spring 2 Enterprise Applications presented from Java developer's perspective how would web software required to persist
data be realized in model-view-controller pattern using framework. For those who were amazed by the popularity of Spring but no chance in
exploring till now, this book might just be the practical guide with coherent topics leaving advance counterparts by further references.


Rather than essential, framework helped solve problem in proved way so purposes of using Spring were illustrated by means of comparison. After
all, software was about integration. With inversion of control pattern, dependent deployment used to be static or via looking up mechanisms like
naming service was demonstrated to be injected at run time by configuration. Aspect oriented programming was then described to overcome the
limitations of either composition or inheritance in flexibly adding functionality to existing classes anywhere. Such cross-cutting concerns were
widely applied to areas like logging, debugging, and resource pooling. Besides, JDBC was commented to be so low level that its use introduced
management issues like exception, resource, and transaction avoidable by abstractions. While keeping batch executions for performance, we were
allowed to be more object-oriented and declaring transaction in interfacing with relational database. By mastering these concepts, one would
proceed to architect web in MVC. Not only the view could be chosen amongst Velocity, Free Marker, XSLT, PDF, Excel, and Jasper Reports other
than conventional JSP, but also the logic could be tested independent of the container.


The latest version of Spring was 2.5 while the book covered 2.0 which was 2 years ago. Its source code could neither be compiled nor executed
due to separately downloadable missing libraries, classes left as exercises, and configuration files. A sample application throughout chapters of the
book that could be run out of the box was important especially for beginners

I recently stated to work in a company that re factored their project to work with the spring framework, I needed a book to introduce me to the framework and it's features fast and clear. After going over 5 different books about Spring and doing some pointless tutorials I came across this book. I was hooked from the very beginning, The book is streamlined in such a manner that it makes it very easy to read and understand. Everything is written straight to the point and with the right amount of introductory information.

It might not contain info about certain advanced features in Spring but for beginners it is fantastic.

OK. Before I start the review I should point out that I am sun Certified Java, Web, Web Services, and Business Objects Certified (EJB). My expectations was to look at the Spring Framework for "Enterprise Applications" hinse the title "Building Spring 2 Enterprise Applications." So my expectation is to see more information of Webshere Intergration, Weblogic Integration, Glassfish Integration, JPA, EJB 3.0 integration, JTA Transactions, etc.

This book does a good job introducing the reader to the main benefits of using Spring2.

All the base features are explained such as Dependency Injection, AOP, simplified Data Access, cross cutting concerns such as Transactioning, and templates for easy integration of other popular open source frameworks.

I don't want to criticize the framework, some are enterprise class, some are not. The Dependency Injection, and AOP are the strengths of the framework. Transactions get a slide in due to the Proxy AOP impacts, but the JDBC, Web MVC are not. JPA is now an enterpise standard, and JSF/AJAX are a standard toolset. Spring MVC is Page based and great view technology, but the world has moved toward Component Web Technologies like Java Server Faces/AJAX. I wished the book headed in this direction more.

Maybe a real look at the impact of Spring AOP Proxy Objects AOP and Java Debugging, Monitoring and Profiling Tools, which I see in my development is a new experience.

Perhaps being Enterprise Spring topics of Clustering, fail over, Large Transactions, Many Transactions would be nice.

Also a little more contrast with AOP Aspect Programing with the JEE 5, Interceptors functionality which is very similar. We have choices when we develope and want to make smart choices. The book points to only a Spring based solution, when EJB 3.0 Session Bean Interceptors may be a better choice.

The book seems to criticize JEE, and offering Spring as a container in itself, which of course is a possibility for small applications, but true enterprise applications have bigger architectural issues.

The Spring documentation at the Springframework website seems a better source, but fewer examples.

Overall, great for new developers looking to focus on Spring. But truly nothing except the AOP Aspect/J engine is truly unique, or enterprise class in my opinion.

If you are unlucky enough to work in an enterprise with an J2EE 1.4 Server (JBoss 4.X, IBM's Webshere, Oracle App Server), this book looks real good, as does Spring and all their services. That was a horrible spec for business development, but the J2EE5 Servers have choices that are in line with Spring, and JEE 6 with WebBeans and pluggable container is not to far away.

EJB @Resource Dependency Injection is suitable and Google's Guice is a good supplement, And J2EE Interceptors and life cycle events is AOP lite.

If you are a developer and needs to pick a good book to put you up to speed, this is not the greatest choice, this book might be good for class room, where you could read theory and write a test for exam.