Eclipse Web Tools Platform: Developing Java™ Web Applications [Paperback]

Naci Dai (Author), Lawrence Mandel (Author), Arthur Ryman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0321396855 | ISBN-13: 978-0321396853 | Edition: 1

Discover WTP, the New End-to-End Toolset for Java-Based Web Development

The Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) seamlessly integrates all the tools today’s Java Web developer needs. WTP is both an unprecedented Open Source resource for working developers and a powerful foundation for state-of-the-art commercial products.

Eclipse Web Tools Platform offers in-depth descriptions of every tool included in WTP, introducing powerful capabilities never before available in Eclipse. The authors cover the entire Web development process–from defining Web application architectures and development processes through testing and beyond. And if you’re seeking to extend WTP, this book provides an introduction to the platform’s rich APIs. The book also

• Presents step-by-step coverage of developing persistence, business logic, and presentation tiers with WTP and Java
• Introduces best practices for multiple styles of Web and Java EE development
• Demonstrates JDBC database access and configuration
• Shows how to configure application servers for use with WTP
• Walks through creating Web service application interfaces
• Covers automated testing with JUnit and Cactus, and automated builds utilizing Ant, Maven, and CruiseControl
• Introduces testing and profiling Web applications with the Eclipse Test and Performance Tools Platform (TPTP) project
• Describes how to extend WTP with new servers, file types, and WSDL extensions

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Part I: Getting Started
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: About the Eclipse Web Tools Platform Project
Chapter 3: Quick Tour
Chapter 4: Setting Up Your Workspace
Part II: Java Web Application Development
Chapter 5: Web Application Architecture and Design
Chapter 6: Organizing Your Development Project
Chapter 7: The Presentation Tier
Chapter 8: The Business Logic Tier
Chapter 9: The Persistence Tier
Chapter 10: Web Services
Chapter 11: Testing
Part III: Extending WTP
Chapter 12: Adding New Servers
Chapter 13: Supporting New File Types
Chapter 14: Creating WSDL Extensions
Chapter 15: Customizing Resource Resolution
Part IV: Products and Plans
Chapter 16: Other Web Tools Based on Eclipse
Chapter 17: The Road Ahead
Glossary 
References
Index

This book is an invaluable resource for every Eclipse and enterprise Java Web developer: both those who use Eclipse to build other Web applications, and those who build Eclipse technologies into their own products.

Complete source code examples are available at www.eclipsewtp.org.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Naci Dai, chief scientist and founder of eteration, a.s., is a member of the WTP project management committee, leads its JST subproject, and leads the Open Source Lomboz project, which was a part of the initial code contributed to WTP to seed the project.

Lawrence Mandel, a software architect and developer at at the IBM Toronto Laboratory, is a WTP committer and served as the project’s ecosystem and documentation lead up until the 1.5.2 release.

Arthur Ryman, software architect and development manager at the IBM Toronto Laboratory, has a decade’s experience building Java Web development tools. He led the creation of the WTP project, and led the WST subproject up until the release of WTP 1.5.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Our goal in writing this book was to help build the community around the Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) Project. We decided to write this book soon after WTP was approved by the Eclipse Foundation. At that time, the project was in its formative stages and there was virtually nothing written about WTP. We believed that a book on how to use and extend WTP would help promote its adoption.

We naively hoped that we would have this book finished soon after WTP 0.7 was released in July 2005. However, since we were all actively engaged in developing WTP, work on this book got delayed. Also, many significant changes in the design of WTP were planned, so we felt it was better to have the book describe the next major version, WTP 1.5, which was part of the Eclipse 3.2 Callisto simultaneous release in June 2006.

Allowing WTP to mature also gave us more time to develop and refine the material in this book. Much of the material in this book has been test-driven at several major software development conferences including EclipseCon, EclipseWorld, Rational Software Development Conference, and Colorado Software Summit. Attendees at those events provided valuable feedback that has improved the content of this book.

Since the WTP 1.5 release, there has been increasing adoption of WTP by both commercial and Open Source tool developers. This activity has generated a stream of maintenance releases. As we went into production, this book accurately reflected the content of WTP 1.5.2, but by the time it appears in print, the latest release should be WTP 1.5.3. However, each maintenance release should only contain bug fixes and not affect the user interface. This book should therefore also be accurate for WTP 1.5.3 and future maintenance releases. And although WTP 2.0, which is planned for June 2007, will certainly contain many enhancements, we expect that most of the content of this book will still be valid.

About This Book

This book is divided into four parts: Getting Started, Java Web Application Development, Extending WTP, and Products and Plans.

In Part I, Getting Started, we introduce you to WTP. We give a brief overview of the history and architecture of the project and discuss how you can contribute to its development. By being an active contributor as well as a user, you can help improve WTP and ensure its long-term success. We also introduce you to League Planet, a fictitious amateur sport Web site, which serves as the inspiration for the programming examples in the rest of the book. Next we take you on a Quick Tour of WTP in which you build a simple Web application that includes dynamic content generated by servlets and JSPs running on Tomcat, JDBC database access to Derby, and Web services running on Axis. We conclude with a detailed discussion of how to install WTP and tailor it to your needs using its many preferences. At the end of this part, you’ll be able to start building your own Java Web applications with WTP.

Part II, Java Web Application Development, is for Java Web application developers. We describe the architecture of Java Web applications and how to build them using WTP. We start with a discussion of how to set up your project, including the use of Maven for automated builds. We then discuss architecture in some detail. Java Web applications have a multi-tiered architecture, and each of the presentation, business logic, and persistence tiers is addressed in its own chapter. The presentation tier chapter covers tools for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, DTD, and XSLT. The business logic tier chapter discusses tools for EJBs and XDoclet. The persistence tier chapter describes tools for SQL. Next we focus on developing Web services, including tools for SOAP, WSDL, XSD, and UDDI. We close with a discussion of testing, including JUnit, Cactus, HttpUnit, and the Eclipse Test and Performance Tools Platform (TPTP).

In Part III, Extending WTP, we shift attention to developing Eclipse plug-ins that extend WTP. This part of the book is aimed at tool developers. WTP contains many plug-ins and extension points, so the coverage here serves mainly to illustrate the process. A comprehensive treatment of all the APIs in WTP would itself fill several books. We start with the important example of adding a new server runtime to WTP, and illustrate this by adding support for GlassFish, the reference implementation for Java Enterprise Edition 5 (Java EE 5). Next, we show how to add support for new file types and do so for DocBook, the XML format used for authoring books (such as this one). We follow that by describing how to support new WSDL extensions and add a new SOAP binding as an example. We conclude this subject by extending the URI resolution framework, which enables XML processors to locate resources.

The book wraps up with Part IV, Products and Plans. We begin with a brief survey of commercial and Open Source Eclipse-based Web development products that can be used with WTP. Although WTP contains a core set of useful tools, it is also a platform intended to be built on by others. After you master WTP, you may find that your tool needs are not fully satisfied. Perhaps you want to develop with Struts, Hibernate, or Spring. Or you may want to use a different Web development language, such as PHP, Python, or Ruby, in conjunction with Java. Fortunately, there are many products available to round out your Web development IDE. We end the book with a preview of functions we expect to be added to WTP in future releases. WTP is currently hosting subprojects for JavaServer Faces (JSF), Java Persistence Architecture (Dali), and AJAX (ATF). In addition, WTP is planning tighter integration with other Eclipse projects, as well as support for Java EE 5. Of course, the future of WTP largely depends on you. By becoming an active user and contributor, you will influence the continuing support and evolution of WTP.

Audience

This book is primarily written for Java Web application developers. We assume that you have a working knowledge of Java programming and some experience using Eclipse. There are many excellent books available that cover both topics. Some experience in Java Web application development is also desirable. We have made an attempt to introduce the subject of Java Web application development in addition to describing the tools available in WTP. Although this book deals with WTP, it will also be of use to users of products built on WTP. And remember, one of the best ways you can contribute to WTP is by reporting bugs. If you hit a bug while using WTP, please report it to the Eclipse Bugzilla system at

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/enter_bug.cgi?product=Web+Tools

This book also includes material for Eclipse plug-in developers who want to extend WTP. Experience in plug-in development is assumed. Several available books cover the topic of Eclipse plug-in development for those who need some background information. Although we expect commercial and Open Source projects to extend WTP, we also expect individuals to do so. If you develop a cool plug-in that fits within the scope of the WTP charter, please consider contributing it to WTP. To do so, start by sending a note to the WTP developers mailing list at

[e-mail]

Sample Code

The Web site for this book is located at

http://www.eclipsewtp.org

All of the example code used throughout this book can be downloaded from there. The site will also provide an errata list, and other news related to the book.

The following Eclipse components are required to run the examples in this book:

• Eclipse Software Development Kit (SDK), Version 3.2
• Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), Version 2.2
• Graphical Editing Framework (GEF), Version 3.2
• Java Edit Model (JEM), Version 1.2
• Web Tools Platform (WTP), Version 1.5

All of the above are available from

http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/downloads

Conventions

We use a sans serif font for user interface elements such as menu items, buttons, and labels. We use a monospace font for programmatic elements such as file names, source code listings, URLs, package names, and XML content.

Feedback

We’ve set up an e-mail address to receive feedback about this book. Please send your comments on this book to

[e-mail]

Product Details

• Paperback: 752 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (May 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321396855
• ISBN-13: 978-0321396853
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #871,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Trying to Be Too Much?, November 30, 2008

By 

Dale R. Seng (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eclipse Web Tools Platform: Developing Java™ Web Applications (Paperback)

The reason I bought this book was so I could quickly get through some hands-on examples and see the power of WTP. Also, I thought it would be really helpful to see various web development tools through the lens of Eclipse development. After going through it, though, I'm afraid I can't recommend the book for those purposes.

But first, let me applaud the web development "wisdom" portions of the book. There are some really good "why are we doing this?" and "why are we doing it this way?" explanations in this book. Nothing to do with WTP, really, but these portions of the book were very well done.

The majority and purpose of the book are the hands-on exercises. Here's where I had some issues. Throughout the exercises, the reader is always being asked to go out and download some tool or another. I spent way too much time at update sites, trying to get the right versions of things. I would rather all of this be established up-front. Just say "if you want to do all of the exercises, download these specific versions of these 8 tools". Later, there can be some explanation as to why those tools over others, but lets get a platform that's going to do everything, and not sprinkle installation issues throughout. In fact, I think that in an Eclipse book, they instructions should say, "start with a clean install of (some version of Eclipse) and build it with (these versions of these plugins), and you will be able to do every exercise."

I know it's not the job of the authors of this book to detail a tool's installation, but a line like "check the (some tool) documentation for the exact list" is a cop out. Presumably, the authors just got done using the list, so a few words as to how to find the list within the documentation would be really helpful. With a little guidance, digging time could be reduced from an hour to two minutes.

The exercises had separate iterations, which I found helpful. I did run into discontinuities that required some improvisation, though. I'm pretty sure that nobody sat down with an empty machine, installed all of the tools and ran all of the exercises, start to finish. Or if they did, the book didn't get updated.

The book was written using WTP 1.5, EJB 2.1, etc. These are older versions than what's currently available, but it's not a problem to run through the exercises with the older versions. The problem comes at the end of the exercise when they give you a "tease" about how cool the next version is. I resisted temptation for almost the whole book but finally I grabbed some updated versions to try out the cool new stuff! Bad idea. I backed-up to earlier exercises, and although I was able to replicate most of them under the newer versions of things, there's not enough detail to get through quickly (lots of trial and error). And when I was finished, I wasn't convinced it was an optimal result. But I just couldn't sit still with the old versions when the authors were plugging the new versions.

A picky issue I have concerns references to other books. I don't think they belong in the main text, really. They wouldn't even need footnotes. Just a recommended reading by chapter would be sufficient. If you are more of an academic than someone who needs to apply this stuff quickly, maybe reading these other books might be a possibility, but I'll tell you I'm not going to make time to read a 9 year old EJB book!

I'm not sure that pitching to a WTP user and a WTP volunteer developer in the same book was really in the flow of the book. This is a picky one too, and there weren't that many pages dedicated to this topic. I suppose there's a need to recruit, it's just that I'm not sure the audience overlaps very much.

The bottom line for me is that a book should simplify the task of setting up the environment so that I can concentrate on the "why" and "how" of coding. Although I wouldn't have enjoyed the "wisdom" and other continuity the book offered, I don't think I saved any time on the development environment. I spent as much time tinkering with the development environment as I would have if I had just grabbed 6 or 8 tutorials from 6 or 8 different authors off of the internet.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent: How books on programming should be written, March 30, 2008

By 

Arif &Ed : Books,Music And Java (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eclipse Web Tools Platform: Developing Java™ Web Applications (Paperback)

Eclipse Web Tools Platform: Developing Java(TM) Web Applications

This is an excellent book; I specially liked the iterative approach (for example, for presentation tier, iteration 1: HTML, iteration 2: add CSS, iteration 3: add Javascripts, iteration 4: XML and XSLT, iteration 5: DTD)authors have taken. I have used examples from this book, with Eclipse and NetBeans, of course for Eclipse user this book has added value, since it goes through configuration of Eclipse and recommended practices. Please ignore the gripe about errors in the code; there are two minor errors which are detailed in the errata on book's companion site, it doesn't take more than a minute to fix those two issues.

Authors discuss All three tiers in great detail. How about this, by page 85 you would be deploying a simple web service (and you would be amazed how simple it is).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review from Web Tools Platform Past Committer, April 7, 2008

By 

Vijay Bhadriraju (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eclipse Web Tools Platform: Developing Java™ Web Applications (Paperback)

To give a brief background about myself. I have been one of the primary contributor and committer of the Web Tools Platform (WTP) eclipse tools project since its inception through WTP 1.5 release. I contributed the Validation Framework component for this project. I read a large portion of this book and can say that this most comprehensive book that explains the complete WTP in a step by step fashion that can be help you easily understand the whole WTP project, its sub projects, its components and features through several real world examples. I strongly recommend this book to all users and contributors of WTP.

Vijay Bhadriraju, IBM