JBoss: A Developer's Notebook [Paperback]

Norman Richards (Author), Sam Griffith (Author)

Book Description

Series: Developers Notebook | Publication Date: July 5, 2005

There's nothing ordinary about JBoss. What began as an open source EJB container project six years ago has become a fully certified J2EE 1.4 application server with the largest market share, competitive with proprietary Java application servers in features and quality. And with its dynamic architecture, JBoss isn't just a J2EE server. You can alter the services to make J2EE work the way you want, or even throw J2EE away completely.

After more than a million downloads, many JBoss users are no longer trying it out on internal test boxes, but rolling it out on production machines. JBoss: A Developer's Notebook takes you on a complete tour of JBoss in a very unique way: rather than long discussions, you will find code--lots of code. In fact, the book is a collection of hands-on labs that take you through the critical JBoss features step-by-step. You don't just read about JBoss, you learn it through direct practical application. That includes exploring the server's many configurations: from bare features for simple applications, to the lightweight J2EE configuration, to everything JBoss has in store-including Hibernate and Tomcat.

JBoss: A Developer's Notebook also introduces the management console, the web services messaging features, enhanced monitoring capabilities, and shows you how to improve performance. At the end of each lab, you'll find a section called "What about..." that anticipates and answers likely follow-up questions, along with a section that points you to articles and other resources if you need more information.

JBoss is truly an extraordinary application server. And we have an extraordinary way for you to learn it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"JBoss is the certified J2EE application server from JEMS (JBoss Enterprise Middleware System) and with JBoss: A Developer's Notebook you'll be able set up and manage your project in minutes. It takes a no-nonsense approach and is the practical guide to JBoss for developers. It's certainly the kind of book that you'll constantly have open on your desk, and to save time they've added in some coffee cup stains on the pages for you! Scribbled notes in the margin also add to the notebook theme, but they are actually useful asides to the main text, which makes it one of the most readable books on the subject. However, some sections might prove a bit lightweight for the coding hardcore." .NET, November 2005 "A daring format which works well, a style that lends to quick reading and progress, and an all-round enjoyable read. I look forward to other O'Reilly books in this series." - Mark Jones, news@UK, March 2006

About the Author

Norman Richards has developed software for a decade and has been working with code generation techniques for much of that time. He is an avid XDoclet user and evangelist. Norman lives in Austin, Texas.

Sam Griffith is an OO Architect/Developer/Mentor who has programmed OO systems since 1987. He has used Obj-C, C++, Smalltalk, Object Pascal, Object-Forth (Neon), CLOS and other OO systems.

Product Details

• Paperback: 174 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (July 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596100078
• ISBN-13: 978-0596100070
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #854,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lot of material in a small volume..., July 22, 2005

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: JBoss: A Developer's Notebook (Paperback)

J2EE development is often seen as highly complex, and setting up the J2EE server from various vendors is nearly as bad. A good alternative to get running quickly is JBoss, a complete open source J2EE server which is designed to cut through all the complexity and vendor add-ons. A quick guide to get it running and working with it is JBoss - A Developer's Notebook by Normal Richards and Sam Griffith, Jr. (O'Reilly).

Contents: Installing and Running JBoss; Deploying an Application on JBoss; Creating a Complete Application; Connecting to a Real Database; Applying Security; Logging; Configuring Persistence; Managing and Monitoring JBoss; Rolling Out JBoss; Index

The Developer's Notebook series is a quirky format using a gridlined page with scribbled font text in the margins. You'll even find the occasional "water ring" on a page where a sweaty glass was set down. They're also small and to the point. It's not a step-by-step comprehensive tutorial, nor does it attempt to explain every last iota of information on the subject. It's a series of subjects followed by paragraphs of "How Do I Do That?" and "What Just Happened?" write-ups. This leads to a high degree of practicality and hands-on material.

Richards and Griffith have created a book that will be immensely useful to people who have some J2EE background or have worked with other J2EE servers before. By following the material, the reader can get the essentials necessary to start playing with JBoss in a matter of a couple of hours rather than days. If this is your very first exposure to J2EE, you won't get a lot of handholding here. There is the assumption of a certain level of background information. And if you're going to be using JBoss as a production-level J2EE server for your organization (yes, you *can* do that!), you'll probably want an additional book that goes into much more depth. But if you come in with proper expectations, it's a great resource.

Nice format, good writing, and a lot of meat packed into a small volume. Good job...

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars JBoss run-through, July 20, 2005

By 

Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: JBoss: A Developer's Notebook (Paperback)

This book takes you on a run through JBoss. Running at lightning speed through installation, building your first application, doing some simple persistence stuff through EJB (if there is simple EJB persistence), and then into monitoring, logging and performance work. Sounds like a lot, right? It's certainly is. Especially in just over 130 pages. Yes, read that again, 130 pages. So this book is super light on exposition. Expect to be taken on a lightning ride. And if that works for you. If that's not for you. If, for example, JBoss is your first Java environment, then I would look elsewhere.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid Guide for Getting Started with JBoss and J2EE, October 15, 2005

By 

Robert Eric Reeves (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: JBoss: A Developer's Notebook (Paperback)

The book is a solid guide for getting started with JBoss. However, I would recommend this book to those who are looking to get started with J2EE development.

Obviously, you can't discuss JBoss without J2EE. The authors take you through a sample application from start to finish. This includes a wonderful overview of J2EE.

After this book, you should be able to delve into more complex topics related to J2EE and other application servers. I really wished this book was around before I started hacking J2EE on WebLogic, I would have chosen JBoss to begin my learning.