Test-Driven Development: A J2EE Example (Expert's Voice) [Paperback]

Thomas Hammell (Author), R. Gold (Contributor), T. Snyder (Contributor)

Book Description

Series: Expert's Voice | Publication Date: November 19, 2004

Test-driven development was first introduced as part of the extreme programming (XP) paradigm. While not everyone agrees with all aspects of XP, most developers believe in the benefits of test-driven development. Although the basic techniques of test-driven development are simple to understand, its application in the real world requires knowledge of certain tools and techniques needed to effectively create, run and organize tests.

This book is targeted at Java developers who want to learn how to use test-driven development to improve the development process for constructing J2EE applications.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas Hammell is a senior developer with Hewlett-Packard and part of the Open Call Business Unit, which develops telecom networks infrastruture software. Hammell has over 18 years of experience developing software. He has published numerous articles on Java topics, ranging from Swing development to unit testing. Hammell also lectures frequently on Java topics. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in computer science from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Russell Gold is a senior developer with Oracle Corporation, and he currently works on OC4J, Oracle's J2EE-compliant application server. Gold has developed software for over 24 years. He authors and maintains the popular open source project, HttpUnit, a library for interacting with and testing web applications from Java programs.

Tom Snyder is a senior developer with Oracle Corporation and works on Oracle's J2EE application server. Snyder has over 10 years of experience developing software in the telecom, insurance, and application server areas. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer and information sciences from Temple University in Philadelphia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: A-Press; 1 edition (November 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590593278
• ISBN-13: 978-1590593271
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,172,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent book with good examples. Worth buying, November 24, 2004

By 

David Marsh (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Test-Driven Development: A J2EE Example (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

Overall I really liked this book. It has a lot good examples and practical advice on how to use TDD to build a J2EE application. The code I downloaded from the book's web site is nice also because besides the source code for the book you get a full build environment including a set of Ant build files that can be used to easily build and the run the examples. I really liked the chapter on servlet development using TDD since it showed me some tools and techniques that I hadn't seen before.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Extensive problems and answers, December 18, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Test-Driven Development: A J2EE Example (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

Hammell puts forth to us that testing code is a rigorous discipline. He explains how to do this in the context of writing Java and using J2EE. The bedrock of his exposition is unit testing. This being Java, he shows how JUnit can be used to configure and run such tests, in a highly automated fashion. Hopefully, you will agree with his contention that indeed integrating JUnit and unit testing into the overall fabric of your development process is easy.

Building on this, he treats the important cases of testing a Java GUI and servlets and JSPs. The basic ideas are easy to grasp. There is a mass of example code that might obscure it, on first glance. But part of your skill set, which you need to develop, is that you should be able to hone down through the source code for the essential implementation of the ideas.

A nice trait of the book is the problem sets. And the lengthy answers to them. Rather unusual in books of these type. Typically, there aren't even any problems furnished. Let alone answers. If you end up using this book, you should avail yourself of the problems, for better learning.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting case study in TDD, December 31, 2004

By 

Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Test-Driven Development: A J2EE Example (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

This is an interesting book. It takes a case study approach to teaching test driven development on an application to track sports results. It's pretty code heavy, which is something that I don't like about it. But given the topic that is to be expected.

Test Driven Development is a tough topic to teach. I respect APress for publishing a book with a unique design to try address this problem. It's well worth the time because this unique development approach can be very powerful when it's employed properly.

I recommend looking into Test Driven Development if you haven't already. And this is a reasonable place to start if you like to learn by example more than by reading process documentation like the Agile books.