Applying Enterprise JavaBeans 2.1: Component-Based Development for the J2EE Platform (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Sanjeev Krishnan (Author), Linda DeMichiel (Author), Beth Stearns (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As an authoritative resource for using Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) effectively to build and integrate even the largest systems, Applying Enterprise JavaBeans provides what IT managers and developers need to adopt this powerful component standard successfully in new Java projects.

Most books about EJB are strong on theory, but tend to leave out many details of how to implement components in real projects. That's where this text steps in, providing real code (and real design decisions) for implementing different kinds of JavaBeans, like session and entity Beans. Better yet, it contains a case study of a human resources benefits enrollment system that integrates data from different vendors and uses EJB to hold the data together. (Using fictitious vendor names like "Star Enterprise," "Wombat," and "Providence," the book shows how EJB can lead to successful enterprise integration.)

Subsequent chapters look at different aspects of this system, from session Beans (including stateful Beans used to manage sessions) to detailed examples of entity Beans in action. There are plenty of state transition diagrams (that show the inner workings of EJB in a variety of scenarios) and source code (useful for Java developers). Without actually anchoring this material in an actual application server (which would make the book even more practical), it does a good job of fleshing out the EJB standard for real projects, exposing what really goes on between application server "containers" and the Beans they manage, including activation and passivation states.

Final sections examine transactions and security options for components, including the use of declarative statements in XML descriptors to simplify these aspects of EJB design. Finally, there's a reference for built-in EJB classes and APIs.

Overall, this book can help put EJB within reach for programmers and managers. Its mix of practical expert advice and sample source code will help demystify EJB components and how to use them to create successful, state-of-the-art enterprise systems. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Two-tiered vs. J2EE application architectures
• Advantages of EJB
• Business rules
• The structure of EJB
• Roles for EJB users (including developers, system administrators, and deployers)
• Session Beans (stateful and stateless session Beans)
• Session Beans and containers (including passivation and activation)
• Entity Bean basics (the Bean life cycle, storing and loading Beans)
• Case study for a health benefits enrollment system (including application integration through EJB)
• Transactions in EJB (including declarative and programmatic transaction management)
• Managing security with Beans (including security roles and declarative security mechanisms)
• EJB API reference

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Guide discusses when and how each EJB feature should be used in applications. Concludes with a comprehensive API reference for developers. Updated and expanded to reflect updates in the EJB 2.1 specification. Previous edition: c2001. Softcover.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition (May 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201914662
• ISBN-13: 978-0201914665
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,369,364 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful but not the best EJB book, January 27, 2001

By	Eric L. Ma (Berkeley Heights, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Applying Enterprise JavaBeans(TM): Component-Based Development for the J2EE(TM) Platform (Paperback)

This book is similar in content to the Monson-Haefel EJB 1.1 book. For EJB beginners, it is somewhat more readable than the latter book, and complete blocks of code are given (for an entire EJB bean class for example) in the book pages. However, as a book that only covers EJB 1.1 spec and is not application server specific, it is rather late to the market and as a result its value is somewhat reduced.

The pluses of the book: the strongest selling point of the book is that it does an excellent job in explaining the EJB API (this may be attributed to the fact that the leading author of the book is a member of the Sun's J2EE architecture team). Things I find very useful include discussions on varies methods defined in the EJBObject and EJBHome and the Bean interfaces, the different life cycle behaviors among various type of EJB's, the container-bean contract, and container services such as transaction management and security control, all in a very clear manner. Although there is no integrated application in the book, unlike the Wrox Press's WebLogic book, the EJB design in this book is more sophisticated. The best practices of using value objects, dependent classes, helper classes, and database connection are all well-demonstrated throughout the code and clearly explained.

The minuses of the book: in addition to the ones I mentioned earlier, this book does not have a companion website to allow one to download the source code. It doesn't provide instructions to set up an EJB server to run the samples, and coverage on how to invoke EJB's from JSP and Java clients is limited.

My suggestion: if you are new to EJB and don't care too much about the upcoming EJB 2.0 CMP service and message-driven beans at this point, this is a good alternative to the Monson-Haefel book. On the other hand, if you already own other EJB books or have hands-on experience, I think you should wait for the 2nd Ed. of the book by Ed Roman et al. to come out in the summer. As a side note, from what I understand the new Roman book promises to cover all the new EJB 2.0 stuff and uses WebLogic 6.0 for its samples.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, January 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Applying Enterprise JavaBeans(TM): Component-Based Development for the J2EE(TM) Platform (Paperback)

The first EJB book I've seen with the actual SQL for the tables it uses. The book does not state it's compliance, but I am very familiar with the 1.1 spec and it covers the 1.1 spec with nothing new from my perspective, so I assume it's 1.1 compliant. The book is short and sweet with plenty of examples. The title's keyword of "applying" is exactly correct. It shows application and not theory. If you want theory go for Enterprise Javabean's by O'Reilly. When you are done with that and ready for practical applications, come to this book. I highly recomend it for applying EJB.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Notch, Clear Thinking, February 13, 2001

By	Paul Abraham (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Applying Enterprise JavaBeans(TM): Component-Based Development for the J2EE(TM) Platform (Paperback)

The author expends his time and energy explaining the basics of J2EE platform and the intuition that went into developing the specification. Once you get the basics, you can equip yourself with the advanced stuff either from specialized books or from the manuals. The are some spots where the evangelizing gets a bit much. But hey it's crisp, clear and concise (done in 352 pages). If you want to develop a system you need to get a more "tutorial" type of book such as that of the wrox team, or from ths sun website. Buying a tools book may prove useless as the application/web containers versions change often and you may want to invest in that only closer the job one!