Pro Jakarta Commons (Paperback)

~ Harshad Oak (Author), Apress (Author)
Key Phrases: implementing pooling, user age, linked list, Jakarta Commons, Commons Logging, Using the Validator Component (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The author does a great job of surveying the Jakarta Commons components and showing how each solves real problems. An enjoyable read with lots of easy to understand examples.</a></p> </blockquote> <p id="quoteAuthor">&#8212; Floyd Marinescu, creator of TheServerSide.com and author of <i>EJB Design Patterns</i></p></div>

<p>Jakarta Commons are easily reusable components that can quickly be put to good use in any server-side Java development undertaking. In fact, components are not big applications, but sleek code bits that perform specific tasks very well. This book provides much-needed documentation and usage information about the popular sub-projects forming Jakarta Commons&emdash;so that you can efficiently incorporate them into Java applications.</p>

<p>Jakarta Commons have potential to extend the core functionality of the Java language (the Lang sub-project), and they can provide a Validation framework (Validator) and a database connection pool (Pool). Jakarta Commons can even manipulate XML and JavaBeans in a more intuitive and pragmatic fashion.</p>

<p> <i>"From Lang to Net, BeanUtils to Collections, this book provides a real way in to the breadth and depth of Jakarta Commons. The many examples and step-by-step guides should help everyone get the best from these libraries."</i><br> --Stephen Colebourne, committer at Jakarta Commons and creator of Joda open-source libraries </p> <p> <i>"This book is by far the best resource available on Jakarta Commons and covers the subject matter clearly."</i><br> --James McGovern, coauthor of the best-selling book <i>A Practical Guide to Enterprise Architecture</i>

From the Inside Flap

FROM THE FOREWORD BY GEIR MAGNUSSON, JR.

In the foreword to The Cathedral and the Bazaar (O’Reilly, 2001), Red Hat Chairman and CEO Bob Young identified two things that must happen if open-source software is going to make a lasting change: Open-source software must become widely used, and the users of the software must communicate and understand the benefits of the software development model.

I think that Jakarta Commons has succeeded on both fronts.

As one of the founders of the Jakarta Commons, I am utterly amazed at the success of the project as it nears the third anniversary of its founding. We knew what we did was going to be useful, but we didn’t understand the extent to which the code and the community would grow. There are now 28 released components, 20 in progress in "the Sandbox," and lively, continuous discussion and debate on the mail lists—generally more mail traffic than a person can keep up with. Components have grown and "left the nest"—for example, Jakarta Cactus, the server-side testing framework, began as a Commons component. Most important, community participation has blossomed—from the 10 original committers, we have expanded to 82 as of this writing.

A bit of history: In early 2001, several of us working in various Jakarta subprojects noticed we had a problem. The subprojects had implemented a substantial variety of useful utility packages without any thought of reuse outside of each package’s subproject. The result was that subprojects would reimplement (or copy outright) useful utility code from others. More important, we knew we had a trove of software to share but no way for people to find that software and obtain it in a simple and useful package. Driven by the motivation to make that software available and an open community debate on what the solution should be, Jakarta Commons was born—and since has become the place where Java programmers first look for help to solve common problems in server-side and client-side development.

The software is widely used throughout the Java world, both in commercial and open-source software. This familiar set of building blocks helps both developers and users: Developers have well-understood tools to work with, and users are familiar with the configuration and functionality of subsystems such as connection pools when they come from Jakarta Commons.

Equally as important, the growth of the community reflects the continued success of the software development model called open source. New components and improvements to existing components are driven by developers and users understanding that they can, to use the standard cliché, "scratch their itch." After showing up, all they need to do is contribute.

To that end, Harshad Oak, in Pro Jakarta Commons, brings what some may consider the rarest of contributions to open-source projects: comprehensive documentation. In this book, he covers 16 popular components. In each chapter, you’ll find not only background and motivation for the components but, for the working programmer, something even more valuable: code examples. With this book in hand, novice as well as experienced developers will be better able to take advantage of the treasure trove of useful utilities that is Jakarta Commons.

I encourage you to use this book, and the software it describes, to its fullest potential. And then if you have an improvement or an idea for something new, show up at "the Commons" and scratch that itch.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (February 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590592832
• ISBN-13: 978-1590592830
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,093,654 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a must have for Java Developers, January 22, 2005

By	Chad Padera (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a must have book for Java Developers. I already have found many components/code that I can reuse to make my life easier. For example, the File Upload component is simple to use and saves a great amount of coding. The XML component (Digester) is fantastic! The author writes to the point and shows great examples. The examples on the Jakarta Commons website are lacking, so this is why this book is needed!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, not great, August 2, 2004

By	David Bock "javaguy" (Hamilton, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was already familiar with the Jakarta Commons by the time I read this book, so I didn't get that much out of it. It is well written though, and full of good technical stuff.

If you are new to the Commons then I might recommend it to you; but the material in here is available from http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/index.html and it will stay 'fresh' on the website, as opposed to this book. I'd point you to there first. If you are looking for another 'roadmap' or organization of the material, then this book is for you.

If you are already familiar with the Jakarta Commons, pass on this book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice work., April 13, 2004

By	di Centa (Italy) - See all my reviews

Mr. Harshad Oak did what usually open source developers don't.. write some good documentation. Jakarta commons has incomplete documentation. Now with author's work i'm able to develop code without the feel of "reinventing the weel".
The author did a very good job focusing on the right key-points of the jakarta commons api. It is very readable even for non native english speakers. I did rate five stars but i would rate it to 4.5 stars because i think that it is not completly exaustive. I would have enjoyed some deeper discussion about the commons api. But it could be seen in another way: a quick and not verbose starting point for using the commons library.
Anyway i did really enjoy my purchase.