I really have to take a rest from this book review business, but I’ve been buying heaps of books through Tech Books Deal of the Day, and this title has been very useful for one of my current bits of client work.
First of all, Beginning Java EE6 with Glassfish 3 came at a time when one of our clients requested we implement some JPA2 infrastructure (around EJB3) for them to store some JAXB objects coming in via JAX WS. I’d worked with earlier versions of all of these technologies, but wasn’t across the latests spec changes in EE6 (which was their preferred stack). So this book was a $10 special on exactly the right day for me!
First of all, this a a sensational title if you have a background in Java EE. It was basically the single volume I needed to get up to speed with all the latest specs in a hurry. The examples are all Maven-based, the sample code is simple but genuinely representative of the kinds of issues I was facing, and the coverage is across the whole EE stack.
What I like most about this book, however, is the the author has done a lot of thinking about the ordering of concepts. The book progresses nicely from JPA2, through EJB3, Transactions, the Web Tier (JSF) and finally on to JMS, Web Services , REST, and JAXB. It’s all covered in the right order! (We spent a lot of time writing and rewriting in an attempt to get this right in Grails in Action so I appreciate the effort). The author is on the EE, JPA2 and EJB3.1 Expert Groups, and it shows in this material. Lots of useful tip and tricks covered along the way and heaps of things I didn’t know.
Be warned though, you need to know that this is a book on “Beginning Java EE6” even though the byline is “From Novice to Professional”. Even in 450 pages, you won’t find a deep-dive on all the EE concepts, or detailed coverage of every JPA option. The only point this really bothered me was in JPA2 Criteria Queries. This is a pretty important new part of the spec, but doesn’t get a mention here. Even things like TypedQuery didn’t get a shout-out. (BTW, if you’re looking for a JPA2 Deepdive, Java Persistence with JPA is a great, albeit dry, alternative -which is also a $10 ebook!).
If you have some background in Java EE, but you haven’t made the switch to Java EE6, this is definitely a title that you’ll want in your library. A fantastic survey of all the APIs, with genuinely useful background tips, source code and discussion.
Interestingly, it seems that Apress have dumped their DRM protection on PDFs (used to have a password-based protection), which is great news for everyone using PDFs on their e-readers etc.
If you’re looking to step up to JEE6, this one is definitely worth having… and if you can snag it for $10 it’s a fantastic bargain!
Oh. And once you’ve had your fill of JEE6, go and grab a Grails Book and take your JEE productivity to a whole new level.