Rating:  - Excellent book on EJB 3.0 and JPA 1.0, even for a beginner
I found this book very helpful getting me up to date with the latest version of EJB. I had used EJB 2.1 before, but this book is good even for complete beginners. The first couple hundred pages are about the new Java Persistence Architecture. The last couple hundred pages are on using EJB 3.0 in JBoss AS. The middle of the book covers the rest of EJB 3.0. I still reference this book from time to time when working with JPA and complex relationships. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:  - Great Introduction
I have been building J2EE based applications for about five years now and this book has given me exactly what I needed to move to the new version of the specification. I'm using it as a study guide for the Sun Certified Business Component Developer certification exam.
Fun to read with great working examples included with the Jboss Workbook at the end.
Rating: - Best Hands on Book for EJB 3
If you're planning on using EJB 3 ( which includes moving from EJB 2.1 ) you'd love this book. I come from EJB 2.1 background and therefore to move to EJB 3 was such a delightful experience. The book covers everything you'd ever need to know about EJB 3 and includes practical insights as to " How to make it work"
I'd suggest you buy it with JBOSS at Work ( not needed really, but hey, if you're an enthusiast those two gel really well with each other ).
All in all a good buy.
Regards
Vyas, Anirudh
Rating:  - Too Superficial To Be Of Much Use
Maybe the topic is simply too large, but this book is not very good unless you are looking for a very superficial overview of EJB3.
Rating: - Best book for EJB 3.0 available (for now)
At the time of this writing (June 2007) this is for me the best book for the EJB 3.0 specification currently available. It covers all the grounds and it is very, very dettailed. Session, Entity and Message Driven beans are very well explained, as well as new new JPA (Java Persistence API); other chapters focus on the services provided by the container (Timer Service, Interceptors, JNDI ENC, Transactions, Security and Web Services).
The books closes with an overview of J2EE and EJB for the Real World (when/how to use them).
Down sides:
- lot of tiny errors; while they are not deal breaker, it'd be nice if ALL the code presented was truly functional. It's usually little things that can be solved by googling the topic (like forgot to implement Serializable, a variable's name mispelled, etc.).
- where's the source code? No CD comes witht he book (thumb down) and following the link provided in the book takes you to the JBoss source, rather than the examples's source.
- Web Service chapters (2), try to zip a 800+ topic in 60 pages. While it's true that web services are a HUGE topic, maybe dedicating a little less time to XML semanthics and focusing on a *runnable* web service example would definetly be a pro. The web service was the only chapter I couldn't make the example work.
- Sometimes it looks more like a reference guide; author could definetly learn from the Head First guys about didactic AND fun!
The theory part of the book is general in nature, specifying which behaviors are specs dictated and which are vendor implementation dependant. The practice part is JBoss specific, which is one of the main reasons I bought this book.
The Head First EJB (3.0) is still unannounced (estimated Spring-Summer 2008), and there isn't yet a SCBCD specific book available; so your best chance is to get this book, find any extra material online and you'll be ready to go!
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