Rating:  - Not for beginners...
This is a very well designed and written book covering EJB technology in a complete and in-depth manner. There's a quick intro to the subject, and then the rest of the book builds on that knowledge in tutorial fashion. You will build a cruise reservation system using beans, and in the process you'll learn a lot. It does assume that you have a solid foundation in Java skills before you dive in, so don't get this book unless you're already well on your way to learning Java. It's not for beginners.
Another very nice feature is the companion workbook that you can buy for this book. It translates many of the exercises into more specific instructions for running them on the Websphere platform. This is an extremely valuable addition to the learning process. All too often, a writer has to assume a certain platform or system to be able to cover the material. If you also use that same system, you're OK. If you're not using what the author had, then there can be a translation process that can be frustrating at times. Having a workbook focused on your specific platform will speed up the learning and avoid the hassles involved in debugging your errors.
If you're a Domino developer just getting into Java and J2EE technology, hold off on this book. While you may well get to this point in your career sometime in the future, it will be of little use to you right now. There isn't much that is applicable to the pure Domino world, and you'll need to be very well grounded in the Websphere world before this will start to gel for you.
Conclusion
I would recommend this book to a good Java developer needing to learn EJB technology for their jobs. It's very complete and comprehensive. If you're just trying to get started in Java, this book is still aways off for you. I was pretty well lost through most of it, so I need to come back to it in a year or so once I have some more experience.
Rating:  - The bible of EJB???
In the Bible it says that it took Moses forty years to guide his followers from Egypt to Israel. Considering that the distance is a mere hundreds of kilometers, it makes you wonder why it took so long. But had the author been the guide, they would still be lost in the wilderness. Simple concepts are wrapped in layers of repetitive explanations until they are barely recognizable. The fact that entity beans are stored in database and session ones are not is repeated at nauseam. Chapters are dedicated where a few sentences would be more beneficial. The author believes that if it is worth saying once it is worth saying twice (and thrice, etc.). One of the reviewers said that it is kind of "get in anywhere" book Yes, the concepts are redefined so many times that it takes less time to read on to find the next rephrasing of the definition that to bother with the index. On the plus side we learn that Anne Manes coined the phrase "Component Transaction Monitor", and where she works now.
Rating: - waste of pages
I just started to read this book from the very beginning as an intro book for EJB. The first chapter is like an overview of the component model architecture. The author repeats the same ideas couple of times, except using differnt wordings. When my spare time is very limited, I would rather pay twice or three-times of the price if the author would cut off half of the length but still convey the same amount of info(which is not too difficult to do if readers' time was really put into consideration). Unfortunately this lengthiness(or selling by pages) seems to be a pretty popular pattern with most IT books nowadays anyway.
Rating:  - Has been a great help
I have used this book for some time and I still have a good impression on the book. I refer it in my day to day work. I admit this book cant be used solely as the only guide especially for newbie but it serve as a good complement with other guides.
Rating:  - Nice book hard to come by
All in all, this book is very well written, especially if compared to other books in similar titles. Concepts are explained concisely and no extra irrelevant materials covered. That said, it still can be improved in two areas:
1. This book is very useful if you read it together with the companion wookbooks. The book I read was for weblogic, which, unfortunately, was kind of out dated. It took a while to get the first example up and running. After that, the rest is quite smooth.
2. The later part of the book, starting from chapter 12, seems to be done more in a rush. Even the writing style was kind of different from earlier chapters. Also there were quite some repetitions that probably could be omitted and replaced with more elaboration and examples of the topics.
|
