Best books and reference material

[Art Smith]

Hi:
Other than the EJB2.0 spec - as availble for download from sun, what are the best, most concise ejb references available that will cover what we need for the beta exam.
I know there are no study guides yet, but, which ejb books are you (the ejb beta testing public) studing for this exam?

[Andrew Perepelytsya]

I'm afraid I'm repeating what had been said many times before, but:
1. O'Reilly. Enterprise JavaBeans 3rd Edition by R.Monson-Haefel - I can definitely say that if you haven't read this Book, you cannot call yourself a serious EJB developer
2. Wiley & Sons, Mastering Enterpise JavaBeans by Ed Roman from Middleware Company. A perfect pair for the book above, whatever people say about MC. My opinion, and my fellow colleagues' - this book delves into some other subjects O'Reilly book doesn't, and is generally providing a more verbose and friendly coverage on some subjects(but o'relly's is still the best )
Well, that's generally it. I read many more big and thick books on EJB, but none of them could not compare to these two. (sorry all the authors )
My practice was, after reading those two, your best bet is the spec itself, no time for introductionary texts.
And, though, it's possible to pass exam just by studying (not recommended), experience gives you the inside-out knowledge of EJB, which none of the books can.
Hope this helps

[Andrew Perepelytsya]

Yes, and I found useful some 'nutshell' pdf notes for EJB, which you can find in the scea_j2ee yahoo group. (You should register to gain access to the files). Many of them provide a digested view over specs and javadocs.

[faiza athar]

Hi
For ejb experience...any good example to practice?
What about the Reference Implementation on Sun .
Any other recommendations?

[Kathy Sierra]

Howdy,
Yes, for the exam I recommend the Reference Implementation (RI), unless you already have something up and running.
Most production (i.e. REAL) app servers are more challenging to configure and get running than the RI, and the RI will behave exactly as you need it to for learning, testing, experimenting, and developing beans. It conforms to the specification, and you can get a lot from it.
cheers,
Kathy
(and did I mention, for the 10th time, that I'm running it on my Mac Titanium? )
Not that I'm a Mac fanatic or anything , but there's an article from Games Gosling about how he works on a Mac Powerbook, and how all the engineers at Sun are starting to get Macs now that you've got Unix in there...
new James Gosling article on Java and the Mac

[Kathy Sierra]

Howdy,
Yes, for the exam I recommend the Reference Implementation (RI), unless you already have something up and running.
Most production (i.e. REAL) app servers are more challenging to configure and get running than the RI, and the RI will behave exactly as you need it to for learning, testing, experimenting, and developing beans. It conforms to the specification, and you can get a lot from it.
cheers,
Kathy
(and did I mention, for the 10th time, that I'm running it on my Mac Titanium? )
Not that I'm a Mac fanatic or anything , but there's an article from Games Gosling about how he works on a Mac Powerbook, and how all the engineers at Sun are starting to get Macs now that you've got Unix in there...
new James Gosling article on Java and the Mac

[Al Newman]

For the exam I'd put the Ed Roman book on the top of the pile with the Monson-Haefel book a ways back. Seems to me that the Roman book conforms to the specification quite a bit more than Monson-Haefel does.
For an implementation book much depends upon which App Server you are preparing with. For the RI you could do way worse than the Sun J2EE Tutorial, whether online or dead tree version doesn't much matter. Another decent Ri title is EJB 2.1 Kick Start, seems like.
For BEA Weblogic Server 7.0 the combination of Monson-Haefel book and the Weblogic 6.1 workbook isn't bad and I'm fond of Zuffaletto's
Weblogic 6.1 Bible.
[ May 22, 2003: Message edited by: Alfred Neumann ]

[Mehul Jasani]

Please provide the link to download "Reference Implementation (RI)".
Thanks,
Mehul.

[Kathy Sierra]

Howdy,
Here you go:
J2EE download page
Be sure you get the 1.3.1 release (I think it's the second one down, after the SunOne app server).
If you need help setting it up, let us know.
I used the linux version for my mac.
cheers,
Kathy

[Gustavo Torreti]

O'Reilly. Enterprise JavaBeans 3rd Edition by R.Monson-Haefel is currently the best book i found as reference.
hth

[Andrew Perepelytsya]

Especially for EJB-QL relations. To the point, descriptive, depictive Don't miss it.

[Art Smith]

Thanks for all of the relys. I've had mixed results with the O'Riely Books - some are good, some not, so I thought it best to ask.
I'll give it try.
As for an app server, I'm gonna test my stuff against Oracles 9iasR2 Java Edition - mostly since its already up and running and I know how to administer it.

[Mark Fletcher]

Originally posted by Kathy Sierra:
Not that I'm a Mac fanatic or anything , but there's an article from Games Gosling about how he works on a Mac Powerbook, and how all the engineers at Sun are starting to get Macs now that you've got Unix in there...
new James Gosling article on Java and the Mac

Hmm... if some of Suns own engineers are turning to Apple products that speaks volumes for Suns own Workstations

[eric mcentee]

I'd have to also recommend "Mastering Enterpise JavaBeans" by Ed Roman.
I took the EJB for Architects class from MC, and bought this book to supplement my work materials (EJB Design Patterns is also good, but probably not needed for this test). It has some great topics on persistance, CMP, BMP, message driven beans, etc.
I just got the email yesterday, and will probably be looking at this book and this forum as my main resources. I've been a J2EE developer for a little over two years, but I've found that poor performance in some respects prohibitive to what we are doing (with regards to Entity Beans and DataWarehouses). But I'm hoping that experience and reading this book again over the next four weeks will get me up to speed and ready for a shot at the Beta.
[ June 02, 2003: Message edited by: eric mcentee ]