Win a copy of J2EE 1.4: The Big Picture

[Solveig Laura Haugland]

Hi all,

This week is a promo for the book I wrote with Mark Cade and Anthony Orapallo, "J2EE 1.4: The Big Picture." Ask a question, get enrolled in the free book giveaway!

It's a little different from the other books out there, so here's the basic deal. It's a guidebook to understanding the key points of J2EE, whether you're a marketing person who just needs to understand the big picture. or you're a developer who wants to get the big picture before you dive into the details. It goes from "what's a container" and continues through the key J2EE technologies, with a few side notes on things like how faster garbage collection affects the usefulness of bean pooling. The writing style is conversational with some humor--halfway between Peter van der Linden and Head First.

It's not Head First, and it's not For Dummies, since it doesn't teach actual J2EE software development.

This the book that you can recommend to your less-than-technical manager, or anyone who asks you a lot of non-coding J2EE questions.

Bring on the questions; Mark, Anthony, and I are standing by.

Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[e-mail]
www.bigpicture-books.com

"J2EE: The Big Picture" by Solveig Haugland, Mark Cade, and Anthony Orapallo
Knowledge without coding.
Understanding without boredom.
And occasional references to badgers.

[Pradeep bhatt]

Does the book talk , When EJB's should be used?

[Solveig Laura Haugland]

Originally posted by Pradeep Bhat:
Does the book talk , When EJB's should be used?

Hi Pradeep,

It kind of does. It doesn't take a stand on The Rules for Using, but it does have a chapter called something like "Does a Cup of J2EE in the Morning Always Smell Like Victory?" It addresses:

- Why people think entity beans suck, and some questions to ask when considering using them

- Why people think stateful session beans are evil, and when stateful session beans might be the best choice even if they are slower. Because some things are worse than slow.

Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[e-mail]
www.bigpicture-books.com

"J2EE: The Big Picture" by Solveig Haugland, Mark Cade, and Anthony Orapallo
Knowledge without coding.
Understanding without boredom.
And occasional references to badgers.

[Nicholas Cheung]

Why people think entity beans suck, and some questions to ask when considering using them

I am also interested in this area. Did you put a discussion on how other J2EE-related (not exactly J2EE, like Hibernate, Spring, etc) frameworks help solving the Entity bean problems? Or just simply discuss why there is a problem?

Any suggestions for those problems?

Thanks.

Nick

[Solveig Laura Haugland]

Originally posted by Nicholas Cheung:

I am also interested in this area. Did you put a discussion on how other J2EE-related (not exactly J2EE, like Hibernate, Spring, etc) frameworks help solving the Entity bean problems? Or just simply discuss why there is a problem?

I put in just a brief note that frameworks can be wacky. Got this info from our own Paul Wheaton over a heated breakfast at Huckleberry's, btw. I've pinged my coauthors to see if they have any thoughts.

Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[e-mail]
www.bigpicture-books.com

"J2EE: The Big Picture" by Solveig Haugland, Mark Cade, and Anthony Orapallo
Knowledge without coding.
Understanding without boredom.
And occasional references to badgers.

[holly wang]

I did few J2EE projects,and I am not satisfied with the books that I use. It seems hard to find an organized book and provides uptodate information about J2EE. Does your book pay attention on that?

[Kripal Singh]

Name says it all J2EE: the big picture. J2EE is a vast topic and it's impossible to cover it thoroughly in a single book.

[Solveig Laura Haugland]

Originally posted by holly wang:
I did few J2EE projects,and I am not satisfied with the books that I use. It seems hard to find an organized book and provides uptodate information about J2EE. Does your book pay attention on that?

Not really. This book is about taking people from confused and overwhelmed to "oh, is that all there is to it?" What you get is either just the ability to grok, and that's all some people need. If you need to do J2EE, it gives you the grokking capacity you need to move on to learning to do stuff with J2EE.

Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[e-mail]
www.bigpicture-books.com

"J2EE: The Big Picture" by Solveig Haugland, Mark Cade, and Anthony Orapallo
Knowledge without coding.
Understanding without boredom.
And occasional references to badgers.

[Mario Ciliotta]

Hi,

I am new to the Java/J2EE as I am from a Cold Fusion and ASP background but recently my company has asked that we develop some of our applications ontheir new J2EE environment. I am basically a manamge of a group of programmers with various backgrounds some with Java and some without. I am interested in finding out if this book is more geared towards me as I only need to understand what is out there that we can do in Java/JSP/J2EE as I will not be coding anymore to speak of. I would also like to know if there are any good books that I could get for my group as say some sort of reference material or for initial learning

Thanks
Mario

[Solveig Laura Haugland]

Originally posted by Mario Ciliotta:
Hi,

I am new to the Java/J2EE as I am from a Cold Fusion and ASP background but recently my company has asked that we develop some of our applications ontheir new J2EE environment. I am basically a manamge of a group of programmers with various backgrounds some with Java and some without. I am interested in finding out if this book is more geared towards me as I only need to understand what is out there that we can do in Java/JSP/J2EE as I will not be coding anymore to speak of. I would also like to know if there are any good books that I could get for my group as say some sort of reference material or for initial learning

Thanks
Mario

Hi Mario,

I think The Big Picture would be a great book for you and your group. As long as you aren't rigid about your books containing no humor. ;> You will still of course need additional books on doing the actual coding but Big Picture starts way before the other books and provides the information that other authors skip.

Big Picture doesn't come with any associated reference or learning materials, it's just 320+ pages of small chapters on focused, clear topics. You might find the glossary useful too, since a lot of the buzzwords are confusing and badly named.

The flow of the book is something like this:

Part 1 just does the first pass on a variety of topics:
- What's a container
- More on what a container is and the basic technologies of J2EE
- What's up with that multi-tier architecture, what's the point, what J2EE technologies are on each tier
- What's up with open standards
- The different containers
- Key advantages of J2EE
- Walkthrough of a sample process
- questions to ask when considering J2EE

Part II provides more detailed info on the Web server, Web container, JSPs, sevlets, EJBs, EJB container, databases, and Web services.

Part III provides an overview of security, resource management like database connection pooling, internationalization, J2EE architecture, and UML and patterns.

Part IV, the appendix, has a section on plain Java, a section on object orientation, a list of servers, and a glossary of buzzwords.

Thanks for the question,

Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[e-mail]
www.bigpicture-books.com

"J2EE: The Big Picture" by Solveig Haugland, Mark Cade, and Anthony Orapallo
Knowledge without coding.
Understanding without boredom.
And occasional references to badgers.

[Jeremy Tartaglia]

I actually have a couple of questions about this book (it's so rare you get to talk to the people producing it ). The first is, you said

It's a little different from the other books out there, so here's the basic deal. It's a guidebook to understanding the key points of J2EE, whether you're a marketing person who just needs to understand the big picture. or you're a developer who wants to get the big picture before you dive into the details.

but does that mean there is no example code? My biggest problem with developing lies in the details, not the big picture.

(rereads the post to double check if the questions have already been answered) And it looks like they have. Except for one. Does the book discuss security protocols at all? Like SSL?

-- Jeremy, a J2SEr who knows nothing about J2EE.

[Morgan Bath]

Originally posted by Solveig Laura Haugland:


Hi Mario,

I think The Big Picture would be a great book for you and your group. As long as you aren't rigid about your books containing no humor. ;>

I should avoid this book. People think I am geeky enough after laughing my ass off all the way through Head First EJB. Bosses tend to assume you cannot be working or learning anything useful if your smiling, and therefore give you more work and start looking closely at your expense claims.

RELATED TIP: When your boss comes in make sure you were looking miserable, but smile and beam when you see him and look like he is the best thing to happen to you all day. Try to let him not leave as if you would do anything other than the work you were doing. He will avoid you like the plague, assume you are working hard, and usually sign any expense form just to get away from you!

[Solveig Laura Haugland]

Originally posted by Jeremy Tartaglia:
but does that mean there is no example code? My biggest problem with developing lies in the details, not the big picture.

(rereads the post to double check if the questions have already been answered) And it looks like they have. Except for one. Does the book discuss security protocols at all? Like SSL?

-- Jeremy, a J2SEr who knows nothing about J2EE.

Hi Jeremy,

About .5% of the book is sample code. So you'd want a more detailed book about doing, rather than understanding. I define SSL but that's all.

On the other hand, it's got a really cute cover. The real cover isn't on Amazon yet. http://www.bigpicture-books.com/coverbig.jpg Lots of J2EE puns.

Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[e-mail]
www.bigpicture-books.com

"J2EE: The Big Picture" by Solveig Haugland, Mark Cade, and Anthony Orapallo
Knowledge without coding.
Understanding without boredom.
And occasional references to badgers.

[Fred Rogan]

Does the book make any comparisons between other web development technology?

[Solveig Laura Haugland]

Originally posted by John van H:
Does the book make any comparisons between other web development technology?

Hi John,

Aside from straight JSPs and servlets, I talk about Struts very briefly, and there's a chapter on Web services. (With a breakdown of why it's so slow, and reasons when it could be a good choice.)

Solveig

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[e-mail]
www.bigpicture-books.com

"J2EE: The Big Picture" by Solveig Haugland, Mark Cade, and Anthony Orapallo
Knowledge without coding.
Understanding without boredom.
And occasional references to badgers.

[Srikanth Shenoy]

Hi Solveig,

Does the book contain discussions on new features in EJB 2.1 and JCA 1.5 -in detail. AFAIK, those are two really big things in 1.4

Do you cover them in a detailed manner?

Especially the MDBs with Custom Message Types &
bidirecttional JCA connectors ..

Thanks,

[Solveig Laura Haugland]

Originally posted by Srikanth Shenoy:
Hi Solveig,

Does the book contain discussions on new features in EJB 2.1 and JCA 1.5 -in detail. AFAIK, those are two really big things in 1.4

Do you cover them in a detailed manner?

Especially the MDBs with Custom Message Types &
bidirecttional JCA connectors ..

Thanks,

Hi Srikanth,

The book is first and foremost an attempt to let nontechnical people understand technical things, so we don't get down to that level of detail.

Just a "big picture" book. ;>

Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[e-mail]
www.bigpicture-books.com

"J2EE: The Big Picture" by Solveig Haugland, Mark Cade, and Anthony Orapallo
Knowledge without coding.
Understanding without boredom.
And occasional references to badgers.

[Nicholas Cheung]

Does the book contain some further discussion on upcoming J2EE technologies?

Nick

[Amirthalingam Prasanna]

So if i give this book to my Employer , the next time i say lets use hibernate in our project he won't give me that weird look will he???

[Alvin chew]

hi, solveig , is this book contain guide on IDE or tools for j2ee development also ? thank you very much !

[Glenn Castro]

Sun has free tutorial on their site about J2EE and covers a lot about it. What can you say about the differce of this book to the tutorial on Sun's website?

[somkiat puisungnoen]

Hi Solveig ,
I'm new in J2EE Technology, i have some question to ask you
1. In this book, Have comparation of framework are use in J2EE Developement such as Struts Framework , Spring FrameWork, Blueprint Framework ?

and Have introduction of Object-Mapping Tool for use replace for Entity bean ?

2. Which goal/target of this Book ?


Thank you.

[Ravi]

Hi Solveig,

I am wondering, weather this book can provide Prof of Concept(POC) to let my managers understand, how J2EE architecvtire helps them to do their business grow & advatages of developing in J2EE based applications.



Thanks,
Ravi

[Piyush Goyal]

Hi Solveig

I was wondering if this book includes any reference to Legacy Systems Connectivity. Thats one area which is ignored so much . Often books describe using JCA, but thats not the end of the world. There are legacy applications which does not expose their code and needs other approaches to make them J2EE application. From an architect's perspective , need to look at different type of legacy applications and then try to fit the J2EE blocks in the most appropriate fashion.

[Yves Tracy Pojol]

Hi Solveig, Mark, and Anthony,

Will you recommend this book to people who would want to be software architects or is it for non-technical people only?

thanks

[Rajat Nayer]

Hi Authors,

Does the book talk about the transition of J2EE across versions and the key components/driving forces to move on to these versions.

That seems like a very obvious chapter to have in the "big picture" orientation of the book.

Please enlighten me.

regds
Rajat

[Anand Kapadi]

Hi,
Can this book be used to learn J2EE from scratch?
Thanks
Anand

[Pradeep bhatt]

Originally posted by Anand Kapadi:
Hi,
Can this book be used to learn J2EE from scratch?
Thanks
Anand

I dont think so. This provides a higher picture and mainly concentrates on concepts with no code. To learn J2EE you need to do so some coding, right?

[Anand Jayaraman]

Hi Chaps!

The book is first and foremost an attempt to let nontechnical people understand technical things, so we don't get down to that level of detail.

.. quoting Solveig!

Would a person with basic J2EE benefit out of the book?

Again, does the skim through architecture, design issues ??


Cheers

[Nicholas Cheung]

Answers for some of the questions can be found from:
https://coderanch.com/t/314459/EJB-JEE/java/author-Coverage-book-EE

Nick

[Gary Down]

Boy oh Boy
this books seems like it is the one I need.

Coming from 20 years developing systems in many older, more direct programming languages (please don't get into a discussion about them, they are just an early part of the evolution on programming which, without them, none of this would exist).

As technoogy has changed, so too, do I need to change. Syntax, coding styles, etc.. etc.. are old and overrated arguments. Any experienced programer can come to terms with new language syntax. What we need is a good guide to new thinking, new methods, and (most of all) a nudge in the new direction.

There was little more de-humanising (a good word if it exists) than sitting down and writing unnatural machine code and slightly more readable languages, but it did give give a good understanding of the mechanics involved in software development. The aim of the game is to produce usable, reliable and trusted systems that do "the job", not examples of fancy code, pretty front ends etc.. (all of which have a place but are not the end product). So, if this book gives a good insight into changes in technological sytems, I am all for (read need) t.

Gary.

[Sundeep Mohanty]

Originally posted by Solveig Laura Haugland:
Hi all,

This week is a promo for the book I wrote with Mark Cade and Anthony Orapallo, "J2EE 1.4: The Big Picture." Ask a question, get enrolled in the free book giveaway!

It's a little different from the other books out there, so here's the basic deal. It's a guidebook to understanding the key points of J2EE, whether you're a marketing person who just needs to understand the big picture. or you're a developer who wants to get the big picture before you dive into the details. It goes from "what's a container" and continues through the key J2EE technologies, with a few side notes on things like how faster garbage collection affects the usefulness of bean pooling. The writing style is conversational with some humor--halfway between Peter van der Linden and Head First.

It's not Head First, and it's not For Dummies, since it doesn't teach actual J2EE software development.

This the book that you can recommend to your less-than-technical manager, or anyone who asks you a lot of non-coding J2EE questions.

Bring on the questions; Mark, Anthony, and I are standing by.

Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[e-mail]
www.bigpicture-books.com

"J2EE: The Big Picture" by Solveig Haugland, Mark Cade, and Anthony Orapallo
Knowledge without coding.
Understanding without boredom.
And occasional references to badgers.

Hi,
Congrats for sharing your knowledege in this way. I hope this book will help J2EE users to understand it in a better way.
I have some question for you.
1. Is this book defing anything related to J2EE architectures and patterns.
2. One most important question I want to ask you, whether you given any focus on when to use what, i.e. the best practices. I mean to say things like when we should you ejb, when should we use entity bean, when to use which pattern and architechture. Because I thing this things are very useful when we design and write j2ee application.
3. Is your book says anything related to performance and security of J2EE application and its dependency on application servers (like websphere, weblogic, sunone, etc).

I am very curious to know all this from you and of course to read your book.

Regards,
Sundeep Mohanty.

[Hanna Habashy]

Does the book cover J2EE design patterns?

[Pradeep bhatt]

Originally posted by Hanna Habashy:
Does the book cover J2EE design patterns?

I dont think it covers any design patterns.

[Solveig Laura Haugland]

Originally posted by Nicholas Cheung:
Does the book contain some further discussion on upcoming J2EE technologies?

Nick

Hi Nick,

No, it's just about what's now, and the core things about J2EE that don't change like, containers, open standards, etc. It's more about understanding, than the details.

Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[e-mail]
www.bigpicture-books.com

"J2EE: The Big Picture" by Solveig Haugland, Mark Cade, and Anthony Orapallo
Knowledge without coding.
Understanding without boredom.
And occasional references to badgers.

[Nicholas Cheung]

I guess it covers a bit in part III of the book, as the auther said:

Part III provides an overview of security, resource management like database connection pooling, internationalization, J2EE architecture, and UML and patterns.

However, it may just mention the common patterns, like MVC, Service Locator, etc, individually without giving details about how those patterns migrated into a J2EE system, or how to make use of several patterns for some special purposes.

Nic

[Solveig Laura Haugland]

Originally posted by Amirthalingam Prasanna:
So if i give this book to my Employer , the next time i say lets use hibernate in our project he won't give me that weird look will he???

Hi,

Well, he might, since I don't specifically talk about Hibernate. Might need to give him the 25 word explanation.

If you give this book to your employer, and if he doesn't already understand about stateful versus stateless session beans, or that there are two containers, or if he doesn't understand the main buzzwords, then he won't give you that weird look next time you talk about those things. He might even start arguing achitecture with you in meetings. ;>

Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[e-mail]
www.bigpicture-books.com

"J2EE: The Big Picture" by Solveig Haugland, Mark Cade, and Anthony Orapallo
Knowledge without coding.
Understanding without boredom.
And occasional references to badgers.

[Pradeep bhatt]

Solveig ,

Does the book compare J2EE 1.4 with J2EE 1.3 and tell the readers the new features introduced in 1.4 version.

Also, it would be great if TOC is available at some site. BTW, where is Mark Cade? :roll:

Thanks

[Solveig Laura Haugland]

Originally posted by Anand Kapadi:
Hi,
Can this book be used to learn J2EE from scratch?
Thanks
Anand

Not alone, no. "J2EE: The Big Picture" is the explanation that most other books leave out, though, and is an easy, gentle way to learn about it. It's hard to think of anyone who works with J2EE who would be overwhelmed by or confused by the book.

J2EE: The Big Picture is kind of a prequel to all the other J2EE books out there. If you get what's in it, then you can get a lot more from the other J2EE books.

If you like, ta look at the cover, which I love -- the artist did a great job. Gives a clear idea of the approach and level of the book.
www.bigpicture-books.com/coverbig.jpg

Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[e-mail]
www.bigpicture-books.com

"J2EE: The Big Picture" by Solveig Haugland, Mark Cade, and Anthony Orapallo
Knowledge without coding.
Understanding without boredom.
And occasional references to badgers.

[Nicholas Cheung]

If you like, ta look at the cover, which I love -- the artist did a great job. Gives a clear idea of the approach and level of the book.
www.bigpicture-books.com/coverbig.jpg

Besides the cover, could you provide us the table of content or sample chapters?

Nick