howto start J2EE ?

[Alvin chew]

hi, i'm new in j2ee, can someone please guide howto i start learning j2EE ?
- what are the tools or software i need to download and so on ?
- do i need to download J2EE 1.4 from sun ? is it use for testing or what? what is the different between J2EE1.4 and jBoss, wealogic ?

thank YOU very much for guiding

[Peter Rooke]

The Sun J2EE Tutorial is always a good start.

You need an [j2ee] application server, the above tutorial from Sun explains (they use their own application server).

J2EE is a set of specifications, which the tool venders comply with when they produce their products. The companies Sun [ONE], JBoss [Jboss], BEA [WebLogic], IBM [WebSphere] have J2EE application servers.

Also, have a look at Ed Roman's Book : Mastering Enterprise Java Beans. And of course, a lot of material is on this site

[ February 19, 2005: Message edited by: Peter Rooke ]
[ February 19, 2005: Message edited by: Peter Rooke ]

[Dave Clark]

I'd recommend starting out with a good Java book if you don't already know Java, and get a solid footing with J2SE first. Orieilly has a good book in this space:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learnjava2/

If you already know Java, then I'd recommend learning Servlets and JSP (and maybe JSF) before tackling EJB - especially since the current Entity Beans persistence model is being completely written off in favour of a more lightweight persistence solution similar to the JDO (Java Data Objects) standard.

Good books here are:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/jserverpages3/
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/jsvrfaces/

Once you know at least a little Servlets + JSP (+JSF), then look at Session Beans, and maybe look at JDO2. I wouldn't waste any cycles on Entity Beans in EJB 2.1, since they're going the way of the dodo with the EJB 3 and J2EE 5,

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/entjbeans4/
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/jvadtaobj/

cheers,

Dave.