Java EE 5 Development using GlassFish questions

[Laurentiu Bold]

David,

I find myself very interested in your book, that's why I would like to find out the following:

- what are the key features that makes a difference between your book and other books that covers Java EE development?
- why did you choose Glassfish as the application server when you decided to write the book? What is your opinion on its potential in the future when it has competitors like JBoss?


--

Laurentiu

[Hussein Baghdadi]

Well, I'm not the author

what are the key features that makes a difference between your book and other books that covers Java EE development?

Other books cover Java EE development while this book covers GlassFish Application Server
http://www.packtpub.com/Java-EE-5-GlassFish-Application-Servers/book

why did you choose Glassfish as the application server when you decided to write the book?

Because the book is about GlassFish!!

[Laurentiu Bold]

John,

Thank you for your opinions, of course you are not the author but thanks for that link. I've already read the content of that page and in case you missed this one I'll quote from there:

"This book explains GlassFish installation and configuration, and then moves on to Java EE 5 application development, covering all major Java EE 5 APIs."

Anyway I'll wait for David's answer.

Thanks again,


--

Laurentiu

[Yavor lvanov]

Dear Dave,

My question is a rather more simplistic, however, here it goes:

Why should we aim to use GlassFish Application Server?

What makes it better than other Open Source web servers such as Tomcat and Websphere?

Thank you!

[Hussein Baghdadi]

Originally posted by Yavor lvanov:

What makes it better than other Open Source web servers such as Tomcat and Websphere?
Thank you!

WebSphere is open source?

[Bryce Martin]

posted Today 8:15 AM Profile for John Todd Send New Private Message Edit/Delete Post Reply With Quote

quote riginally posted by Yavor lvanov:

WebSphere is open source?

Not from the IBM that MY company deals with

But certainly, why GlassFish over Websphere or Tomcat besides an open source answer... what stability and features does it bring to the table that these other application servers don't?

[Bryce Martin]

posted Today 8:15 AM Profile for John Todd Send New Private Message Edit/Delete Post Reply With Quote

quote riginally posted by Yavor lvanov:

WebSphere is open source?

Not from the IBM that MY company deals with

But certainly, why GlassFish over Websphere or Tomcat besides an open source answer... what stability and features does it bring to the table that these other application servers don't?

[Rohan Dhruva]

WebSphere is not open source but has a free Community Edition (which is a **** to configure, if I might add !!)

Glassfish also has the advantage of having official "blessing" of Sun .. I saw glassfish being mentioned on the JEE5 download site of Sun. (Just my 2c)
[ November 27, 2007: Message edited by: Rohan Dhruva ]

[David Heffelfinger]

Laurentiu,

The primary difference between my book and other Java EE 5 development books is that it focuses on developing and deploying for GlassFish.

I had already been using GlassFish for some projects, but quite frankly the idea of getting a book out on GlassFish didn't come from me. Packt Publishing wanted to publish a book on GlassFish, and they contacted me to see if I was interested in the project.

David

[David Heffelfinger]

Yavor,

The main reasons for choosing GlassFish are:

100% Java EE 5 compliance

Performance

Ease of use

Price

Tomcat is not a full blown application server, it is a servlet container. With Tomcat alone it is not possible to deploy applications taking advantage of EJBs or other Java EE technologies except Servlets, JSPs or JSF.

The latest version of Webshpere is not compliant with the Java EE 5 specification (and, as previously pointed out, Webshpere is not open source).

GlassFish beat both Weblogic and Webshpere in the SPECjAppServer 2004 benchmark.

GlassFish itself is free, support is available from Sun at very competitive prices.

Hope that helps,
David

[Rohan Dhruva]

Also, Sun is using glassfish for SJAS9.1. Go to https://glassfish.dev.java.net/public/downloadsindex.html and click on Download Sun's GlassFish V2 Distribution which takes you to the download page for SJAS9.1 .. Any more reasons required in favour of glassfish ?

[Roy Cinco]

Not that I know much about this, but as explained by an professor of mine...

First of all, as mentioned elsewhere, Tomcat is not comparable, as it is a servlet container, not a general application server.

The Java application server world has four main players. IBM offers WebSphere and BEA has WebLogic. You have to pay for these. There are two open-source freebies: JBoss and Glassfish.

There is a JBoss plugin for Eclipse. Glassfish is better integrated with NetBeans (doesn't even need a plugin).

Glassfish comes from Sun, so is "official." It is the "reference implementation" for web services.

However, my professor opines that JBoss is the "best of the bunch."

Does this sound like a fair assessment? Again, this is not my opinion.

[Hussein Baghdadi]

Originally posted by Roy Cinco:

There are two open-source freebies: JBoss and Glassfish.

You forgot Apache Geronimo

[zinedine zidane]

Dear David,
I am just a beginner in J2EE, what do you think about how its going to help people like me who relatively new in the field , what is the level acceptance of GlassFish among the technical/corporate world (Do people have any idea about what they would be able to achieve using this new technology or they just look it as a hype),learning a new technology is always beneficial but won't it be better if we choose a tried & tested path cause there is thin line between Success & failure of a project which have millions of dollars at stake(& ofcourse the hard work & labour)

Hope you dont take my point in a negative sense,
Regards

[David Heffelfinger]

zinedine,

J2EE and Java EE technologies are now pretty much "deep in the mainstream", most large corporations use Java EE or J2EE in one form or another, therefore I doubt it will be considered hype.

GlassFish is a open source, freely available Java EE 5 application server. Since it is available free of charge, it does not come with official support. Large corporations like their products to be supported, and for them Sun sells the Sun Java Application server (SJAS), which is nothing but Glassfish with a graphical installer (plus support).

Even if a corporation is not using GlassFish or SJAS, most of the material in the book is applicable to any Java EE 5 compliant application server.

[David Heffelfinger]

Roy,

You are mostly correct, I would like to add some comments and additions to your post.

First of all, as mentioned elsewhere, Tomcat is not comparable, as it is a servlet container, not a general application server.

Correct.

The Java application server world has four main players. IBM offers WebSphere and BEA has WebLogic. You have to pay for these. There are two open-source freebies: JBoss and Glassfish.

There is also the Oracle application server (not free nor open source), Geronimo and JOnAS (both free and open source). I might have forgotten some others. Of these, only GlassFish, Geronimo and Weblogic 10 are 100% Java EE 5 compliant.

There is a JBoss plugin for Eclipse. Glassfish is better integrated with NetBeans (doesn't even need a plugin).

There is also a GlassFish plugin for Eclipse, and it is also supported out of the box by Intellij Idea. GlassFish is well integrated with all major Java IDEs.

Glassfish comes from Sun, so is "official." It is the "reference implementation" for web services.

GlassFish is not only the reference implementation for web services, it is the reference implementation for Java EE 5, therefore GlassFish will always support the latest specifications before its competitors.

However, my professor opines that JBoss is the "best of the bunch."

It is all a matter of opinion, but I believe GlassFish has some advantages over JBoss:

It is 100% Java EE 5 compliant

It is easy to configure via a user friendly web console

It is highly performant

Additionally, GlassFish offers some of the same advantages that JBoss offers such as being open source and available free of charge, with paid support optionally available.

David

[Ken Boyd]

Originally posted by David Heffelfinger:
Yavor,

The main reasons for choosing GlassFish are:

100% Java EE 5 compliance

Performance

Ease of use

Price

Tomcat is not a full blown application server, it is a servlet container. With Tomcat alone it is not possible to deploy applications taking advantage of EJBs or other Java EE technologies except Servlets, JSPs or JSF.

The latest version of Webshpere is not compliant with the Java EE 5 specification (and, as previously pointed out, Webshpere is not open source).

GlassFish beat both Weblogic and Webshpere in the SPECjAppServer 2004 benchmark.

GlassFish itself is free, support is available from Sun at very competitive prices.

Hope that helps,
David

exactly SUN should push one product in lifetime that tops the category. We all SUN has so many great products but little is done when comes to making money... man others have made life out of Java and SUN is struggling under $5 on wall street..

[David Heffelfinger]

Ken,

I don't know what your source is, but Yahoo Quotes states that Sun's stock closed at $20.65 today.

Additonally, Sun makes money in Java EE licensing from IBM and Weblogic, therefore it benefits from their success as well.

Besides, I wouldn't worry too much about any particular company making/not making money and just be glad that I get tons of high quality products for free.

David

[Ken Boyd]

Originally posted by David Heffelfinger:
Ken,

I don't know what your source is, but Yahoo Quotes states that Sun's stock closed at $20.65 today.

Additonally, Sun makes money in Java EE licensing from IBM and Weblogic, therefore it benefits from their success as well.

Besides, I wouldn't worry too much about any particular company making/not making money and just be glad that I get tons of high quality products for free.

David

David,
I know it is $20 now but sometime back it was below $5 for long time. I am not against SUN products (love it and making money out of it) but SUN internal mindset is not like Oracle or other corporate world where they talk about how to make money??? I know someone in SUN who worked close to ex-CEO who said they are not focusing on making tons of money by using their own tools. Anyways why the heck we as developers care about it but think occasionally other way..

Cheers

[Rogerio Kioshi]

I use Sun One App Server 8 in my job. Would this book teach us how to rewrite an application made in former versions, to be deployed on this new one?
I mean, if I use EJB 2 + Struts + JSP in an application, for instance, will this book explain how to change to EJB 3 + JPA + JSF?

What about Web Services? Will this book cover this subject too?

[David Heffelfinger]

Rogerio,

The book doesn't explicitly cover porting Struts/EJB 2/JSP applications to Java EE APIs such as JSF, JPA and EJB 3. However it does explain how to develop using these new technologies, therefore I believe it provide enough knowledge for readers to be able to port such applications to the newer APIs.

Web services are covered in chapter 10, specifically using the Java API for XML Web Services (JAX-WS), which is part of the Java EE 5 standard.

David