JavaEE and frameworks

[Roy Atar]

Hey all!

I've been aware of this forum for some time now, both using it as reference and inspiration while learning Java.
(I'm on my first year of a five-year long MSE in software engineering, living in sweden)

I wanted to post here in hope to receive some valuable input about what I should do.

We've been learning mostly Java but also touched some various machine code and now, at least officially, we're supposed to have a basic grip on Java SE and Swing. My personal experience prior school is limited to mediocre HTML4 and pre-OO PHP/MySQL.
My hopes are to eventually be able to use JavaEE for web applications, ranging from dynamic web sites to mobile applications. So now after doing a lot of research (getting acquainted with the names and terminology of the EE-domain) I've started reading the official Oracle Java EE Tutorial (believing that this is the best resource for me atm).

Everything I've learnt about Java SE has been from the net (70% from Oracles official SE tutorial!).
(I've had a habit of trying to learn programming concepts BEFORE they overwhelm me in class) - I've never bought course-material such as books or such.

I'm asking the people of this forum for ideas and tips of resources (both web and print) to aid my learning of JavaEE! I beg you to even go further than that. E.g: if you believe that i should ditch a particular module x because framework y does it much better please tell me so! I do very much prefer web resources because I'm poor and it's free but I'm aware of the more (at least relatively) esoteric nature of EE makes good tuts much mor rare than good SE tutorials.

Now I'm learning JSF2, and the rest of EE's own frameworks, ignoring Spring and Struts. If this is seriously wrong, please tell me what path I should take instead.
Please bear in mind that this is my future career, I will be working in the field of software engineering - either directly or indirectly programming in some JSR framework.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Welcome to the Ranch

In my opinion, when you are learning Java, you need to understand object‑orientation (OO). It may be the most important thing to understand. So what do you know about OO?

[Roy Atar]

Hey, many thanks for your answer.

in the "advanced" java course in uni we covered design patterns such as strategy, singleton, adapter, bridge, factories, template, observers, active/passive MVC, decorator, general concepts such as Liskov subsitution principle, and more. Even though I'm sure there's lots more to learn concerings OO-concepts I think the best step for me personally would be to let this knowledge come naturally as part of learning how to use EE-concepts such as JSF, EJB, REST, etc .

I'm basically looking for a starting point in the vast world of web EE. I'm halfways through JSF in the official tutorial.
I've also read some of NetBeans own tuts (I use also Eclipse, which is required in my school - never read their tuts in EE tho). I'm aware of JBoss' tutorial but am unsure if it's such as great place to start as a novice.

Campbell Ritchie wrote:Welcome to the Ranch

In my opinion, when you are learning Java, you need to understand object‑orientation (OO). It may be the most important thing to understand. So what do you know about OO?

[Jayesh A Lalwani]

I'd say that, since you are still in school, learn what your course material requires you to. If you can keep it up, it's a good idea to learn the material before class, then you can tell the instructor how wrong s/he is :p. You are 4 years from graduation. Chances are any technologies that you learn today will either be obsolete in 4 years, or changed so much that you will need to learn them again.. Welcome to Java haha..very funny. The good thing about this industry is that fundamental concepts don't change. And learning the fundamentals help you adapt faster as the technologies change. Also, as someone with a Master's you will be expected to know the fundamentals. So, as you are learning technologies, focus on the fundamentals more than the technologies themselves.

Like Campbell Ritchie said, you need to learn OO. That's a very fundamental thing to learn. Understanding OO will help you in the long run more than learning JSF would

[Campbell Ritchie]

Jayesh A Lalwani wrote: . . . then you can tell the instructor how wrong s/he is :p. . . .

And you think Jayesh is joking? We get quite a few people here who have obviously been told to do something which is at variance with the concepts of OO.