Paul Sanghera

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Recent posts by Paul Sanghera

Congratulations, Khushal!
Excellent Job!
---Paul


Originally posted by khushal malik:
Hi,

Thanks to all including Head First EJB authors.
EJB-QL ouestions were some what dufficult. Rest were ok.

I studied

1. HEAD FIRST EJB.
2. SCBCD study kit by Paul.
3. I gave some mock tests also.

Total preparation took 2.5 months(Along with office work)

Thanks again

regards,

Khushal

18 years ago

Originally posted by Thomas Paul:
And now the winners are:

rathi ji
Nicholas Cheung
Meg Adal
Paul Croarkin

Thank you Thomas, and congratulations Rathi, Nick, Meg, and Paul.
Cheers.
Paul
[ August 02, 2005: Message edited by: Paul Sanghera ]

To conclude the SCBCD Exam Study Kit event, I would like to say three things:
1) I like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in this book event. Nicholas Cheung, Kay Raw, Rathi Ji, Peter Sin, Chris Coleman, Seemapanth Joshi, Sridevi Murugaiyan, Paul Croarkin, Ahsan Jamil, Mathew Sam, Siripa Siangklom, Hari Gorak, Layne Lund, Mala Gupta, and Dongshan Kai are a few to mention. It's nice to meet you all.

2) Thank you all for your time and effort. I am impressed with the quality of discussion and the environment.

3) My thanks to the founders of this site Kathy Sierra and Paul Wheaton, current operators of the site, and all the JavaRanchers for this wonderful service to the Java community.

If you wonder what's this deal with the number 3, you will need to read the book to figure it out :-).

Cheers.
Paul
Book website:
http://www.manning.com/sanghera

Originally posted by tina:
I already passed SCJP (both 1.2 and 1.4)

I just want to ask which exam is good to take first. SCBCD or SCWCD?
I am novice for both. But I am currently assigned to an EJB kind of
Project. Lot of my friends would say to take SCWCD first since it is easy than SCBCD according to them. And I already coded some Web Component. I already bought the 2 books Head First Servlet and JSP and also Head First EJB. But I am still confused on which one to study first.
I am thinking of SCBCD since I am using it in my current project.

I really need a good advice. Thanks.

Tina:
Theoretically speaking, it should not matter in which order you take SCWCD and SCBCD. Practically speaking, the following factors should be considered:
1) It depends upon which side of programming you are coming from? For example, if you are getting at J2EE from with end programming background, to do SCWCD first may be a better choice. While if you are coming from a backend programming, to do SCBCD first may be a good idea.
2) It also depends upon where you currently are in your career and where you are headed. In context of your job (or career), does it make more sense to do SCWCD or SCBCD today?

So, in your case it should be SCBCD first :-).

Cheers.
Paul
Book website:
http://www.manning.com/sanghera

[ July 29, 2005: Message edited by: tina ]

Originally posted by Coffee(Java)Freak:
Paul,
That was a very useful summarizing of the Q&A. It was very useful.

I have one question. Do you see any specific benefit in doing SCWCD before SCBCD? Will it add or make easy the study/understanding for SCBCD?

Thanks.



Dear Coffee(Java)Freak:
Thank you for your comments. Theoretically speaking, it should not matter in which order you take SCWCD and SCBCD. Practically speaking, the following factors should be considered:
1) It depends upon which side of programming you are coming from? For example, if you are getting at J2EE from with end programming background, to do SCWCD first may be a better choice. While if you are coming from a backend programming, to do SCBCD first may be a good idea.
2) It also depends upon where you currently are in your career and where you are headed. In context of your job (or career), does it make more sense to do SCWCD or SCBCD today?

Cheers.
Paul
Book website:
http://www.manning.com/sanghera
I thought I should briefly consolidate some questions about the SCBCD Exam Study Kit spread out over different topics, into one post here:

1. "I know Java, but know nothing about EJB. Can I start using this book without reading any other book on EJB first?"

This book does not assume that you have a prior knowledge of or experience with EJB. As far as EJB is concerned, it starts from scratch by introducing J2EE, and explains each concept as it appears. So, if you know basic Java, you can start with this book.

2. "Is this book authored only from the SCBCD exam perspective or does it provide an overall picture of EJB and the related stuff?"

Although the primary goal of the SCBCD Exam Study Kit is to help you pass the exam, the material is presented in a logical learning sequence. The book starts with an introduction to J2EE and an overview of EJB, and each concept is defined and explained as the reader encounters it. While keeping the focus on exam objectives, it shows how the topics covered by the exam are linked together, and how they fit into the big picture.

3. "What is the technical depth the book provides?"
It is a self contained body of knowledge about EJB that you need to understand to pass the exam. Because it is presented in a logical learning sequence (and there is no hopping from topic to topic) it does provide you the technical depth expected from a developer with the SCBCD certification. Of course, a book cannot be a substitute for a real industry experience to gain the technical depth; it can only play a role in helping you gain that depth.

4. "Does it have a demo to show how to deploy and execute a bean?"

Yes, Appendix A presents a step by step demo on how to set up the development environment on your machine and how to write, deploy, and execute a simple application. Other useful appendices are:
a) Intridcution to XML to help you understand deployment descriptors.
b) Exam Quick Prep.
c) Fully explained answers to the questions at the end of each chapter.

5. "Does the book has a Mock exam?"
Even better. The Whizlab SCBCD Exam simulator comes with the book. The book has test questions at the end of each chapter which are answered with explanations in an appendix.

6. "Would the book be upgraded when the SCBCD exam based on EJB 3.0 is released?"

I have all the intentions to do that.

7. "Does the book has a website?"
Yes, the book has a website and from that site you can also access Author Online forum to discuss the topics in the book with other readers and to get help. The website is:
http://www.manning.com/sanghera

Cheers.
Paul

[ July 29, 2005: Message edited by: Paul Sanghera ]
[ July 29, 2005: Message edited by: Paul Sanghera ]
Nick:
Generally speaking, I keep my eyes on the directions in which Java (including J2EE) is going. Technologies I'm currently looking at include:

EJB 3.0, Hibernate, Spring, Lucene (and search technologies in general), Solaris 10, and the general progress in Linux.
Cheers.
Paul

Originally posted by Nicholas Cheung:
Paul,

What technologies you are currently looking at?

Nick

Originally posted by rathi ji:
Hi Paul,

Could you please share your personal information like education, interests, dislikes, family, future plans etc. How you became author. Is it really tough to become author...

Thanks.



Rathi Ji:
Now, this is a hard one :-).
Let me try:
Education: Master in Computer Science from Cornell University.
Ph.D. in Physics from Carleton University.
What's the relationship?
The field of Physcis I was in is called High Energy Physics (also called Particle Physics). The fundamental question to be answered is: what is the origin of matter? In other words, what are the fundamental particles (basic building blocks) of matter, what are their properties, and how did they come together to make this universe we live in? Making long story short, you end up measuring size in nanometers (millionth part of a meter) and time in nanoseconds. To make such measurements, and to design experiments to make these queries, you end up pushing on the limits of technology (including computer technology). For example, I was working at CERN (the world center for experiments exploring this fields of Physics, near Geneva, Switzerland) when Tim Berners Lee, an employee at CERN, came up with what is now known as WWW to help us communicate with each other: us who (from all over the world) would travel back and forth from our home institutes to CERN, and would like to share data with each other.
...I was headed for the SuperCollider which was being built in Texas to take this kind of Physics to the next level. When the U.S. Congress killed the SuperCollider, many of us had an opportunity to sit back and ponder about life...While I was pondering, I saw WWW had left the boundaries of CERN, and was making big splashes from Mountain View California...I saw the beginning of a revolution and I could not help joining it :-). The rest is the deatail...

My involvement in the computer industry/technology: NDS (Novell), Netscape Communicator (Netscape), Digital Music Distribution technologies and servcices (MP3.com)...

Interests: To keep an eye on new/emerging technologies, and to keep fighting against my ignorance.

Future Plans: Write more books and contribute to building powerful technologies

How did I become an author: The first item I published was a research paper in physics, and then quite a few more of them...Since I joined the field of computer science, I have worked as a software engineer, engineering manager, and a technology teacher/trainer and I have loved doing that: designing/programming, managing engineers/technology, and teaching/training. Writing a technology book for me is, to some extent, unifying these three kinds of activities into one, and thereby taking it to the next level, and I enjoy the experience of this unification.

Dislikes: My only dislike is to figure out what I dislike.

Family: I live in Silicon Valley, California with my wife Renee and son Adam. But my son thinks I live with my laptop :-).

For more information (as if this wasn't enough :-)):
http://www.paulsanghera.com

Cheers.
Paul
Book website:
http://www.manning.com/sanghera
Kalle:
As Raja Sagar said: please use the J2EE 1.3 RI from SUN to make the example run. Unfortunately, the book will not help you for the tasks that you are trying to accomplish, because they are out of the scope of the exam. My philisophy is: always start with the simplest thing, and take it from there. So, for the exam, just work with the J2EE 1.3 RI. After you make it work, then of course you can go on to do advance things...
Also feel free to use the Author Online forum (in case of any doubts)at
http://www.manning.com/sanghera
There you can share your experience with the topics in the book with other readers and ask for help.
Hope it helps.
Cheers.
Paul

Originally posted by Kalle Anka:
I purchased your book last week. This was after my very good experience with the SCWCD exam study kit by Deshmukh et al.

However I'm a little dissapointed right now. 4 days has gone and I havnt come any further than to trying to get the Fortune bean up. The appendix A doesnt seem to match my (latest? 2005Q1) version of suns application server. Neither does the book seem to give me enough information about writing the xml files properly myself to use another application server (like orion). Or perhaps its just me being really stupid. =) I'm not sure. I havnt changed any code in your examples. What I'm doing wrong?

Here are some error messages I received with todays experimentations. The first one is in swedish, but it basically says that runclient isnt a commando or a program:
1) E:\workspace\EJB-lekstuga>runclient -client FortuneApp.ear -name FortuneClient -textauth
runclient �r inte ett internt kommando, externt kommando,
program eller kommandofil.
2) E:\workspace\EJB-lekstuga>java -jar FortuneAppClient.jar
Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute from
FortuneAppClient.jar
3) > java FortuneClient
Caught an exception!
javax.naming.NoInitialContextException: Need to specify class name in environment or system property, or as an applet parameter, or in an application resource file: java.naming.factory.initial
at javax.naming.spi.NamingManager.getInitialContext(NamingManager.java:645)
at javax.naming.InitialContext.getDefaultInitCtx(InitialContext.java:247)
at javax.naming.InitialContext.getURLOrDefaultInitCtx(InitialContext.java:284)
at javax.naming.InitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:351)
at FortuneClient.main(FortuneClient.java:13)

Mr. Narayanan:
Congratulations on passing the SCWCD exam.
To your question:
Personally, I think it's a good idea to include the assignment submissions in the certification curriculum whenever it's possible. However, that requires more efforts on part of the vendor. Yet, it will always remain true that any exam or certification has a limited value, and it is in no way a substitue for a real experience in the industry.
Passing a certification such as SCBCD is a good start in the field. Building real-world application will expose many gaps in your knowledge which were not filled during the exam preparation, and then just find out the missing information from the books or other resources.
For example, after passing SCWCD (or SCBCD) build an application (do it in your spare time if your manager does not give you such an assignment :-)) that uses almost all the elemnts that you learned in different chapters: end to end application.

Hope it helps.
Cheers.
Book website:
http://www.manning.com/sanghera



Originally posted by S.L.Narayanan:
Hi Paul

I have passed SCWCD by preparing with HFSJ. Now I am planning to go for SCBCD. For SCWCD I didnt refer to the specs. I just read and worked out HFSJ. So only an author can say, what are all the things that we are missing out in the technology because of just referring to a study guide and passing the exam. If you can list out some thing, I will try myself to correct them atlease in EJBs.

And also, for these kind of specialization exams(SCWCD, SCBCD, SCDJWS) why do they have only online objective type exam. It would be better if they have some assignment submission. Why are they not doing it?.

Thanks.


[ July 29, 2005: Message edited by: Paul Sanghera ]

Originally posted by Nicholas Cheung:
Nick:
Thank you for the question.
Yes, there are two more books from me in the pipe, both on Sun technology: SCJP (based on J2SE 5.0)and SCSA (Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris 10). More information:
http://www.paulsanghera.com/books
Cheers.
Book Site:
http://www.manning.com/sanghera

Paul,

I would like to know whether you planned for writing any more books for Java certifications?

There are still some "buffers" available: SCJA, SCMAD & SCDJWS.

Nick

Originally posted by Mishra Anshu:
Hi,

I just went through your personal website, and I am pretty surprised with your profile (You, have been working with Computer Science & Physics, almost parallely...gr8).

Paul, today in Java Space there has been a lot of new specs , for example Tiger has released, Java 6 (the Mustang, in Beta probably) and Java 7 has been started to be talked about. Similarly, EJB 3.0 is not that far.
Also, EJB3.0 is a major change to its previous version (architectural change).

So, do you think the certification for 2.0 is worth (in terms of knowledge, leave the Job offers), as it is any way different from EJB 3.0.

Thanks !!!



Hello Anshu:
You are absolutely right that we are living in a constantly and rapidly changing world, and technology is not an exception. So, it's very important to keep up with it.
In my opinion, to take the SCBCD exam, you do not need to wait for the exam based on EJB 3.0 for the following three reasons:
1)It's going to take about two years before the SCBCD exam based on EJB 3.0 is released. Two years is a long time in this information age. I won't freeze my career for that long.
2) There is a large enough install base for EJB 1.1 and 2.0, so the knowledge of and experience with EJB 2.0, and the corresponding certification will be valuable credential for any Java developer and an asset for the employer.
3) One of the main goals of EJB 3.0 is to make the development "easier" than it is now. That means any developer with EJB 2.0 background working with EJB 3.0 will have relatively deeper understanding of some concepts.

Hope it helps.
Cheers.
Paul
Book website:
http://www.manning.com/sanghera
\

Originally posted by seemapanth Joshi:
I wish to ask the Author of SCBCD exam kit the following:

Does this book cover EJB 3.0 also that is to say does it give the readers an idea about how much transition or changes should be anticipated, if and when the new exam covering EJB 3.0 comes out. Does it specifically mentions where and how the complex parts would be simplified in future version EJB while explaining EJB 2.0 concepts.

Thanks



Seemapanth:
The book focuses on the topics covered by the current exam based on EJB 2.0. According to several estimates we are about a couple of years away from the SCBCD exam based on EJB 3.0. So, no, the book does not talk about EJB 3.0. Although I have all the intentions to upgrade it to EJB 3.0 when the exam is released.
Hope it helps.
Cheers.
The Book website:
http://www.manning.com/sanghera
Paul:
It always comes down to the basics: the business logic you are using to implement the business requirements of the application, and partly how you are implementing it. For example consider the situation where a transaction is implemented in more than one methods :-). In other words, you have a method that does something which is always a part of a transaction (that has already started) and never a full transaction by itself. Mandatory is the only option you have.

Exercise: Think of an example :-). Hint: Transactions often have more than one steps.
(I guess the teacher inside is taking over me).
Thank you for a very good and thoughtful question, Paul.

Paul

Originally posted by Paul Croarkin:
Of the six EJB transaction types (Required, RequiresNew, Supports, NotSupported, Mandatory, Never), Required and RequiresNew seem pretty easy to understand, but some of the others are not so clear.

Supports seems to equate to "I don't care" and could be dangerous.

NotSupported and Never also seem like they should be avoided. Would it really hurt to use Required on RequiresNew instead?

Couldn't you use RequiresNew anywhere that you would use Mandatory and avoid the possibility of throwing a TransactionRequiredException?

thanks,
Paul


[ July 28, 2005: Message edited by: Paul Sanghera ]

Originally posted by Norm Mattson:
Paul,

I downloaded your SCBCD Exam Study Kit ebook a few weeks ago and am about half way through it now. After reading the section on session beans there is one topic that I'm not sure I fully understand. Could you explain why resource manager access and access to other beans is permitted in an ejbCreate method for stateful session beans but is prohibited for stateless session beans?

Thanks

[ July 27, 2005: Message edited by: Norm Mattson ]


Norm:
Another way of saying what Vicky said is:
Accessing resource managers (and also other enterprise beans for that matter) is prohibited in those session bean methods for which the container (at call time) does not have a meaningful transaction context or client security context. It's very important to remember that the creation and removal of a stateless session bean does not depend upon a client call.
Hope it helps.
Norm, also make sure you check the errata at Author Online forum which can be accessed from:
http://www.manning.com/sanghera