Mike Melton

I have a coworker who has come to me asking for resources on understanding the J2EE architecture as a whole. That is, he has a basic understanding of what servlets and JSP's and EJB's are, but is having trouble finding info on how (and why) all the various technologies work together within the entire architecture. Given that most of my knowledge of j2ee has come in trial-by-fire situations, I wasn't able to fire anything off the top of my head to help him out.

I've started with a basic list: Sun's J2EE tutorial, the Head First line of books, etc. Are there any other resources (preferably online, but he is willing to buy a book or three if necessary) that give a solid overview of J2EE as a whole, rather than focusing on the individual components without describing how they interact?

Thanks much.
Mike

I *love* self-checkout and will actually go out of my way to visit a store that has it rather than wait in line at a more convenient place. Many places in the States use similar systems, including Wal-Mart, KMart, Harris Teeter (grocery store), BJ's (warehouse store), and others. In all those I mentioned, there are unmanned registers. You scan your items and place them on the conveyor, which weighs the item. If the weight does not match the stored weight of the item you scanned, you're asked to retry. Multiple failures summons an employee. Once all the scanning is done, you pay with credit/debit card or cash, and you're on your way.

It's a beautiful thing.

Also, I've tried out the grocery delivery thing a time or two as well. That is nice but I still prefer to pick out my own food. Kind of the same way I won't allow my bank to pay my bills because I still prefer to actually write those checks. (Well, I'd *prefer* not to write the checks, but you get my meaning.)

Mike

My personal favorite is "p" as in "pterodactyl" (or "psychology" or "pneumonia")

Originally posted by Adrian Wallace:

3) "Leverage" (a personal favourite of mine) - This NOT a verb!!!

Any word can be verbed.

Lance made his move today, a day earlier than expected by most, but with Hamilton and Ullrich both suffering, he saw his opportunity and took it. He didn't win the stage (finished side-by-side with Italian Ivan Basso) but his main goal is TIME not WINS (except, of course, for the only win that matters).

He put 2:30 into Ullrich and 3:27 into Hamilton - a brilliant stage for Lance and the US Postal team. Tomorrow should be the toughest stage of the entire tour, with 2 climbs each of Cat 1, 2, and 3. Tomorrow's stage and the individual time trial on Alpe D'Huez next Wednesday (Stage 16) potentially could determine the race.

I can't wait to get home from work tonight so I can watch today's amazing stage on OLN. I haven't gotten much work done today from all the adrenaline. I was listening to the live feed from OLN and lost my connection with 500m left and Basso and Armstrong side-by-side! I almost screamed out loud. Blasted proxy server.

More here.

Mike

PS. Look at tomorrow's stage! It hurts my legs just thinking about it.
[ July 16, 2004: Message edited by: Mike Melton ]

SessionContext.getEJBObject() is called by the bean instance, not the client. The bean and the EJBObject live in the same JVM, so the call is not remote even though the returned value is of the remote interface type.

HTH
Mike

IIRC (I only took the test a week ago, but I'm already forgetting!), they only published answers to Sharpen Your Pencil exercises that were not explicitly answered in the text of the book. Is there a particular exercise for which you cannot find the answer elsewhere in the book?

Mike

Is this a question about entity or session beans? Either way, option D does not represent a valid signature. For session beans, ejbCreate() should have void return type. For entity beans, ejbCreate() returns the primary key type, which cannot be a primitive type like int. (Note that getPrimaryKey() returns a java.lang.Object!)

HTH
Mike

I passed the test with 97% after about 3 1/2 weeks of study. I had no experience (excepting the 3-day training class about a year ago) with EJB's prior to opening HFEJB so it can certainly be done. See this thread for my more specific answer and my study routine.

Mike

It depends on how much time per day you can dedicate. I estimate that I put in around 10-15 hours per week, for 3 or 4 weeks. HFEJB is the only hardcopy reference I used but the sites linked at JDisucss are quite useful. On the few days leading up to the test, read and re-read these SCBCD study notes. They were invaluable to me for cramming immediately before the test.

My study strategy was to read the book while at my computer, and take notes, IN YOUR OWN WORDS. Don't copy the book text verbatim because you can do that without thinking. If you have to translate key pieces of text in the book to your own words, it forces your brain to process them, and you will remember them better. Do all the exercises. When you have completed the book, then start doing mock exams on the web. You can find free ones linked at JDiscuss.

When you take the test, READ CAREFULLY. Some of the questions are *very* subtle and require you to know perfectly the differences between stateful/stateless, session/entity/MDB, remote/local, the five roles (bean provider, app assembler, etc) and their responsibilities, etc. Make sure when you are done you revisit every single question and reread it carefully (twice!). I almost missed two questions because I was accustomed to "Bean Provider" being the first choice for role questions and I automatically chose that option without realizing that it actually said "Deployer". If I hadn't reviewed, I would have missed 4 questions instead of 2

The best thing you can do for yourself if practice. Take as many mock exams as you can find because it will give you a very good idea of what you struggle with. For me, it was the subtle differences between the interfaces and the actions each interface allow you to take. USE YOUR SCRATCH PAPER. Immediately before the test, memorize your problem areas and write them down on your scratch paper before you answer a single question. That enables you to relax a little bit and rely less on memory during your question answering. Using this strategy, I didn't miss any questions in my problem areas.

Mike

The biggest single hint I can give you (besides "Read Head First EJB") is to MEMORIZE the interfaces, particularly EJB(Local)Home and EJB(Local)Object. The first thing I did when I got into the test was to write down the interfaces on the scratch paper they gave me. They probably answered 15-20 questions for me, if not more.

Good luck!

Well - I passed SCWCD in May and SCBCD in June, so I think I'll take a little break for a while. My brain needs rest. After that, probably SCJD followed by SCDJWS, if it's ready by then. My eventual goal is SCEA, maybe late this year, but more likely early '05.

I just want to give a big fat "THANKS" to Kathy and Bert for their excellent book. Four weeks ago my EJB experience consisted solely of 3 days in a training class. Head First EJB almost single-handedly resulted in the highest certification score I've ever gotten, with the least preparation, by far.

The funny thing is, as recently as yesterday, the highest score I'd gotten on any mock exam was 82, and I was averaging in the low 70's! Once I got into the testing center, though, I've never been as confident in my preparation.

Thanks again, Kathy and Bert! Keep the Head First books coming. (HINT: I'm pushing for SCEA.... )

Mike Melton
Sybase, Inc.