Hi,
I am a member of the OCJUG and we are thinking about forming a seperate group focused on learning
J2EE technology.
There are several things that would be helpful for such a group:
-A book, and other online resources
-A J2EE container
-A place to collaborate on the net
-A plan
WRT containers, I've read a previous
thread on the topic. My concern about
JBoss is the lack of documentation.
https://coderanch.com/t/309581/EJB-JEE/java/Which-best-EJB-Container-learn WRT to a text, I have absolutely no idea. All of us are fairly seasoned
Java pros, (probably) with some solid
servlet experience, but I don't know what the best order is to learn the J2EE stuff. One issue that I'd like to learn more about is the motivation for all the J2EE libraries.
I think that sourceforge *might* be a good place to collaborate. Certainly we could use many of its features such as lists, web space. But in terms of sharing code, my concern is that folks in the group are not comfortable with CVS. Yahoo groups is another option.
Another aspect of collaboration would be to have an actual place of deployment, preferably as close to a "real" environment as possible. This would be nice, but I don't see any of us paying for a rack of boxes and hosting at Exodus!
The plan is the most important thing. I have found that there are always 2 approaches to learning a technology: learn the fundamentals first, and build stuff from that, or you can try to solve a real world problem. E.g. this is the bottom-up vs. top-down approach. Usually I end up doing a bit of both. Certianly with something as complex as J2EE this would be needed. I suspect that our central text would have a large impact on "the plan".
"The plan" also has to do with pacing - I don't want to burn out, but I also don't want to waste my time. This means setting realistic goals.
Thanks for your input JavaRanch folks!
-Josh
The best container