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Learning Path

 
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Hi,

About two weeks ago I finished reading Head First Java. Now my question is, where to go from there? What should be my next step?
I'm looking to get certified soon, however, I'd like to create a few applications before I do that just so I can feel confident.

Where should I go next? What should I start studying?

Also,
Is there a website and/or book where I can learn how to develop using kickass OO techniques?
 
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What destination do you want (cio? programmer? developer? architect? project manager? teacher? business analyst?)? Let us know and we can suggest a path.
 
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I would recommend you to read this book: Effective Java by Joshua Bloch. You can always choose to contribute to open source projects if you are interested to start applying what you have learnt- But again its never so easy.
 
Ronald Castillo
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Developer would be fine... I love programming and mainly I do it as a hobby, but I'm probably taking my Java "skills" to the next level so I can get a job as a programmer or developer.
 
Mohamed Sanaulla
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And welcome to CodeRanch.
 
Jesus Angeles
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By the way, welcome to JavaRanch!

Job-wise, there are 3 major paths: jse (core and desktop), jee (core and enterprise - web ejb persistence web-service), and jme (mobile).

In my experience, there is demand for jee specialists, but not on pure jme nor pure jse.

My suggested path for jee:
certs: scjp, scjd (great on design/architect skills), scwcd, scdjws, scea, scbcd, and that new one on jpa
technologies: java, java web(servlets/jsp), ejb, jpa, java web services, css, html, javascript, spring, struts, hibernate

for order of taking: java (scjp), web (css, html, javascript, scwcd), jpa (and its cert), ejb (scbcd), web services (scdjws), design (scjd), enterprise architecture (scea), struts, spring, hibernate (superset of jpa)
 
Jesus Angeles
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I forgot to mention books:

for order of taking: java (scjp, head first java, kathy sierra's book for scjp), web (css, html, javascript, scwcd, head first scwcd), jpa (and its cert), ejb (scbcd), web services (scdjws), design (scjd), enterprise architecture (scea), struts, spring (spring cert), hibernate (superset of jpa)
 
Mohamed Sanaulla
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And for mobile you have the Android platform.
 
Ronald Castillo
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Jesus Angeles wrote:I forgot to mention books:

for order of taking: java (scjp, head first java, kathy sierra's book for scjp), web (css, html, javascript, scwcd, head first scwcd), jpa (and its cert), ejb (scbcd), web services (scdjws), design (scjd), enterprise architecture (scea), struts, spring (spring cert), hibernate (superset of jpa)



I just purchased Head First Servlets and JSP this week, however I don't wanna go too deep since there are a lot of concepts that I really don't understand at all.
I'm a little rusty on threads, and when I see things on the web like JavaBeans, JSF, I don't really get it (probably it's way out my league right now).
 
Ronald Castillo
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Mohamed Sanaulla wrote:And welcome to CodeRanch.



Thanks

When it comes to designing an app, that's when I get stuck usually. Not a 100% familiar with OO design yet. Where can I learn more about designing apps using OO (Should probably get HF:OOA&D)?
 
Jesus Angeles
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Ronald Castillo wrote:

Jesus Angeles wrote:I forgot to mention books:

for order of taking: java (scjp, head first java, kathy sierra's book for scjp), web (css, html, javascript, scwcd, head first scwcd), jpa (and its cert), ejb (scbcd), web services (scdjws), design (scjd), enterprise architecture (scea), struts, spring (spring cert), hibernate (superset of jpa)



I just purchased Head First Servlets and JSP this week, however I don't wanna go too deep since there are a lot of concepts that I really don't understand at all.
I'm a little rusty on threads, and when I see things on the web like JavaBeans, JSF, I don't really get it (probably it's way out my league right now).



To appreciate what jsp and servlets are, study html first. After that, start on studying on servlets and jsp.

It doesnt have to be a deep html study. Find an html book for beginner (choose a recent book, as html evolves and you dont want to study old stuff, a book written on 2009 to today will still be nice). This beginner book should be for a beginner, e.g. has only 50 to 150 pages.
 
Mohamed Sanaulla
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Ronald Castillo wrote:

Mohamed Sanaulla wrote:And welcome to CodeRanch.



Thanks

When it comes to designing an app, that's when I get stuck usually. Not a 100% familiar with OO design yet. Where can I learn more about designing apps using OO (Should probably get HF:OOA&D)?


HF OOAD Is detailed one, you might get bored after certain chapters. But once you get through to the end you will learn a lot. getting to 100% is always difficult. But I thought HF Java would have explained the OO Concepts. I think HF OOAD can help you in learning application design using OO Principles. Just that you need to have patience and not get distracted to other technologies or interests while reading this book. You might as well choose one pet project to start alongside as you read through the book.
 
Jesus Angeles
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Ronald Castillo wrote:

Mohamed Sanaulla wrote:And welcome to CodeRanch.



Thanks

When it comes to designing an app, that's when I get stuck usually. Not a 100% familiar with OO design yet. Where can I learn more about designing apps using OO (Should probably get HF:OOA&D)?



OO design skills come with experience. You wont get it by just reading books. It takes time.

You can read that book you mentioned, then target the scjd. scjd is good on threads, gui, and a lot more that helps you in your OO design skills.

By the way, javabeans: forget this till you reach it in your study path to avoid getting confused, java javabeans and java enterprise javabeans are 2 different things.
With regards to jsf (related to struts and web), and portlets (similar but not same, as servlets/jsps), you can look into them later.

 
Ronald Castillo
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To appreciate what jsp and servlets are, study html first. After that, start on studying on servlets and jsp.

It doesnt have to be a deep html study. Find an html book for beginner (choose a recent book, as html evolves and you dont want to study old stuff, a book written on 2009 to today will still be nice). This beginner book should be for a beginner, e.g. has only 50 to 150 pages.



Luckily for me I'm already very familiar with Web Application Development using PHP&MySQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc ...
 
Jesus Angeles
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Ronald Castillo wrote:To appreciate what jsp and servlets are, study html first. After that, start on studying on servlets and jsp.

It doesnt have to be a deep html study. Find an html book for beginner (choose a recent book, as html evolves and you dont want to study old stuff, a book written on 2009 to today will still be nice). This beginner book should be for a beginner, e.g. has only 50 to 150 pages.



Luckily for me I'm already very familiar with Web Application Development using PHP&MySQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc ...

Since you know html and php, jsp and servlets will be easy for you. Both are based on html-generation, and those http stuff.
 
Ronald Castillo
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I'll just hold my horses and take it one step at a time.
I'll start creating some projects to gain some expertise before going into more "advanced" stuff.

Any recommendations for what kind of projects I can develop using JSE? Something easy that can get me started on developing real world applications and getting to know Java a little bit more?
Have my mind on a few projects, but I'll start really thinking about it tomorrow since it's way too late

And thanks a lot for the help, I really appreciate it
 
Jesus Angeles
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Ronald Castillo wrote:I'll just hold my horses and take it one step at a time.
I'll start creating some projects to gain some expertise before going into more "advanced" stuff.

Any recommendations for what kind of projects I can develop using JSE? Something easy that can get me started on developing real world applications and getting to know Java a little bit more?
Have my mind on a few projects, but I'll start really thinking about it tomorrow since it's way too late

And thanks a lot for the help, I really appreciate it



If I remember correctly, there should be some programs in the head first java book? You can use them and make them run.
 
Mohamed Sanaulla
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Jesus Angeles wrote:

If I remember correctly, there should be some programs in the head first java book? You can use them and make them run.


+1 Really good starting point
 
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