Best j2ee design book .

[Tonny Tssagovic]

Hello folks,
I wanted to ask you ranchers about the best book from the j2ee architect/designer perspective. A book that helps a new j2ee programmer (that knows the API) make decisions about distributing the application�s logic in a robust multi-tier architecture. I have read a lot of reviews at Amazon.com and think that �Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development� seems to be the best. I have read a sample chapter and really like it, but need advice from you guys. I am talking about a book that takes you a step further from the free Sun book �Designing Enterprise Applications with the J2EETM Platform�, Second Edition. It shouldn�t be a book that just introduces you with a dictionary of common patterns, but a book that has some real advice on applying them and a guide that takes you from a j2ee newbie to a j2ee architect (intermediate)
Any suggestions are welcome!
Thank you in advance.!

[David Harkness]

Originally posted by Tonny Tssagovic:
[]I wanted to ask you ranchers about the best book from the j2ee architect/designer perspective. A book that helps a new j2ee programmer (that knows the API) make decisions about distributing the application�s logic in a robust multi-tier architecture. I have read a lot of reviews at Amazon.com and think that �Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development� seems to be the best.[/i]

Of the several J2EE books I've read through, I've been the most pleased with that one. Another useful good read is Bitter EJB -- so good that someone swiped it from my cube recently! However, I still haven't found a book that provided a complete overall architecture. You'll have to learn by applying what you read and testing out designs. Create a very small domain model with the different types of relationships. From that you can build a framework that fits your style and needs.
Beyond books, my first piece of advice is to use XDoclet with Ant or Maven or your IDE. There's no point in doing grunt work that your tools can do for you, and do it perfectly every time. XDoclet has saved me countless hours. I've written many code generation tools before, once the tedium became too much to bear, and it is so very nice to have one already set up to do what I need.
I've recently gone through three varying designs for the EJB layer, shifting complexity to the framework to make stamping out new domain objects easier.
One final tip: Post during the book give-aways. I won the first two I had been in.

[Tonny Tssagovic]

Thanks a lot for your advice David,
I know about XDoclet and Ant, and am very interested in maven.
Any other advice from other ranchers?

[Andres Gonzalez]

Tonny -
I agree with David on XDoclet, but if I were a beginner, I would not start using XDoclet or those tools at the very beginning. You need to know what you're doing (creating remote/home interfaces, jndi stuff, ejb-jars, etc). I know it's tedious, but the most important thing here is understand what you're doing, and why you're doing.
I started doing it all by hand. I figured it would take me more time to learn xdoclet (it wouldn't have, it's beautiful) and I was in a big pressure with time. Then, I started using it and now I can't leave it.
I used Mastering EJB by ed roman, freely available in www.middleware-company.com. I highly recommend it.
my $0.02

[Tonny Tssagovic]

Thanks for your reply Andres,
Well I have already used a shell to build and deploy my app. To appreciate Ant and Maven, and written all the classes in a text editor to appreciate XDoclet or any IDE based code generator.
I am more concerned about the design decisions, some book that have advice that is not obvious like using DAO for data access or session fa�ade to improve the overall performance. These and other �patterns� are obvious and are probably used even if one has never heard about them.
I am talking about a book that puts all the good advice, and cites the anti-patterns and makes one feel confident in designing a J2ee app. It is probably several books like bitter EJB and j2ee antipatterns and core patterns and expert-one on one.. But I can afford only to read one book, that hopefully has it all in a concise manner. Any advice?
PS: I have the 2 ejb books available for free at theserverside.com
[ February 02, 2004: Message edited by: Tonny Tssagovic ]

[Marcos Maia]

Originally posted by Tonny Tssagovic:
Hello folks,
I wanted to ask you ranchers about the best book from the j2ee architect/designer perspective.

I would suggest Core J2EE Design Patterns
as a book and also the blueprints site at sun
http://java.sun.com/blueprints/patterns/index.html
regards.

[Tonny Tssagovic]

Thanks Marcos,
I have that one, any other advice?
Thanks

[Marcos Maia]

yes, another good reading and also good book is Floyd Marinescu's book, EJB Design Patterns. You may download it in pdf format:
http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.jsp?thread_id=13510

regards.

[Andres Gonzalez]

Agree with marcos in both.

[Tonny Tssagovic]

I have both;-) and search for something more than a patterns book

[Marcos Maia]

hmmm,
maybe what u need is a good UP book, a great one is:
Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and the Unified Process (2nd Edition)
click here for seeing this book at amazon.
regards.

[Ben Dover]

Expert one on one is great, but can be a bit much if youre a beginner. I have just bought O'Reilly J2EE patterns, and it is excellent, good value for all levels, well thought out, concise, well written, and doesn't use the same old patterns by classification routine, rather approaches patterns from the perspective of tiers and how they meld together. Highly recommend.

[Ben Dover]

Can I have a free book?