Al Pearson

what kind of dog?

To get some hands-on experience as part of my SCBD cert effort (successful last January), I read the Monson-Haefel book,which comes with a workbook and examples prepared for Jboss. The book, workbook and Jboss are available free on the net. Jboss comes with built-in db, so there's no need spend time installing an independent db.

Thanks for the encouragement.
And thanks, Nicholas, for sharing this important piece of news with me.
I wonder why Mr Sun didn't take the trouble to email me and inform me directly, rather than expecting *me* to find out by poking around at their kafkan website.

The same mark I got with Whizlabs. Found this software useful, despite problems with the install. (I installed it on my laptop and was surprised the fancy protection system wouldn't allow me to install it also on my PC in the office). Won't complain about the price as I expensed it.
Had just 2 months work experience testing EJBs, version 1.1.
As regards books, used mainly Monson-Haefel, with a bit of Ed Roman. Used the Sun Spec for occasional reference, and for EJB-QL.
Where to now? Can't go for Architect as my SCJP expires in June, and my SCWCD in December. I hardly have the time to maintain the qualifications I have without going for more. (Sun's 2-year expiration policy strikes me as arrogant and unrespectful of the private efforts we're all putting in to tool up for their products, and I'm not so sure it's legal. They don't incorporate enough enhancements to their products to justify this practice, but why worry if our exam fees bolster the results of their Education division?).
This new certification will get me plenty of congrats, but it won't get me a raise. To find out if it makes me more employable, I'd have to get myself fired first, then see what happens. Life sucks...
Feel better now.
Best wishes to the staff of this superior site
Al

I passed on Dec 30th, and received the envelope from Sun on Jan 10, so yours is overdue.
Alan

On Dec 30th past. This is the forum I've used the most, and I take this opportunity to thank all those who patiently share their knowledge with us lesser beings.
I found Custom Tags to be the hardest subject to prepare for, but fortunately the questions related to return values and basic lifecycle concepts.
Didn't spend to much time preparing for design patterns and bluffed my way thru without bother.
There was a question on filters, tho pretty basic.
This is the tenth cert exam I've taken in the last 5 years, and I'd rate this exam as one of the most straightforward. (And I'd rate the Java 2 exam I did in June as one of the hardest.)
I used the first edition of the Sybex book and the free sample chapters of other books that are mentioned in the FAQ.
While I found the book to be a useful resource, I'd recommend Nathalie Delon, for her next effort, to look for an publisher willing to provide adequate resources for technical review,
rather than Sybex whose priority is to get a product to market at ASAP, regardless of quality.
I suppose errata will have been cured for the most part in the new edition.
I've already got the diploma from Sun - not as pretty as the Java 2 one, and at the bottom it says 'Expires December 04'.
Funnily, on the bits of paper I got from other manufacturers (Lotus Domino Dev, Admin and Clarify) there is no such expiry date -
the diploma simply specifies in what version I'm certified in. My feeling is that Sun is out of line with this expiry thing,
and I'd suggest that newcomers look at other certification routes (Weblogic, IBM) that offer normal certifications that don't expire
and therefore represent a better return on your investment.
Also in the envelope from Sun I found a fancy pin and a plastic credit card with the WCD credential.
I'm finding this card particularly useful, as I'm often out of the office without a toothbrush, and this is an effective substitute - tho I wonder for how long, as it also expires Dec '04.

Once again, thank you.

At the top of the card, as a general comment, it reads:
"Spaces are not allowed between an equals sign and an attribute value".
However, the following Spaces.jsp compiles and runs ok on Tomcat 4.0.3:
--------------
<%@ page session="true" buffer = "8kb"%>
<center>
<h3>This is from Spaces.jsp.
The date is
<%= new java.util.Date() %>
</h3>
</center>
--------------
giving:
-------------
<center>
<h3>This is from Spaces.jsp.
The date is
Fri Dec 13 16:06:02 CET 2002
</h3>
</center>
-------------
Note the spaces before and after the equals sign of the buffer attribute.
In the JSP 1.2 spec I can't find a similar prohibition of spaces around
the equal sign.
Someone please lighten my darkness.

here's some useful material from the book by Alain Trottier:

enjoy, Alan

In server.xml, I changed:
[Context path="/onjava" docBase="onjava" debug="0" reloadable="true" /]
so that docbase="onjava.war" and it's working ok.

:-)thanks Simon and Satya (the link to the /manager was useful

In his article Deploying Web Applications to Tomcat, James Goodwill writes:
The steps required to "WAR-up" your /onjava web application and deploy it are as follows:
1. Change to the root directory of your web application. In this case the root directory would be TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/onjava/.
2. Archive the web application:
jar cvf onjava.war .
3. Copy the resulting WAR file, onjava.war, to the TOMCAT_HOME/webapps directory.
Whereas in the Sybex cert book, it says (p.119): The WAR file is usually stored in the context directory. So, in the previous step 3, we would copy it to TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/onjava.
So who is right, or are they both right, depending on how you jar up?
Alan

Thanks, Andriy, that's as clear as crystal.
Alan

The Servlet Spec 2.3, the chapter on Mapping Requests to Servlets, first section Use of URL Paths, reads:
"Upon receipt of a client request, the web container determines the web application
to which to forward it. The web application selected must have the the longest
context path that matches the start of the request URL. The matched part of the URL
is the context path when mapping to servlets."
I don't understand the "The web application selected must have the the longest
context path that matches the start of the request URL" bit.
Could somebody explain this a little further, with a couple of examples?
Alan

Just got my book (from Amazon) and it looks ok. The CD sucks. The E-book requires geeky install, acceptable perhaps to the jealous owners of this intellectual property, bu not to me as a consumer.
Can't give details on the sample tests as when I run any of them, all I get is a blank screen.
The book is about 30% the thickness (and weight) of the J2 Programmer Cert Guide, so all the muscular tone I gained in my arms and fingers training for the programmer exam will be lost.
Also got Professional JSP 2nd, which seems faster paced and denser, in comparison.
Can't say much more, as I've only read the first 50 pages.

I've been working in Java for just a few weeks and have resolved my testing so far by means of visually checking System.out.println output.
This is tiresome, and while I recognize the need for a more elegant approach, I wonder what learning route I should take from here. Is this book appropriate for my expertise level? If not, I'd be grateful if you could suggest where I could go (links, resources) from here.
thanks in advance,
Alan

Thanks, Sam, the Exam Cram looks a safe bet so I'll get that, but I'm in doubt about the others.
R&H was published 09/2000 (Sybex say the R&H book is due to replaced in the June 2002 timeframe with the 3rd Edition, tho I cant wait till June).
Mughal&Rasmussen was published in 08/1999.

Has the exam content changed significantly since these books were published?
Alan