Java Enterprise Best Practices

Expert Tips & Tricks for Java Enterprise Programmers

Java developers typically go through four "stages" in mastering Java. In the first stage, they learn the language itself. In the second stage, they study the APIs. In the third stage, they become proficient in the environment. It is in the fourth stage --"the expert stage"-- where things really get interesting, and Java Enterprise Best Practices is the tangible compendium of experience that developers need to breeze through this fourth and final stage of Enterprise Java mastery.

Crammed with tips and tricks, Java Enterprise Best Practices distills years of solid experience from eleven experts in the J2EE environment into a practical, to-the-point guide to J2EE.

Java Enterprise Best Practices gives developers the unvarnished, expert-tested advice that the man pages don't provide--what areas of the APIs should be used frequently (and which are better avoided); elegant solutions to problems you face that other developers have already discovered; what things you should always do, what things you should consider doing, and what things you should never do--even if the documentation says it's ok.

Until Java Enterprise Best Practices, Java developers in the fourth stage of mastery relied on the advice of a loose-knit community of fellow developers, time-consuming online searches for examples or suggestions for the immediate problem they faced, and tedious trial-and-error. But Java has grown to include a huge number of APIs, classes, and methods. Now it is simply too large for even the most intrepid developer to know it all. The need for a written compendium of J2EE Best Practices has never been greater.

Java Enterprise Best Practices focuses on the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) APIs. The J2EE APIs include such alphabet soup acronyms as EJB, JDBC, RMI, XML, and JMX. Java Enterprise Best Practices is a companion title to Java Best Practices, which covers the Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) APIs, such as Swing, the collections classes, performance tuning, and NIO.

About the Authors
For this book, O'Reilly editor Robert Eckstein has tapped several O'Reilly authors--each an expert in his particular field--to write chapters on different aspects of Java enterprise development. Robert himself works mostly on Java books (notably Java in a Nutshell, Java Enterprise in a Nutshell and Java Swing) and is responsible for the XML Pocket Reference and Webmaster in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition. In his spare time, he provides online coverage for popular conferences and writes articles for JavaWorld magazine.

Robert Eckstein has worked with Java since its first release. In a previous life, he has been an editor for O'Reilly Media, Inc. and a programmer for Motorola's cellular technology division. He has authored, co-authored, or edited a number of books, including Java Swing, Java Enterprise Best Practices, Using Samba, XML Pocket Reference, and Webmaster in a Nutshell. In his spare time he has been known to tinker with filmmaking and digital photography, as well as collecting vintage video game consoles. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Michelle, his children Lauren and Nathan, and their talking dog Ginger.