Besides a general introduction to EJBs, the new edition of this book excels at highlighting the differences between the EJB 1.0 and 1.1 standards. Sample code is provided for both versions. For deployment, EJB 1.1 now relies on XML to define all bean resources and dependencies. For every sample bean, the author provides the XML, as well as the old-style Java code for EJB 1.0. There's also plenty of coverage of the new reliance on JNDI (the Java directory service) in EJB 1.1 and other late-breaking Sun standards, such as combining EJBs with servlets and JSPs for delivering dynamic Web content.
This text is organized as a tutorial to the major types of EJBs with full coverage of entity beans (for accessing databases) and session beans (for managing "conversations" with particular clients). The author covers all the bases here with numerous diagrams describing the life cycle of beans and how they cooperate with today's application servers. As in the first edition, sample beans for a cruise ship booking application let you see actual EJB code in action. Helpful appendices list all EJB APIs and other useful information (such as a list of current EJB vendors).
In all, the revised edition of Enterprise JavaBeans shows off the considerable strengths of the new EJB 1.1 standard. Suitable for any working Java programmer or IT manager, the clear presentation of the strategies and techniques for successful component design help make this book a smart choice for successful development with EJBs. --Richard Dragan
Topics covered: Overview of Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) v. 1.1 and 1.0, distributed objects, Component Transaction Monitors (CTMs), application servers and EJBs, resource management, EJB server setup, entity beans, session beans and workflow, the JNDI naming service, the life cycle of beans, container-managed and bean-managed persistence for entity beans, stateful and stateless session beans, deploying beans in JAR files (EJB 1.1 and 1.0 conventions), XML deployment descriptors, transaction basics (ACID properties and JTS), EJB security, design strategies and performance tips for EJBs, Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and EJBs, servlets and JSPs used with EJBs, sample beans, state and sequence diagrams for EJBs, and EJB API reference.