If anything, the new edition of this title (without the massive hard-cover format of its predecessor) gains in being streamlined. Although some readers might quibble with the ordering of topics here (it's hard to see why JNDI and RMI begin the tour of J2EE), the range of topics and coverage offers a superior mix of APIs without getting bogged down in excessive detail. Better yet, the authors are careful to distinguish between different flavors of specific APIs on such topics as JDBC (they cover features of versions 1.0 through 3.0 separately), new servlet and custom tag library standards, and EJB 2.0 standards. J2EE is several years old and its APIs have grown by leaps and bounds. The authors are careful to cover the older material while highlighting what's new and improved. At each juncture, they do a fine job of listing relevant APIs, making this book an excellent reference for everyday programming.
It's an old saw that the genius is in the details, but perhaps never more so than with J2EE, where finicky application servers can waste countless hours of your time. This volume will increase your productivity with its exacting presentation of Web and EJB deployment (using freeware Java deployment tools) and the league-leading BEA WebLogic Server 6.x, which is used here for deploying components. Working Java developers will also appreciate the full tour of deployment descriptor options for servlets and EJBs.
Other excellent material looks at the ways of designing truly scalable and maintainable enterprise systems with Java mixing JSPs, servlets, and EJBs. This guide to "best practices" includes a useful discussion of software patterns (like the front controller pattern) illustrated with real code. Coverage of custom tag libraries, plus the evolving JSP Standard Tag Library (JSPTL) from Sun and Apache, will help you master this very important emerging technology.
With its extensive coverage of today's rich and complex J2EE platform, and practical focus on real-world design and deployment, the new edition of this book succeeds as an almost indispensable resource for any enterprise Java developer. It will serve as both a reference and tutorial to the latest in high-end Java for your next large-scale project. --Richard Dragan