BEA WebLogic Platform 7

Distributed software development, in which the user interfaces are distinct from the business logic, and the business logic is separate from the persistent data store, takes some getting used to. Not only do you have to grasp the concepts, but also the peculiarities of the development and run-time environments in which you're working--usually BEA WebLogic or IBM WebSphere. BEA WebLogic Platform 7 focuses on the WebLogic server itself, leaving other parts of the development environment for coverage in other venues. That said, WebLogic coverage is excellent, providing readers with an excellent resource that explains how various objects behave. There are lots of code samples, too, so readers can see exactly what they need to do to get their J2EE applications running right.

Chapters tend to be comprehensive, beginning with theory (explaining, for example, what entity beans are for and the life cycle of a typical one) and moving on through recommended ways of writing bean- and container-managed persistence classes. Chapters typically conclude with details of deployment on a WebLogic server. This coverage is handy in that it's not particularly standards-oriented: It's WebLogic-specific, and that's the only standard you care about if you're writing code for that environment. Combined with BEA's own documentation, this is an enormously useful book. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to write applications for BEA WebLogic Platform 7, and deploy them, correctly. Specific coverage goes to presentation logic, business logic, and persistence, as well as to Web Services in the BEA environment and server administration.