Java EE Reading List
Jul 19th, 2005 by phil
Here is a recommended reading list for anyone who has to work with Java EE. These are books that we have read and found to be useful. They are recommended because they cover their topic area well and provide useful information. We do not expect that every Java EE developer will need to read every book on the list.
We plan on expanding this list in the future adding more books and in-depth reviews.
Core J2EE Patterns: Best Practices and Design Strategies, 2nd Edition
This book discusses a number of J2EE design considerations and bad practices and then provides a catalog of J2EE design patterns. One thing to keep in mind while reading this book is that some of the design patterns are band-aids meant to mitigate some of the drawbacks to using EJBs. Think carefully about whether or not the tradeoffs are worth it before employing one of these band-aid patterns.
Bitter EJB
Manning is quickly becoming one of my favorite publishers. This book discusses a number of antipatterns associated with the use of EJBs and provides some solutions and workarounds.
Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development
This book was originally published by the now defunct Wrox Press, but has been picked up by John Wiley and Sons. It provides a broad overview of J2EE development where the previously mentioned titles focus more on patterns and antipatterns. The sample code provided with this book was the basis for the Spring Framework. If you are using the Spring Framework this book provides a very interesting insight into its motivation and design.
Expert One-on-One J2EE Development without EJB
This book is a follow up to Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development that focuses on using the Spring Framework instead of more traditional J2EE technologies such as EJB. There is some overlap with the previous book, but I still found it useful since it provides more detail on how to use Spring.
