There's nothing ordinary about JBoss. What began as an open source EJB container project six years ago has become a fully certified J2EE 1.4 application server with the largest market share, competitive with proprietary Java application servers in features and quality. And with its dynamic architecture, JBoss isn't just a J2EE server. You can alter the services to make J2EE work the way you want, or even throw J2EE away completely.

After more than a million downloads, many JBoss users are no longer trying it out on internal test boxes, but rolling it out on production machines. JBoss: A Developer's Notebook takes you on a complete tour of JBoss in a very unique way: rather than long discussions, you will find code--lots of code. In fact, the book is a collection of hands-on labs that take you through the critical JBoss features step-by-step. You don't just read about JBoss, you learn it through direct practical application. That includes exploring the server's many configurations: from bare features for simple applications, to the lightweight J2EE configuration, to everything JBoss has in store-including Hibernate and Tomcat.

JBoss: A Developer's Notebook also introduces the management console, the web services messaging features, enhanced monitoring capabilities, and shows you how to improve performance. At the end of each lab, you'll find a section called "What about..." that anticipates and answers likely follow-up questions, along with a section that points you to articles and other resources if you need more information.

JBoss is truly an extraordinary application server. And we have an extraordinary way for you to learn it.

Rating:

RE: good subject - broken example code,  August 18 2006
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

Sam C,

[I posted a reply to Sam C's review and thought it might be informative to others too, so here it is at the top level... I also had to give us 5 stars.... :-) ]

First off, let me assure you and others that the samples and screen shots were not faked nor is the sample code. We had several reviewers go thru the book right up until deadline to deliever final pages to the publisher. There was a mixup in posting the final demo code and a change in libraries included in JBoss 4.0 GA. Both of those issues lead to the code being out of sync for some users who bought the book after the summer/fall of 2005. We did send the corrected code for JBoss 4.0 GA to get posted a couple of times, but for some reason it didn't seem to get online. We are sorry for that, but it wasn't because the samples don't work or we faked anything.

A little more info may help to understand what happened with this book, but commonly happens with others as well. Books are written against a moving target and sometimes by the time the book gets out, things have changed a bit. That happened in this case as well. Specifically, the code that was up on the books page to download when you downloaded the examples was done against a JBoss beta release that had the JSP Standard.jar lib file included in it. That lib gives the JSP the standard tags and some other standard features. The final JBoss build of 4.0 did not include those libraries as they are SUN's and so when you tried to run the example it complained. The new posted version of the examples includes that jar file in the examples and deploys it with the quote sample onto the server when you do that example.

Thanks for getting our book but please be assured, that things were not faked at all.

Thank you,

Sam Griffith - coauthor JBoss: A Developers Notebook


good subject - broken example code,  April 25 2006
Submitted by Sam C   [Respond | View]

I like the format and the subject, but the some of the examples don't work, specifically the quotes example. Examples not working is one of my pet peeves since they are an essential part of the learning experience, so I'm going to ding the book heavily for this error. The book just shows that the examples work and show the hypothetical results that can never materialize from the source code they provide. Apart from the examples not working , and them showing fake screens of the code working, the writing sytle is good and easy to follow.


Great Book,  November 11 2005
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

Great book! Very well done. I had the first sample app up about 5 minutes after the UPS man delivered the book. I have a question about using jar on page 36 which I will direct to bookquestions@oreilly.com (seems that it is looking for the build/jars folder which does not exist). But all in all, this book shows you what all the fuss is about re: Jboss and why it has become so popular. I would love to see other subjects covered in this notebood format.


Good book to start learning JBoss,  September 18 2005
Submitted by RamPrasad   [Respond | View]

This book guides a beginner, how to use JBoss. For an experienced user too it is worth having it as a reference guide.


Good Book,  September 01 2005
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

standardjaws.xml isn't used for CMP2. You might possibly want to set the defaults in standardjbosscmp-jdbc.xml, but as we recommend throughout it the book it is better not to change the server-wide defaults. We recommend setting the CMP configuration on each application, exactly as we showed in the book.


Good Book,  August 23 2005
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

I also forgot to answer one of you specific questions regarding the type mapping. The type mapping is done in the mysql-ds.xml file that you put into the deploy directory. We didn't highlight the tag in this file that sets the data-source mapping, but if you look you see it gets set in this xml file.

Thanks,

Sam


Good Book,  August 23 2005
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

In Chapter 4 the section entitled "Creating a datasource" covers this exactly. It also covers in the "What about..." section directly after that, how to make the MySQL DS the default DS.

Glad you liked the book.

Sam Griffith


Good Book,  August 23 2005
Submitted by Satish Talim   [Respond | View]

This is definitely a 'Must Have Book'. However, no mention has been made of the file standardjaws.xml in Chapter 4 - Connecting to a Real Database. Don't we need to change the datasource type mapping to mySQL from Hypersonic?


must have for java devs looking to get into j2ee,  August 17 2005
Submitted by cmtk04   [Respond | View]

of all the books i've read (i've read A LOT!), this book captures the essence of how a techincal book should be written perfectly.

this book does away all the unnecessary theory, and gives the reader something that can be read, understood, and USED in 2 days. i've never said that about any book.

i just ordered the spring and hibernate developer's notebooks. i hope they're written with the same clarity and practicality in mind.

-vk-


Right thing to do IF THE EXAMPLES WORKED,  August 09 2005
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

Glad I found this. But I am having a hell of a time getting the examples to work. Esp the jstl tag library. Have you ever tried this on Windows XP?

But this is a common theme accross this whole field: I still have to get any example from any book to properly work the first time ... what a pain ...


Good book - but where's the source code??,  July 07 2005
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

Thanks for the comments. The examples are posted here. Sorry about the oversight.



Good book - but where's the source code??,  July 06 2005
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

A nice terse book that gets to the point. I found it easy to follow because I have used WebLogic and have a basic understanding of how J2EE containers work. A novice would do better with the Enterprise JavaBeans book by Monson-Haefel.

By the way - the source code to the book is no where to be found on the OReilly web site.

See larger cover