Publisher's Synopsis
*Introduce developers to key J2EE technologies like Java Servlets, JavaServer Pages, and Enterprise JavaBeans *Teach developers how to apply these J2EE technologies within the right architectural framework. *Demonstrate how WebSphere Application Server, Advanced Edition, implements the J2EE standard, and what advantages it gives to developers as a J2EE application server *Demonstrate the advantages VisualAge for Java, Enterprise Edition conveys as a platform for developing J2EE programs, for deployment on WebSphere Application Server, Advanced Edition. Of these four goals, perhaps the most important one is the second goal; to teach developers how to apply J2EE technologies within the right architectural context. It has been our experience that teaching someone a new technology without teaching him or her how he or she should apply that technology is a terrible mistake. A lot of our time as consultants is spent in getting customers out of problems that have either been created by trying to make a technology do something it was not intended to do, or by viewing one particular technology as a "hammer" and all problems as "nails".;While we can convey some of this architectural context by teaching you the "dos and donts" of the technologies, most of you are like us - you learn best by doing. In order to help you really gain a "feel" for the J2EE technologies we will cover, you will want to walk with us through the example system that we are building and find out for yourselves how the pieces fit together. It is only by seeing the entire system end-to-end, and by working through the example on your own that you will really start to understand how the different APIs inter-relate, and how WebSphere and VisualAge for Java implement the abstract specifications. J2EE is a terrific architecture for building scaleable, manageable server-side systems, and IBM has developed a wonderful set of tools that make those technologies "real". By the time you reach the end of this book, you will understand and agree with us as to why we think so highly of these tools. This book will enable you to start designing and building these kinds of large-scale, "enterprise" systems that J2EE, WebSphere and VisualAge for Java make possible.
