As many Java developers and IS managers already know, Sun's powerful Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) technology offers an attractive option for developing server-side components. A suitable read for both managers and Java programmers, Enterprise JavaBeans provides a surprisingly clear and engaging introduction to designing and programming with EJBs.

The tour of the EJB component model presented here centers on several beans created and tested for a travel reservation system in a fictitious cruise ship company. The samples are just right in scale, large enough to test out key concepts in design and deployment, but small enough to be comprehensible, even to those who are not Java experts. The author pays close attention to the real-world issues of deployment with EJBs (as well as the differences among the vendor application servers that run them).

While there are enough details in Java syntax for designing both entity and session beans for the developer, sections on design here will please those who manage projects without delving much into code. Later, the author shows various ways to design entity and session beans. (For instance, entity beans can allow their bean containers to handle the details of connecting to a database, or they can do it themselves. This book demonstrates both approaches.) When it comes to session beans (which "wire" together entity beans to do real work), the author's introduction to managing state and transactions is also a standout. Tips for performance and reusability close out the book.

In all, Enterprise JavaBeans provides an engaging tour of one of the most promising component technologies. It's technically astute, but thoroughly approachable too, and can serve the needs of any manager or Java developer considering EJBs for future projects. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) basics, distributed architectures, Component Transaction Monitors (CTMs), bean-containers, home and remote bean interfaces, resource management, configuring EJB servers, entity beans, JNDI, container-managed and bean-managed persistence, session beans, stateless and stateful beans, transactions, design and performance hints.

The new 2.1 version of the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) spec extends its support for web services and the Java Web Services APIs, expands its asynchronous messaging support, adds XML Schema for deployment descriptors, and introduces a new Timer service, which allows for scheduling EJB jobs. The essential--and award winning--book on EJBs, Enterprise JavaBeans, has been completely revised and updated in this new fourth edition, to provide the real-world, nitty-gritty detail developers need to master EJB 2.1. Previous editions of this clear and engaging introduction to EJBs were voted the "Best Java Book" by the editors and readers of Java Developer's Journal, the "Best Java Book for Experts," by JavaPro editors, and one of the Top Computer Books by Amazon.com. The fourth edition lives up to--and surpasses--the excellent reputation earned by its predecessors. This authoritative and thorough guide includes everything that made previous editions the single must-have book for EJB developers: the authors solid grasp on the complexities of EJBs coupled with his succinct, easy-to-follow style; hundreds of clear, practical examples; adept coverage the key concepts EJBs ; and diagrams to illustrate the concepts presented. It also includes everything you need to get up to speed quickly on the changes wrought by EJB version 2.1, an architecture overview, information on resource management and primary services, design strategies, and XML deployment descriptors. In this edition, we're adding an EJB workbook for JBoss 4.0. The workbook shows how to deploy all of the examples on the JBoss 4.0 application server. It addresses an important problem with EJB: deploying the software on a server can be extremely difficult. JBoss is an open source project that has become the most widely used J2EE application server. Good technical authors may lay the facts before you, but great ones offer the distilled essence of their own experience and insight. Richard Monson-Haefel has provided just what Java developers need to know to harness the complexity of EJBs. What makes Monson-Haefel a master of technical authoring can be seen in his well-thought-out and logical progression of ideas, and in his examples practical, precise, usable examples, large enough to test key concepts but still small enough to be comprehensible taken apart and explained in the detail you need to deploy those principles in other situations. If you work with EJBs--or want to--this book will earn a favored spot on your bookshelf.