Richard Monson-Haefel

JMS consists of a set of messaging APIs that enable two types of messaging, publish-and-subscribe (one-to-many) and point-to-point (one-to-one). The highly lucid explanation of the ways in which these work makes the technical content a lot more approachable. In practice, however, Java Message Service is still a book for Java programmers who have some business programming experience. You need the background.

After a simple JMS demonstration in which you create a chat application using both messaging types, the authors dissect JMS message structures, explore both types in detail, and then move on to real-world considerations. These include reliability, security, deployment, and a rundown of various JMS server providers. The appendices list and describe the JMS API, and provide message reference material.

Considering the complexity and reach of the subject matter, Java Message Service does a great job of covering both theory and practice in a surprisingly efficient manner. It's easy to see why JMS has become so popular so quickly. Recommended. --Steve Patient, Amazon.co.uk

Besides a general introduction to EJBs, the new edition of this book excels at highlighting the differences between the EJB 1.0 and 1.1 standards. Sample code is provided for both versions. For deployment, EJB 1.1 now relies on XML to define all bean resources and dependencies. For every sample bean, the author provides the XML, as well as the old-style Java code for EJB 1.0. There's also plenty of coverage of the new reliance on JNDI (the Java directory service) in EJB 1.1 and other late-breaking Sun standards, such as combining EJBs with servlets and JSPs for delivering dynamic Web content.

This text is organized as a tutorial to the major types of EJBs with full coverage of entity beans (for accessing databases) and session beans (for managing "conversations" with particular clients). The author covers all the bases here with numerous diagrams describing the life cycle of beans and how they cooperate with today's application servers. As in the first edition, sample beans for a cruise ship booking application let you see actual EJB code in action. Helpful appendices list all EJB APIs and other useful information (such as a list of current EJB vendors).

In all, the revised edition of Enterprise JavaBeans shows off the considerable strengths of the new EJB 1.1 standard. Suitable for any working Java programmer or IT manager, the clear presentation of the strategies and techniques for successful component design help make this book a smart choice for successful development with EJBs. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Overview of Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) v. 1.1 and 1.0, distributed objects, Component Transaction Monitors (CTMs), application servers and EJBs, resource management, EJB server setup, entity beans, session beans and workflow, the JNDI naming service, the life cycle of beans, container-managed and bean-managed persistence for entity beans, stateful and stateless session beans, deploying beans in JAR files (EJB 1.1 and 1.0 conventions), XML deployment descriptors, transaction basics (ACID properties and JTS), EJB security, design strategies and performance tips for EJBs, Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and EJBs, servlets and JSPs used with EJBs, sample beans, state and sequence diagrams for EJBs, and EJB API reference.