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Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to (X)HTML, StyleSheets, and Web Graphics Buy from Amazon
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Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to (X)HTML, StyleSheets, and Web Graphics

by Jennifer Niederst Robbins

Everything you need to know to create professional web sites is right here. Learning Web Design starts from the beginning -- defining how the Web and web pages work -- and builds from there. By the end of the book, you'll have the skills to create multi-column CSS layouts with optimized graphic files, and you'll know how to get your pages up on the Web.

This thoroughly revised edition teaches you how to build web sites according to modern design practices and professional standards. Learning Web Design explains:

  • How to create a simple (X)HTML page, how to add links and images
  • Everything you need to know about web standards -- (X)HTML, DTDs, and more
  • Cascading Style Sheets -- formatting text, colors and backgrounds, using the box model, page layout, and more
  • All about web graphics, and how to make them lean and mean through optimization
  • The site development process, from start to finish
  • Getting your pages on the Web -- hosting, domain names, and FTP
The book includes exercises to help you to learn various techniques, and short quizzes to make sure you're up to speed with key concepts. If you're interested in web design, Learning Web Design is the place to start.



Java Concurrency in Practice Buy from Amazon
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Java Concurrency in Practice

by Brian Goetz, Tim Peierls, Joshua Bloch, Joseph Bowbeer, David Holmes, and Doug Lea
"I was fortunate indeed to have worked with a fantastic team on the design and implementation of the concurrency features added to the Java platform in Java 5.0 and Java 6. Now this same team provides the best explanation yet of these new features, and of concurrency in general. Concurrency is no longer a subject for advanced users only. Every Java developer should read this book." --Martin Buchholz JDK Concurrency Czar, Sun Microsystems "For the past 30 years, computer performance has been driven by Moore's Law; from now on, it will be driven by Amdahl's Law. Writing code that effectively exploits multiple processors can be very challenging. Java Concurrency in Practice provides you with the concepts and techniques needed to write safe and scalable Java programs for today's--and tomorrow's--systems." --Doron Rajwan Research Scientist, Intel Corp "This is the book you need if you're writing--or designing, or debugging, or maintaining, or contemplating--multithreaded Java programs. If you've ever had to synchronize a method and you weren't sure why, you owe it to yourself and your users to read this book, cover to cover." --Ted Neward Author of Effective Enterprise Java "Brian addresses the fundamental issues and complexities of concurrency with uncommon clarity. This book is a must-read for anyone who uses threads and cares about performance." --Kirk Pepperdine CTO, JavaPerformanceTuning.com "This book covers a very deep and subtle topic in a very clear and concise way, making it the perfect Java Concurrency reference manual. Each page is filled with the problems (and solutions!) that programmers struggle with every day. Effectively exploiting concurrency is becoming more and more important now that Moore's Law is delivering more cores but not faster cores, and this book will show you how to do it." --Dr. Cliff Click Senior Software Engineer, Azul Systems "I have a strong interest in concurrency, and have probably written more thread deadlocks and made more synchronization mistakes than most programmers. Brian's book is the most readable on the topic of threading and concurrency in Java, and deals with this difficult subject with a wonderful hands-on approach. This is a book I am recommending to all my readers of The Java Specialists' Newsletter, because it is interesting, useful, and relevant to the problems facing Java developers today." --Dr. Heinz Kabutz The Java Specialists' Newsletter "I've focused a career on simplifying simple problems, but this book ambitiously and effectively works to simplify a complex but critical subject: concurrency. Java Concurrency in Practice is revolutionary in its approach, smooth and easy in style, and timely in its delivery--it's destined to be a very important book." --Bruce Tate Author of Beyond Java "Java Concurrency in Practice is an invaluable compilation of threading know-how for Java developers. I found reading this book intellectually exciting, in part because it is an excellent introduction to Java's concurrency API, but mostly because it captures in a thorough and accessible way expert knowledge on threading not easily found elsewhere." --Bill Venners Author of Inside the Java Virtual Machine Threads are a fundamental part of the Java platform. As multicore processors become the norm, using concurrency effectively becomes essential for building high-performance applications. Java SE 5 and 6 are a huge step forward for the development of concurrent applications, with improvements to the Java Virtual Machine to support high-performance, highly scalable concurrent classes and a rich set of new concurrency building blocks. In Java Concurrency in Practice, the creators of these new facilities explain not only how they work and how to use them, but also the motivation and design patterns behind them. However, developing, testing, and debugging multithreaded programs can still be very difficult; it is all too easy to create concurrent programs that appear to work, but fail when it matters most: in production, under heavy load. Java Concurrency in Practice arms readers with both the theoretical underpinnings and concrete techniques for building reliable, scalable, maintainable concurrent applications. Rather than simply offering an inventory of concurrency APIs and mechanisms, it provides design rules, patterns, and mental models that make it easier to build concurrent programs that are both correct and performant. This book covers: *Basic concepts of concurrency and thread safety *Techniques for building and composing thread-safe classes *Using the concurrency building blocks in java.util.concurrent *Performance optimization dos and don'ts *Testing concurrent programs *Advanced topics such as atomic variables, nonblocking algorithms, and the Java Memory Model

Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions Buy from Amazon
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Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions

by Bill Scott and Theresa Neil

With the recent advent of Ajax and the resurgence of Flash for developing web sites and applications, new patterns of interaction have emerged on the Web. In this book, Bill Scott provides insight on how to best take advantage of the power of these technologies for designing a great user experience through a series of best practices, summarized as eight key principles. Each principle and its nuances are illustrated in detail with real world examples and counter-examples from both inside and outside Yahoo! The design principles provide the rationale for how to apply a pattern. Design patterns provide a solution in context. The eight design principles are introduced as a set of principles focused on rich interaction, feedback and user data models. Benefits to reader: 1. Take-away the key principles for creating a rich experience on the web 2. Build a vocabulary around common patterns of interaction for a common language between engineering & design 3. Have numerous real-world examples to clearly understand the principles & patterns for future reference 4. Be able to apply the patterns & principles in real world design problems Includes a companion website: designingrichwebexperience.com



jQuery in Action Buy from Amazon
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jQuery in Action

by Bear Bibeault and Yehuda Katz

A good web development framework anticipates what you need to do and makes those tasks easier and more efficient; jQuery practically reads your mind. Developers of every stripe-hobbyists and professionals alike-fall in love with jQuery the minute they've reduced 20 lines of clunky JavaScript into three lines of elegant, readable code. This new, concise JavaScript library radically simplifies how you traverse HTML documents, handle events, perform animations, and add Ajax interactions to your web pages.

jQuery in Action, like jQuery itself, is a concise tool designed to make you a more efficient and effective web developer. In a short 300 pages, this book introduces you to the jQuery programming model and guides you through the major features and techniques you'll need to be productive immediately. The book anchors each new concept in the tasks you'll tackle in day-to-day web development and offers unique lab pages where you immediately put your jQuery knowledge to work.

There are dozens of JavaScript libraries available now, with major companies like Google, Yahoo and AOL open-sourcing their in-house tools. This book shows you how jQuery stacks up against other libraries and helps you navigate interaction with other tools and frameworks.

jQuery in Action offers a rich investigation of the up-and-coming jQuery library for client-side JavaScript. This book covers all major features and capabilities in a manner focused on getting the reader up and running with jQuery from the very first sections. Web Developers reading this book will gain a deep understanding of how to use jQuery to simplify their pages and lives, as well as learn the philosophy behind writing jQuery-enhanced pages.



Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design Buy from Amazon
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Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design

by Andy Clarke and Molly E. Holzschlag

As the Web evolves to incorporate new standards and the latest browsers offer new possibilities for creative design, the art of creating Web sites is also changing. Few Web designers are experiences programmers, and as a result, working with semantic markup and CSS can create roadblocks to achieving truly beautiful designs using all the resources available. Add to this the pressures of presenting exceptional design to clients and employers, without compromising efficient workflow, and the challenge deepens for those working in a fast-paced environment. As someone who understands these complexities firsthand, author and designer Andy Clarke offers visual designers a progressive approach to creating artistic, usable, and accessible sites using transcendent CSS.

 

In this groundbreaking book, you’ll discover how to implement highly original designs through visual demonstrations of the creative possibilities using markup and CSS. You’ll learn to use a new design workflow, build prototypes that work well for designers and all team members, use grids effectively, visualize  markup, and discover every phase of the transcendent design process, from working with the latest browsers to incorporating CSS3 to collaborating with team members effectively.

 

Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design:

Uses a visual approach to help you learn coding techniques

Includes numerous examples of world-class Web sites, photography, and other inspirations that give designers ideas for visualizing their code

Offers early previews of technical advances in new Web browsers and of the emerging CSS3 specification

JavaServer Faces 2.0, The Complete Reference Buy from Amazon
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JavaServer Faces 2.0, The Complete Reference

by Ed Burns and Chris Schalk

The Definitive Guide to JavaServer Faces 2.0

Fully revised and updated for all of the changes in JavaServer Faces (JSF) 2.0, this comprehensive volume covers every aspect of the official standard Web development architecture for JavaEE. Inside this authoritative resource, the co-spec lead for JSF at Sun Microsystems shows you how to create dynamic, cross-browser Web applications that deliver a world-class user experience while preserving a high level of code quality and maintainability.

JavaServer Faces 2.0: The Complete Reference features an integrated sample application to use as a model for your own JSF applications, with code available online. The book explains all JSF features, including the request processing lifecycle, managed beans, page navigation, component development, Ajax, validation, internationalization, and security. Expert Group Insights throughout the book offer insider information on the design of JSF.

  • Set up a development environment and build a JSF application
  • Understand the JSF request processing lifecycle
  • Use the Facelets View Declaration Language, managed beans, and the JSF expression language (EL)
  • Define page flow with the JSF Navigation Model, including the new "Implicit Navigation" feature
  • Work with the user interface component model and the JSF event model, including support for bookmarkable pages and the POST, REDIRECT, GET pattern
  • Use the new JSR-303 Bean Validation standard for model data validation
  • Build Ajax-enabled custom UI components Extend JSF with custom non-UI components
  • Manage security, accessibility, internationalization, and localization
  • Learn how to work with JSF and Portlets from the JSF Team Leader at Liferay, the leading Java Portal vendor

Ed Burns is a senior staff engineer at Sun Microsystems and is the co-specification lead for JavaServer Faces. He is the co-author of JavaServer Faces: The Complete Reference and author of Secrets of the Rock Star Programmers.

Chris Schalk is a developer advocate and works to promote Google's APIs and technologies. He is currently engaging the international Web development community with the new Google App Engine and OpenSocial APIs.

Neil Griffin is committer and JSF Team Lead for Liferay Portal and the co-founder of The PortletFaces Project.

Ready-to-use code at www.mhprofessonal.com/computingdownload


Beginning Groovy and Grails: From Novice to Professional Buy from Amazon
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Beginning Groovy and Grails: From Novice to Professional

by Christopher M. Judd, Joseph Faisal Nusairat, and Jim Shingler

Web frameworks are playing a major role in the creation of today's most compelling web applications, because they automate many of the tedious tasks, allowing developers to instead focus on providing users with creative and powerful features. Java developers have been particularly fortunate in this area, having been able to take advantage of Grails, an open source framework that supercharges productivity when building Java–driven web sites. Grails is based on Groovy, which is a very popular and growing dynamic scripting language for Java developers and was inspired by Python, Ruby, and Smalltalk.

Beginning Groovy and Grails is the first introductory book on the Groovy language and its primary web framework, Grails.

This book gets you started with Groovy and Grails and culminates in the example and possible application of some real–world projects. You follow along with the development of each project, implementing and running each application while learning new features along the way.

What you’ll learn

  • Understand the fundamentals of the open source, dynamic Groovy scripting language and the Grails web framework.
  • Capitalize upon Grails’ well–defined framework architecture to build web applications faster than ever before.
  • Improve your web application with cutting–edge interface enhancements using Ajax.
  • Use Grails’ object–relational mapping solution, GORM, to manage your data store more effectively than ever before.
  • Take advantage of Groovy to create reporting services, implement batch processing, and create alternative client interfaces.
  • Deploy and upgrade your Grails–driven applications with expertise and ease.
  • Discover an alternative client in Groovy as well.

Who is this book for?

Java and web developers looking to learn and embrace the power and flexibility offered by the Grails framework and Groovy scripting language

About the Apress Beginning Series

The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entry–level job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from “novice to professional.” You’ll start your journey by seeing what you need to know—but without needless theory and filler. You’ll build your skill set by learning how to put together real–world projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you there—it is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory!



Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0 (5th Edition) Buy from Amazon
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Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0 (5th Edition)

by Richard Monson-Haefel and Bill Burke
Thoroughly enhanced for the EJB 1.1 specification, Enterprise JavaBeans, 2nd Edition provides a great introduction to the world of server-side Java components. With plenty of material on EJB architecture and design, this new edition can serve as an authoritative resource for mastering today's bean standards.

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.


The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web Buy from Amazon
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The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web

by Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag

Proving once and for all that standards-compliant design does not equal dull design, this inspiring tome uses examples from the landmark CSS Zen Garden site as the foundation for discussions on how to create beautiful, progressive CSS-based Web sites. By using the Zen Garden sites as examples of how CSS design techniques and approaches can be applied to specific Web challenges, authors Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag provide an eye-opening look at the range of design methods made possible by CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). By the time you've finished perusing the volume, you'll have a new understanding of the graphically rich, fully accessible sites that CSS design facilitates. In sections on design, layout, imagery, typography, effects, and themes, Dave and Molly take you through every phase of the design process--from striking a sensible balance between text and graphics to creating eye-popping special effects (no scripting required).



97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts Buy from Amazon
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97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts

by Richard Monson-Haefel

In this truly unique technical book, today's leading software architects present valuable principles on key development issues that go way beyond technology. More than four dozen architects -- including Neal Ford, Michael Nygard, and Bill de hOra -- offer advice for communicating with stakeholders, eliminating complexity, empowering developers, and many more practical lessons they've learned from years of experience. Among the 97 principles in this book, you'll find useful advice such as:

  • Don't Put Your Resume Ahead of the Requirements (Nitin Borwankar)
  • Chances Are, Your Biggest Problem Isn't Technical (Mark Ramm)
  • Communication Is King; Clarity and Leadership, Its Humble Servants (Mark Richards)
  • Simplicity Before Generality, Use Before Reuse (Kevlin Henney)
  • For the End User, the Interface Is the System (Vinayak Hegde)
  • It's Never Too Early to Think About Performance (Rebecca Parsons)

To be successful as a software architect, you need to master both business and technology. This book tells you what top software architects think is important and how they approach a project. If you want to enhance your career, 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know is essential reading.



Programming Clojure (Pragmatic Programmers) Buy from Amazon
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Programming Clojure (Pragmatic Programmers)

by Stuart Halloway

Clojure is a dynamic language for the Java Virtual Machine, with a compelling combination of features:

Clojure is elegant. Clojure's clean, careful design lets you write programs that get right to the essence of a problem, without a lot of clutter and ceremony.

Clojure is Lisp reloaded. Clojure has the power inherent in Lisp, but is not constrained by the history of Lisp.

Clojure is a functional language. Data structures are immutable, and functions tend to be side-effect free. This makes it easier to write correct programs, and to compose large programs from smaller ones.

Clojure is concurrent. Rather than error-prone locking, Clojure provides software transactional memory.

Clojure embraces Java. Calling from Clojure to Java is direct, and goes through no translation layer.

Clojure is fast. Wherever you need it, you can get the exact same performance that you could get from hand-written Java code.

Many other languages offer some of these features, but the combination of them all makes Clojure sparkle. Programming Clojure shows you why these features are so important, and how you can use Clojure to build powerful programs quickly.



Spring in Action Buy from Amazon
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Spring in Action

by Craig Walls and Ryan Breidenbach

Spring in Action 2E is an expanded, completely updated second edition of the best selling Spring in Action. Written by Craig Walls, one of Manning's best writers, this book covers the exciting new features of Spring 2.0, which was released in October 2006.

Spring is a lightweight container framework that represents an exciting way to build enterprise components with simple Java objects. By employing dependency injection and AOP, Spring encourages loosely coupled code and enables plain-old Java objects with capabilities that were previously reserved for EJBs. This book is a hands-on, example-driven exploration of the Spring Framework. Combining short code snippets and an ongoing example developed throughout the book, it shows readers how to build simple and efficient J2EE applications, how to solve persistence problems, handle asynchronous messaging, create and consume remote services, build web applications, and integrate with most popular web frameworks. Readers will learn how to use Spring to write simpler, easier to maintain code so they can focus on what really matters-- critical business needs.

Spring in Action, 2E is for Java developers who are looking for ways to build enterprise-grade applications based on simple Java objects, without resorting to more complex and invasive EJBs. Even hard-core EJB users will find this book valuable as Spring in Action, 2E will describe ways to use EJB components alongside Spring. Software architects will also find Spring in Action, 2E useful as they assess and apply lightweight techniques prescribed by Spring. and learn how Spring can be applied at the various layers of enterprise applications.



Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk Buy from Amazon
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Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk

by Paul Duvall, Steve Matyas, and Andrew Glover

This is the eBook version of the printed book. If the print book includes a CD-ROM, this content is not included within the eBook version.

For any software developer who has spent days in “integration hell,” cobbling together myriad software components, Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk illustrates how to transform integration from a necessary evil into an everyday part of the development process. The key, as the authors show, is to integrate regularly and often using continuous integration (CI) practices and techniques.

 

The authors first examine the concept of CI and its practices from the ground up and then move on to explore other effective processes performed by CI systems, such as database integration, testing, inspection, deployment, and feedback. Through more than forty CI-related practices using application examples in different languages, readers learn that CI leads to more rapid software development, produces deployable software at every step in the development lifecycle, and reduces the time between defect introduction and detection, saving time and lowering costs. With successful implementation of CI, developers reduce risks and repetitive manual processes, and teams receive better project visibility.

 

The book covers

  • How to make integration a “non-event” on your software development projects
  • How to reduce the amount of repetitive processes you perform when building your software
  • Practices and techniques for using CI effectively with your teams
  • Reducing the risks of late defect discovery, low-quality software, lack of visibility, and lack of deployable software
  • Assessments of different CI servers and related tools on the market

The book’s companion Web site, www.integratebutton.com, provides updates and code examples.

 



Groovy in Action Buy from Amazon
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Groovy in Action

by Dierk Koenig, Andrew Glover, Paul King, Guillaume Laforge, and Jon Skeet
"... a clear and detailed exposition of what is groovy about Groovy. I'm glad to have it on my bookshelf."
--From the Foreword by James Gosling

Groovy, the brand-new language for the Java platform, brings to Java many of the features that have made Ruby popular. Groovy in Action is a comprehensive guide to Groovy programming, introducing Java developers to the new dynamic features that Groovy provides. To bring you Groovy in Action, Manning again went to the source by working with a team of expert authors including both members and the Manager of the Groovy Project team. The result is the true definitive guide to the new Groovy language.

Groovy in Action introduces Groovy by example, presenting lots of reusable code while explaining the underlying concepts. Java developers new to Groovy find a smooth transition into the dynamic programming world. Groovy experts gain a solid reference that challenges them to explore Groovy deeply and creatively.

Because Groovy is so new, most readers will be learning it from scratch. Groovy in Action quickly moves through the Groovy basics, including:

* Simple and collective Groovy data types
* Working with Closures and Groovy Control Structures
* Dynamic Object Orientation, Groovy style

Readers are presented with rich and detailed examples illustrating Groovy's enhancements to Java, including

* How to Work with Builders and the GDK
* Database programming with Groovy

Groovy in Action then demonstrates how to Integrate Groovy with XML, and provides,

* Tips and Tricks
* Unit Testing and Build Support
* Groovy on Windows

An additional bonus is a chapter dedicated to Grails, the Groovy Web Application Framework.


Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) Buy from Amazon
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Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)

by Nicholas C. Zakas

This eagerly anticipated update to the breakout book on JavaScript offers you an in-depth look at the numerous advances to the techniques and technology of the JavaScript language. You'll see why JavaScript's popularity continues to grow while you delve through topics such as debugging tools in Microsoft Visual Studio, FireBug, and Drosera; client-side data storage with cookies, DOM storage, and client-side databases; HTML 5, ECMAScript 3.1, the Selectors API; and design patterns including creational, structural, and behavorial patterns.



Designing Web Navigation: Optimizing the User Experience Buy from Amazon
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Designing Web Navigation: Optimizing the User Experience

by James Kalbach

Thoroughly rewritten for today's web environment, this bestselling book offers a fresh look at a fundamental topic of web site development: navigation design. Amid all the changes to the Web in the past decade, and all the hype about Web 2.0 and various "rich" interactive technologies, the basic problems of creating a good web navigation system remain. Designing Web Navigation demonstrates that good navigation is not about technology-it's about the ways people find information, and how you guide them.

Ideal for beginning to intermediate web designers, managers, other non-designers, and web development pros looking for another perspective, Designing Web Navigation offers basic design principles, development techniques and practical advice, with real-world examples and essential concepts seamlessly folded in. How does your web site serve your business objectives? How does it meet a user's needs? You'll learn that navigation design touches most other aspects of web site development. This book:

  • Provides the foundations of web navigation and offers a framework for navigation design
  • Paints a broad picture of web navigation and basic human information behavior
  • Demonstrates how navigation reflects brand and affects site credibility
  • Helps you understand the problem you're trying to solve before you set out to design
  • Thoroughly reviews the mechanisms and different types of navigation
  • Explores "information scent" and "information shape"
  • Explains "persuasive" architecture and other design concepts
  • Covers special contexts, such as navigation design for web applications
  • Includes an entire chapter on tagging
While Designing Web Navigation focuses on creating navigation systems for large, information-rich sites serving a business purpose, the principles and techniques in the book also apply to small sites. Well researched and cited, this book serves as an excellent reference on the topic, as well as a superb teaching guide. Each chapter ends with suggested reading and a set of questions that offer exercises for experiencing the concepts in action.



VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere Buy from Amazon
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VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere

by Steve Jin

Drive Even More Value from Virtualization: Write VMware® Applications that Automate Virtual Infrastructure Management

 

Companies running VMware have already achieved enormous gains through virtualization. The next wave of benefits will come when they reduce the time and effort required to run and manage VMware platforms. The VMware Infrastructure Software Development Kit (VI SDK) includes application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow developers and administrators to do just that. Until now, there has been little documentation for the APIs. In VMware VI and vSphere SDK, software architect Steve Jin demystifies the entire VMware VI and new vSphere SDK and offers detailed, task-based coverage of using the APIs to manage VMware more efficiently and cost-effectively.

 

Jin walks you through using the VI SDK and cloud-computing vSphere SDK to manage ESX servers, ESX clusters, and VirtualCenter servers in any environment–no matter how complex. Drawing on his extensive expertise working with VMware strategic partners and enterprise customers, he places the VI SDK in practical context, presenting realistic samples and proven best practices for building robust, effective solutions. Jin demonstrates how to manage every facet of a VMware environment, including inventory, host systems, virtual machines (VMs), snapshots, VMotion, clusters, resource pools, networking, storage, data stores, events, alarms, users, security, licenses, and scheduled tasks. Coverage includes 

  • Understanding how the VI SDK fits into your VMware VI and Cloud Ready vSphere Environment
  • Discovering the VI and vSphere SDK from the bottom up
  • Using the author’s new VI Java API to write shorter, faster, and more maintainable code
  • Managing VI and vSphere inventory and configurations
  • Moving running VMs and storages across different physical platforms without disruption
  • Optimizing system resources, hardening system securities, backing up VMs and other resources
  • Leveraging events, alarms, and scheduled tasks to automate the system management
  • Developing powerful applications that integrate multiple API features and run on top of or alongside VMware platforms
  • Using the VI SDK to monitor performance
  • Scripting with the VI SDK: building solutions with VI Perl, PowerShell, and Jython
  • Avoiding the pitfalls that trip up VMware VI developers
  • Integrating with and extending VMware platforms using VI SDK 

This book is an indispensable resource for all VMware developers and administrators who want to get more done in less time; for hardware vendors who want to integrate their products with VMware; for ISV developers building new VMware applications; and for every professional and student seeking a deeper mastery of virtualization.

 



The Definitive Guide to Grails, Second Edition Buy from Amazon
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The Definitive Guide to Grails, Second Edition

by Graeme Rocher and Jeff Brown

The rise of Ruby on Rails has signified a huge shift in how we build web applications today; it is a fantastic framework with a growing community. There is, however, space for another such framework that integrates seamlessly with Java. Thousands of companies have invested in Java, and these same companies are losing out on the benefits of a Rails–like framework. Enter Grails.

Grails is not just a Rails clone, it aims to provide a Rails–like environment that is more familiar to Java developers and that employs idioms that Java developers are comfortable using, making the adjustment in mentality to a dynamic framework less of a jump. The concepts within Grails, like interceptors, tag libs, and Groovy Server Pages (GSP), make those in the Java community feel right at home.

Grails’ foundation is on solid open source technologies such as Spring, Hibernate, and SiteMesh, which gives it even more potential in the Java space: Spring provides powerful inversion of control and MVC, Hibernate brings a stable, mature object relational mapping technology with the ability to integrate with legacy systems, and SiteMesh handles flexible layout control and page decoration.

Grails complements these with additional features that take advantage of the coding–by–convention paradigm such as dynamic tag libraries, Grails object relational mapping, Groovy Server Pages, and scaffolding.

Graeme Rocher, Grails lead and founder, and Jeff Brown bring you completely up–to–date with their authoritative and fully comprehensive guide to the Grails framework. You’ll get to know all the core features, services, and Grails extensions via plug–ins, and understand the roles that Groovy and Grails are playing in the changing Web.

What you’ll learn

  • Discover how the Web is changing and the role the Groovy language and its Rails framework plays.
  • Get to know the Grails Project and its domains, services, filters, controllers, views, testing, and plug–ins.
  • Experience the availability of plug–ins for Rich Client and Ajax, web services, performance/utilities, scheduling, security, functionality, and even Persistence.
  • See how Grails works with other frameworks like Spring, Wicket, Hibernate, and more.
  • Create custom plug–ins in Grails.

Who is this book for?

This book is for everyone who is looking for a more agile approach to web development with a dynamic scripting language such as Groovy. This includes a large number of Java developers who have been enticed by the productivity gains seen with frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, JRuby on Rails, etc. The Web and its environment is a perfect fit for easily adaptable and concise languages such as Groovy and Ruby, and there is huge interest from the developer community in general to embrace these languages.



Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (Pragmatic Programmers) Buy from Amazon
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Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (Pragmatic Programmers)

by Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby

Great management is difficult to see as it occurs. It's possible to see the results of great management, but it's not easy to see how managers achieve those results. Great management happens in one-on-one meetings and with other managers---all in private. It's hard to learn management by example when you can't see it.

You can learn to be a better manager---even a great manager---with this guide. You'll follow along as Sam, a manager just brought on board, learns the ropes and deals with his new team over the course of his first eight weeks on the job. From scheduling and managing resources to helping team members grow and prosper, you'll be there as Sam makes it happen. You'll find powerful tips covering:

  • Delegating effectively
  • Using feedback and goal-setting
  • Developing influence
  • Handling one-on-one meetings
  • Coaching and mentoring
  • Deciding what work to do---and what not to do
  • ...and more.

Full of tips and practical advice on the most important aspects of management, this is one of those books that can make a lasting and immediate impact on your career.



Programming Groovy: Dynamic Productivity for the Java Developer (Pragmatic Programmers) Buy from Amazon
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Programming Groovy: Dynamic Productivity for the Java Developer (Pragmatic Programmers)

by Venkat Subramaniam

The strength of Java is no longer in the language itself; it's in the Java Platform (the JVM, JDK, and rich frameworks and libraries). But recently, the industry has turned to dynamic languages for increased productivity and speed to market.

Groovy is one of a new breed of dynamic languages that run on the Java platform. You can use these new languages on the JVM and intermix them with your existing Java code. You can leverage your Java investments while benefiting from advanced features including true Closures, Meta Programming, the ability to create internal DSLs, and a higher level of abstraction.

If you're an experienced Java developer, Programming Groovy will help you learn the necessary fundamentals of programming in Groovy. You'll see how to use Groovy to do advanced programming including using Meta Programming, Builders, Unit Testing with Mock objects, processing XML, working with Databases and creating your own Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs).



Web Design in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly)) Buy from Amazon
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Web Design in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))

by Jennifer Niederst
In 1998, Jennifer Niederst wrote the first edition of this very successful book after she found herself spending way too much time chasing down the solutions to HTML problems. From hexadecimal color specs to mouseover scripts, the answers are all out there, but finding the exact one you need can soak up a whole day. "I wrote Web Design in a Nutshell because it was the book I needed--one place to find quick answers to my questions."

With all that's changed in the meantime, an overhaul is welcome. This is the rare book for designers that is almost completely nonvisual. It doesn't show what's hip in navigational bars or what the coolest colors are. Rather, it gives readers the kind of know-how that can make a difference between someone who just whips up pretty pages with WYSIWYG applications like Dreamweaver and someone who can make those pages cross-platform, cross-browser, fast loading, and accessible to all.

The clear organization makes it easy to locate any specific topic. There are six sections. "The Web Environment" discusses the realities of browser compatibility, display-resolution problems, a useful bit of Unix, and tips for print designers looking to move into Web design. "Authoring" shows how to write accurate and up-to-date HTML, cascading style sheets, and Server Side Includes (like putting the current date and time on your homepage).

"Graphics" brings together all you need to know to make effective use of images (GIFs, JPEGS, PNGs, and animated GIFs). "Multimedia and Interactivity" helps with adding audio, video, or Flash to your site (including some succinct tips on optimization and publish settings). And "Advanced Technologies" covers JavaScript, DHTML, XML, XHTML, and WAP and WML. And there are six useful look-up tables in the appendix, which include HTML 4.0 tags, deprecated tags, attributes, and CSS support across browsers. Web Design in a Nutshell could easily have been titled The Web Designer's Companion--it's mighty handy to have around. --Angelynn Grant


Head First Software Development Buy from Amazon
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Head First Software Development

by Dan Pilone and Russell Miles

Even the best developers have seen well-intentioned software projects fail -- often because the customer kept changing requirements, and end users didn't know how to use the software you developed. Instead of surrendering to these common problems, let Head First Software Development guide you through the best practices of software development. Before you know it, those failed projects will be a thing of the past.

With its unique visually rich format, this book pulls together the hard lessons learned by expert software developers over the years. You'll gain essential information about each step of the software development lifecycle -- requirements, design, coding, testing, implementing, and maintenance -- and understand why and how different development processes work.

This book is for you if you are:

  • Tired of your customers assuming you're psychic. You'll learn not only how to get good requirements, but how to make sure you're always building the software that customers want (even when they're not sure themselves)
  • Wondering when the other 15 programmers you need to get your project done on time are going to show up. You'll learn how some very simple scheduling and prioritizing will revolutionize your success rate in developing software.
  • Confused about being rational, agile, or a tester. You'll learn not only about the various development methodologies out there, but how to choose a solution that's right for your project.
  • Confused because the way you ran your last project worked so well, but failed miserably this time around. You'll learn how to tackle each project individually, combine lessons you've learned on previous projects with cutting-edge development techniques, and end up with great software on every project.
Head First Software Development is here to help you learn in a way that your brain likes... and you'll have a blast along the way. Why pick up hundreds of boring books on the philosophy of this approach or the formal techniques required for that one? Stick with Head First Software Development, and your projects will succeed like never before. Go on, get started... you'll learn and have fun. We promise.



JBoss at Work: A Practical Guide Buy from Amazon
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JBoss at Work: A Practical Guide

by Tom Marrs and Scott Davis

Consisting of a number of well-known open source products, JBoss is more a family of interrelated services than a single monolithic application. But, as with any tool that's as feature-rich as JBoss, there are number of pitfalls and complexities, too.

Most developers struggle with the same issues when deploying J2EE applications on JBoss: they have trouble getting the many J2EE and JBoss deployment descriptors to work together; they have difficulty finding out how to get started; their projects don't have a packaging and deployment strategy that grows with the application; or, they find the Class Loaders confusing and don't know how to use them, which can cause problems.

JBoss at Work: A Practical Guide helps developers overcome these challenges. As you work through the book, you'll build a project using extensive code examples. You'll delve into all the major facets of J2EE application deployment on JBoss, including JSPs, Servlets, EJBs, JMS, JNDI, web services, JavaMail, JDBC, and Hibernate. With the help of this book, you'll:

  • Implement a full J2EE application and deploy it on JBoss
  • Discover how to use the latest features of JBoss 4 and J2EE 1.4, including J2EE-compliant web services
  • Master J2EE application deployment on JBoss with EARs, WARs, and EJB JARs
  • Understand the core J2EE deployment descriptors and how they integrate with JBoss-specific descriptors
  • Base your security strategy on JAAS

Written for Java developers who want to use JBoss on their projects, the book covers the gamut of deploying J2EE technologies on JBoss, providing a brief survey of each subject aimed at the working professional with limited time.

If you're one of the legions of developers who have decided to give JBoss a try, then JBoss at Work: A Practical Guide is your next logical purchase. It'll show you in plain language how to use the fastest growing open source tool in the industry today. If you've worked with JBoss before, this book will get you up to speed on JBoss 4, JBoss WS (web services), and Hibernate 3.



Manage It!: Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Buy from Amazon
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Manage It!: Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management

by Johanna Rothman

This book is a reality-based guide for modern projects. You'll learn how to recognize your project's potholes and ruts, and determine the best way to fix problems - without causing more problems.

Your project can't fail. That's a lot of pressure on you, and yet you don't want to buy into any one specific process, methodology, or lifecycle.

Your project is different. It doesn't fit into those neat descriptions.

Manage It! will show you how to beg, borrow, and steal from the best methodologies to fit your particular project. It will help you find what works best for you and not for some mythological project that doesn't even exist.

Before you know it, your project will be on track and headed to a successful conclusion.



Beginning Groovy and Grails: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional) Buy from Amazon
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Beginning Groovy and Grails: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional)

by Christopher M. Judd, Joseph Faisal Nusairat, and Jim Shingler

Web frameworks are playing a major role in the creation of today's most compelling web applications, because they automate many of the tedious tasks, allowing developers to instead focus on providing users with creative and powerful features. Java developers have been particularly fortunate in this area, having been able to take advantage of Grails, an open source framework that supercharges productivity when building Java–driven web sites. Grails is based on Groovy, which is a very popular and growing dynamic scripting language for Java developers and was inspired by Python, Ruby, and Smalltalk.

Beginning Groovy and Grails is the first introductory book on the Groovy language and its primary web framework, Grails.

This book gets you started with Groovy and Grails and culminates in the example and possible application of some real–world projects. You follow along with the development of each project, implementing and running each application while learning new features along the way.

What you’ll learn

  • Understand the fundamentals of the open source, dynamic Groovy scripting language and the Grails web framework.
  • Capitalize upon Grails’ well–defined framework architecture to build web applications faster than ever before.
  • Improve your web application with cutting–edge interface enhancements using Ajax.
  • Use Grails’ object–relational mapping solution, GORM, to manage your data store more effectively than ever before.
  • Take advantage of Groovy to create reporting services, implement batch processing, and create alternative client interfaces.
  • Deploy and upgrade your Grails–driven applications with expertise and ease.
  • Discover an alternative client in Groovy as well.

Who is this book for?

Java and web developers looking to learn and embrace the power and flexibility offered by the Grails framework and Groovy scripting language

About the Apress Beginning Series

The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entry–level job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from “novice to professional.” You’ll start your journey by seeing what you need to know—but without needless theory and filler. You’ll build your skill set by learning how to put together real–world projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you there—it is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory!



Professional Java Development with the Spring Framework Buy from Amazon
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Professional Java Development with the Spring Framework

by Rod Johnson, Juergen Hoeller, Alef Arendsen, Thomas Risberg, and Colin Sampaleanu
The Spring Framework is a major open source application development framework that makes Java/J2EE(TM) development easier and more productive. This book shows you not only what Spring can do but why, explaining its functionality and motivation to help you use all parts of the framework to develop successful applications.

You will be guided through all the Spring features and see how they form a coherent whole. In turn, this will help you understand the rationale for Spring's approach, when to use Spring, and how to follow best practices. All this is illustrated with a complete sample application. When you finish the book, you will be well equipped to use Spring effectively in everything from simple Web applications to complex enterprise applications.

What you will learn from this book
* The core Inversion of Control container and the concept of Dependency Injection
* Spring's Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) framework and why AOP is important in J2EE development
* How to use Spring's programmatic and declarative transaction management services effectively
* Ways to access data using Spring's JDBC functionality, iBATIS SQL Maps, Hibernate, and other O/R mapping frameworks
* Spring services for accessing and implementing EJBs
* Spring's remoting framework

Who this book is for

This book is for Java/J2EE architects and developers who want to gain a deeper knowledge of the Spring Framework and use it effectively.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

Learning UML 2.0 Buy from Amazon
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Learning UML 2.0

by Russell Miles and Kim Hamilton

"Since its original introduction in 1997, the Unified Modeling Language has revolutionized software development. Every integrated software development environment in the world--open-source, standards-based, and proprietary--now supports UML and, more importantly, the model-driven approach to software development. This makes learning the newest UML standard, UML 2.0, critical for all software developers--and there isn't a better choice than this clear, step-by-step guide to learning the language."
--Richard Mark Soley, Chairman and CEO, OMG

If you're like most software developers, you're building systems that are increasingly complex. Whether you're creating a desktop application or an enterprise system, complexity is the big hairy monster you must manage.

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) helps you manage this complexity. Whether you're looking to use UML as a blueprint language, a sketch tool, or as a programming language, this book will give you the need-to-know information on how to apply UML to your project. While there are plenty of books available that describe UML, Learning UML 2.0 will show you how to use it. Topics covered include:

  • Capturing your system's requirements in your model to help you ensure that your designs meet your users' needs
  • Modeling the parts of your system and their relationships
  • Modeling how the parts of your system work together to meet your system's requirements
  • Modeling how your system moves into the real world, capturing how your system will be deployed

Engaging and accessible, this book shows you how to use UML to craft and communicate your project's design. Russ Miles and Kim Hamilton have written a pragmatic introduction to UML based on hard-earned practice, not theory. Regardless of the software process or methodology you use, this book is the one source you need to get up and running with UML 2.0. Additional information including exercises can be found at www.learninguml2.com.

Russ Miles is a software engineer for General Dynamics UK, where he works with Java and Distributed Systems, although his passion at the moment is Aspect Orientation and, in particular, AspectJ. Kim Hamilton is a senior software engineer at Northrop Grumman, where she's designed and implemented a variety of systems including web applications and distributed systems, with frequent detours into algorithms development.



Design Patterns in Ruby Buy from Amazon
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Design Patterns in Ruby

by Russ Olsen

Praise for Design Patterns in Ruby

"Design Patterns in Ruby documents smart ways to resolve many problems that Ruby developers commonly encounter. Russ Olsen has done a great job of selecting classic patterns and augmenting these with newer patterns that have special relevance for Ruby. He clearly explains each idea, making a wealth of experience available to Ruby developers for their own daily work."

—Steve Metsker, Managing Consultant with Dominion Digital, Inc.

"This book provides a great demonstration of the key 'Gang of Four' design patterns without resorting to overly technical explanations. Written in a precise, yet almost informal style, this book covers enough ground that even those without prior exposure to design patterns will soon feel confident applying them using Ruby. Olsen has done a great job to make a book about a classically 'dry' subject into such an engaging and even occasionally humorous read."

—Peter Cooper

"This book renewed my interest in understanding patterns after a decade of good intentions. Russ picked the most useful patterns for Ruby and introduced them in a straightforward and logical manner, going beyond the GoF's patterns. This book has improved my use of Ruby, and encouraged me to blow off the dust covering the GoF book."

—Mike Stok

"Design Patterns in Ruby is a great way for programmers from statically typed objectoriented languages to learn how design patterns appear in a more dynamic, flexible language like Ruby."

—Rob Sanheim, Ruby Ninja, Relevance

Most design pattern books are based on C++ and Java. But Ruby is different—and the language's unique qualities make design patterns easier to implement and use. In this book, Russ Olsen demonstrates how to combine Ruby's power and elegance with patterns, and write more sophisticated, effective software with far fewer lines of code.

After reviewing the history, concepts, and goals of design patterns, Olsen offers a quick tour of the Ruby language—enough to allow any experienced software developer to immediately utilize patterns with Ruby. The book especially calls attention to Ruby features that simplify the use of patterns, including dynamic typing, code closures, and "mixins" for easier code reuse.

Fourteen of the classic "Gang of Four" patterns are considered from the Ruby point of view, explaining what problems each pattern solves, discussing whether traditional implementations make sense in the Ruby environment, and introducing Ruby-specific improvements. You'll discover opportunities to implement patterns in just one or two lines of code, instead of the endlessly repeated boilerplate that conventional languages often require.

Design Patterns in Ruby also identifies innovative new patterns that have emerged from the Ruby community. These include ways to create custom objects with metaprogramming, as well as the ambitious Rails-based "Convention Over Configuration" pattern, designed to help integrate entire applications and frameworks.

Engaging, practical, and accessible, Design Patterns in Ruby will help you build better software while making your Ruby programming experience more rewarding.



Practices of an Agile Developer: Working in the Real World (Pragmatic Bookshelf) Buy from Amazon
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Practices of an Agile Developer: Working in the Real World (Pragmatic Bookshelf)

by Venkat Subramaniam and Andy Hunt

Want to be a better developer? This books collects the personal habits, ideas, and approaches of successful agile software developers and presents them in a series of short, easy-to-digest tips. This isn't academic fluff; follow these ideas and you'll show yourself, your teammates, and your managers real results. These are the proven and effective agile practices that will make you a better developer.

This book will help you improve five areas of your career:

  • The Development Process
  • What to Do While Coding
  • Developer Attitudes
  • Project and Team Management
  • Iterative and Incremental Learning

These practices provide guidelines that will help you succeed in delivering and meeting your user's expectations, even if the domain is unfamiliar. You'll be able to keep normal project pressure from turning into disastrous stress while writing code, and see how to effectively coordinate mentors, team leads, and developers in harmony.

You can learn all this stuff the hard way, but this book can save you time and pain. Read it, and you'll be a better developer.



Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition (Programmer to Programmer) Buy from Amazon
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Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition (Programmer to Programmer)

by Nicholas C. Zakas, Jeremy McPeak, and Joe Fawcett
Professional Ajax 2nd Edition provides a developer-level tutorial of Ajax techniques, patterns, and use cases. The book begins by exploring the roots of Ajax, covering how the evolution of the web and new technologies directly led to the development of Ajax techniques. A detailed discussion of how frames, JavaScript, cookies, XML, and XMLHttp requests (XHR) related to Ajax is included. After this introduction, the book moves on to cover the implementation of specific Ajax techniques. Request brokers such as hidden frames, dynamic iframes, and XHR are compared and contrasted, explaining when one method should be used over another. To make this discussion clearer, a brief overview of HTTP requests and responses is included.

Once a basic understanding of the various request types is discussed, the book moves on to provide in-depth examples of how and when to use Ajax in a web site or web application. Different data transmission formats, including plain text, HTML, XML, and JSON are discussed for their advantages and disadvantages. Also included is a discussion on web services and how they may be used to perform Ajax techniques. Next, more complex topics are covered. A chapter introducing a request management framework explores how to manage all of the requests inside of an Ajax application. Ajax debugging techniques are also discussed.

The last part of the book walks through the creation of two full-fledged Ajax web applications. The first, FooReader.NET, is an Ajax-powered RSS reader. The second, called AjaxMail, is an Ajax-enabled email system. Both of these applications incorporate many of the techniques discussed throughout the book.

Professional Ajax 2nd edition is written for Web application developers looking to enhance the usability of their web sites and web applications and intermediate JavaScript developers looking to further understand the language. Readers should have familiarity with XML, XSLT, Web Services, PHP or C#, HTML, CSS. This book is not aimed at beginners without a basic understanding of the aforementioned technologies. Also, a good understanding of JavaScript is vitally important to understanding this book. Those readers without such knowledge should instead refer to books such as Beginning JavaScript, Second Edition (Wrox, 2004, ISBN: 978-0-7645-5587-9) and Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (Wrox, 2005, ISBN: 978-0-7645-7908-0).

Professional Ajax 2nd edition adds nearly 200 pages of new and expanded coverage compared to the first edition. Some of the new topics covered here include:

  • Ajax Libraries including the Yahoo! Connection Manager, Prototype, and jQuery
  • Request Management with Priority Queues and the RequestManager Object
  • Comet push-based web systems and HTTP streaming
  • Maps and Mashups with Geocoding, Google Maps API and Yahoo! Maps API
  • Ajax Debugging with FireBug and Microsoft Fiddler

    ASP.NET AJAX Extensions (formerly code-named "Atlas")

And of course the Second Edition retains and updates the core first edition content including:

  • the range of request brokers (including the hidden frame technique, iframes, and XMLHttp) and explains when one should be used over another
  • different Ajax techniques and patterns for executing client-server communication
  • Ajax patterns including predictive fetch, page preloading, submission throttling, incremental field and form validation, periodic refresh, multi-stage download and more
  • Syndication with RSS, Atom, and XParser
  • JSON and creating an autosuggest textbox example
  • web site widgets for a news ticker, weather information, web search, and site search
  • Ajax Frameworks JSpan, DWR, and Ajax.NET Professional
  • A Web-based RSS/Atom aggregator case study
  • An AjaxMail case study

This book is also available as part of the 4-book JavaScript and Ajax Wrox Box (ISBN: 0470227818). This 4-book set includes:

  • Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (ISBN: 0764579088)
  • Professional Ajax 2nd edition (ISBN: 0470109491)
  • Professional Web 2.0 Programming (ISBN: 0470087889)
  • Professional Rich Internet Applications: Ajax and Beyond (ISBN: 0470082801)


Grails: A Quick-Start Guide Buy from Amazon
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Grails: A Quick-Start Guide

by Dave Klein

Grails is a full stack web development framework that enables you to build complete web applications in a fraction of the time and with less code than other frameworks.

In Grails: A Quick-Start Guide, you'll see how to use Grails by iteratively building an unique, working application. By the time we're done, you'll have built and deployed a real, functioning website.

Along the way, we'll learn about domain classes, controllers, and GSP views. We'll see how Grails allows us to use powerful frameworks like Spring and Hibernate without even knowing it.

Using this hands-on, pragmatic approach, we'll explore topics such as AJAX in Grails, custom tags, and plugins. We'll dig into Grails' powerful view technology, Groovy Server Pages, and see how we can easily leverage the help given to us by scaffolding to create custom user interfaces faster than you would have thought possible.

With Grails, you can get a lot done with little effort. With this book, you'll get a lot done as well. It's time to bring the fun back into web programming. Get started with Grails today.



Groovy Recipes: Greasing the Wheels of Java (Pragmatic Programmers) Buy from Amazon
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Groovy Recipes: Greasing the Wheels of Java (Pragmatic Programmers)

by Scott Davis

Groovy and Grails give you the power of the Java platform together with the flexibility and dynamism of a scripting language. Pick one of the many example projects in this book: at first you'll scratch your head and ask, "where's all the code?" Then you'll smile as you realize that Groovy allows you to write code the way you always thought you should. You will never look at Java the same way again.

Groovy Recipes is targeted at the busy Java professional who needs quick solutions to everyday problems. Each recipe shows a concise code example right away. If you need more information, each recipe is explained in plain English.

Nearly every aspect of the development process can be sped up using Groovy. Groovy makes mundane file management tasks like copying and renaming files trivial. Reading and writing XML has never been easier with XmlParsers and XmlBuilders. JDBC gets a fresh makeover. Breathe new life into Arrays, Maps, and Lists with a number of convenience methods. Even Ant gets turbo-charged. You can mix Groovy right into your build.xml, or replace it completely with code from an AntBuilder.

As an added bonus, this book also covers Grails. You'll be amazed at how quickly you can have a first-class web application up and running from ground zero. Grails includes everything you need in a single zip file, a web server (Jetty), a database (HSQLDB), Spring, Hibernate, Sitemesh, even Ant. If you're looking for Ajax support, Grails ships with leading libraries like Prototype, script.aculo.us, Yahoo UI, and Dojo. We cover everything from getting a basic application up and running to advanced features such as deploying to other webservers and databases, adding a Captcha, integrating with legacy EJB applications, and even adding a Google Map.



The Productive Programmer (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)) Buy from Amazon
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The Productive Programmer (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly))

by Neal Ford
Anyone who develops software for a living needs a proven way to produce it better, faster, and cheaper. The Productive Programmer offers critical timesaving and productivity tools that you can adopt right away, no matter what platform you use. Master developer Neal Ford not only offers advice on the mechanics of productivity--how to work smarter, spurn interruptions, get the most out your computer, and avoid repetition--he also details valuable practices that will help you elude common traps, improve your code, and become more valuable to your team. You'll learn to:
  • Write the test before you write the code
  • Manage the lifecycle of your objects fastidiously
  • Build only what you need now, not what you might need later
  • Apply ancient philosophies to software development
  • Question authority, rather than blindly adhere to standards
  • Make hard things easier and impossible things possible through meta-programming
  • Be sure all code within a method is at the same level of abstraction
  • Pick the right editor and assemble the best tools for the job

This isn't theory, but the fruits of Ford's real-world experience as an Application Architect at the global IT consultancy ThoughtWorks. Whether you're a beginner or a pro with years of experience, you'll improve your work and your career with the simple and straightforward principles in The Productive Programmer.



Aspectj in Action: Enterprise AOP with Spring Applications Buy from Amazon
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Aspectj in Action: Enterprise AOP with Spring Applications

by Ramnivas Laddad

To allow the creation of truly modular software, OOP has evolved into aspect-oriented programming. AspectJ is a mature AOP implementation for Java, now integrated with Spring.

AspectJ in Action, Second Edition is a fully updated, major revision of Ramnivas Laddad's best-selling first edition. It's a hands-on guide for Java developers. After introducing the core principles of AOP, it shows you how to create reusable solutions using AspectJ 6 and Spring 3. You'll master key features including annotation-based syntax, load-time weaver, annotation-based crosscutting, and Spring-AspectJ integration. Building on familiar technologies such as JDBC, Hibernate, JPA, Spring Security, Spring MVC, and Swing, you'll apply AOP to common problems encountered in enterprise applications.

This book requires no previous experience in AOP and AspectJ, but it assumes you're familiar with OOP, Java, and the basics of Spring.

"Clear, concisely worded, well-organized ... a pleasure to read."

-From the Foreword by Rod Johnson, Creator of the Spring Framework

"This book teaches you how to think in aspects. It is essential reading for both beginners who know nothing about AOP and experts who think they know it all."

  • Andrew Eisenberg, AspectJ Development Tools Project Committer

    "Ramnivas showcases how to get the best out of AspectJ and Spring."

-Andy Clement, AspectJ Project Lead

"One of the best Java books in years."

-Andrew Rhine, Software Engineer, eSecLending

"By far the best reference for Spring AOP and AspectJ."

-Paul Benedict, Software Engineer, Argus Health Systems

"Ramnivas expertly demystifies the awesome power of aspect-oriented programming."

-Craig Walls, author of Spring in Action



Beginning POJOs: Lightweight Java Web Development Using Plain Old Java Objects in Spring, Hibernate, and Tapestry Buy from Amazon
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Beginning POJOs: Lightweight Java Web Development Using Plain Old Java Objects in Spring, Hibernate, and Tapestry

by Brian Sam-Bodden
Beginning POJOs: From Novice to Professional introduces you to Open Source lightweight Web development using Plain Old Java Objects (POJO) and the tools and frameworks that enable this. Tier by tier, this book guides you through the construction of complex but lightweight enterprise Java-based Web applications centered around several major open source lightweight frameworks, including the use of Spring, Hibernate, Tapestry, and JBoss (including the new Lightweight JBoss Seam). Additional support comes from the most successful and prevalent open source tools: Eclipse and Ant, and the increasingly popular TestNG. This book is ideal if you’re new to open source and lightweight Java. You’ll learn how to build a complete enterprise Java-based web application from scratch, and how to integrate the different open source frameworks to achieve this goal. You’ll also learn techniques for rapidly developing such applications.

Java Message Service Buy from Amazon
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Java Message Service

by Mark Richards, Richard Monson-Haefel, and David A Chappell
The Java Message Service (JMS) provides a way for the components of a distributed application to talk asynchronously, or for welding together legacy enterprise systems. Think of it as application-to-application e-mail. Unlike COM, JMS uses one or more JMS servers to handle the messages on a store-and-forward basis, so that the loss of one or more components doesn't bring the whole distributed application to a halt.

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


Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software (Pragmatic Programmers) Buy from Amazon
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Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software (Pragmatic Programmers)

by Michael T. Nygard

Whether it's in Java, .NET, or Ruby on Rails, getting your application ready to ship is only half the battle. Did you design your system to survivef a sudden rush of visitors from Digg or Slashdot? Or an influx of real world customers from 100 different countries? Are you ready for a world filled with flakey networks, tangled databases, and impatient users?

If you're a developer and don't want to be on call for 3AM for the rest of your life, this book will help.

In Release It!, Michael T. Nygard shows you how to design and architect your application for the harsh realities it will face. You'll learn how to design your application for maximum uptime, performance, and return on investment.

Mike explains that many problems with systems today start with the design.



Hibernate Search in Action Buy from Amazon
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Hibernate Search in Action

by Emmanuel Bernard and John Griffin B.A

Enterprise and web applications require full-featured, "Google-quality" search capabilities, but such features are notoriously difficult to implement and maintain. Hibernate Search builds on the Lucene feature set and offers an easyto- implement interface that integrates seamlessly with Hibernate-the leading data persistence solution for Java applications.

Hibernate Search in Action introduces both the principles of enterprise search and the implementation details a Java developer will need to use Hibernate Search effectively. This book blends the insights of the Hibernate Search lead developer with the practical techniques required to index and manipulate data, assemble and execute search queries, and create smart filters for better search results. Along the way, the reader masters performance-boosting concepts like using Hibernate Search in a clustered environment and integrating with the features already in your applications.

This book assumes you're a competent Java developer with some experience using Hibernate and Lucene.



The Spring Primer Buy from Amazon
Price: $31.97

The Spring Primer

by Matt Raible
The Spring Primer is the most complete book on the Spring Framework. It is for users who are familiar with Java development but have never used Spring. As you read this title, you will learn how Spring reduces the amount of code you have to write and why it receives so much attention and respect from the Java community. This book is very code-intensive and contains many examples for developing applications with Spring. You'll use Test-Driven Development to rapidly develop and test a simple CRUD application. All of the code in this book is available on SourceBeat's web site. In addition, an open-source project called Equinox is available as part of this book to help users get started quickly and easily with Spring.

Bulletproof Ajax Buy from Amazon
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Bulletproof Ajax

by Jeremy Keith

Step-by-step guide reveals best practices for enhancing Web sites with Ajax

  • A step-by-step guide to enhancing Web sites with Ajax.
  • Uses progressive enhancement techniques to ensure graceful degradation (which makes sites usable in all browsers).
  • Shows readers how to write their own Ajax scripts instead of relying on third-party libraries.

Web site designers love the idea of Ajax--of creating Web pages in which information can be updated without refreshing the entire page. But for those who aren't hard-core programmers, enhancing pages using Ajax can be a challenge. Even more of a challenge is making sure those pages work for all users. In Bulletproof Ajax, author Jeremy Keith demonstrates how developers comfortable with CSS and (X)HTML can build Ajax functionality without frameworks, using the ideas of graceful degradation and progressive enhancement to ensure that the pages work for all users. Throughout this step-by-step guide, his emphasis is on best practices with an approach to building Ajax pages called Hijax, which improves flexibility and avoids worst-case scenarios.



AdvancED Flex 3 Buy from Amazon
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AdvancED Flex 3

by Shashank Tiwari and Elad Elrom

Whether you're a Flex 3 beginner or intermediate user, this book provides the necessary information to help you develop into an expert. Using a practical hands-on approach, it illustrates exactly how to create robust and scalable enterprise-grade Rich Internet Applications (RIAs).

The book is divided into three parts. The first part discusses the architectural and design aspects of Flex 3 application development. It explains the internals of a Flex 3 application and advocates a few best practices to fine-tune your application to ensure maximum performance. It includes tutorials on creating custom components, data binding, and creating AIR-powered desktop applications.

The second part concentrates on effectively integrating Flex 3 with server- and client-side technologies. Techniques for integration with Java and PHP are covered in detail, and content covering interaction with client-side technologies is also included. After reading the chapter on JavaScript integration, you will be ready to create applications that can use Ajax and Flex 3 together.

The third and final part of the book is a unique and eclectic mix of some advanced topics like mashups, collaborative applications, 3D rendering, highly interactive visualization, and audio and video streaming.

In summary, through reading this book, you will benefit from the wealth of information and years of experience the authors hold, and will then be ready to cruise with comfort in the world of Flex 3 application development on your own.

In this book, you'll learn how to

  • Integrate Flex 3 with PHP, Java, JavaScript, and Ruby on Rails.
  • Leverage architectural and design patterns.
  • Create mashups and collaborative applications using Flex 3.
  • Build rich media applications using audio and video streaming and open source 3D libraries.
  • Tune the performance of your Flex applications.

Summary of Contents

  • PART ONE: HARNESSING THE POWER OF FLEX 3
    • Chapter 1 Leveraging Architectural and Design Patterns
    • Chapter 2 Constructing Advanced Components
    • Chapter 3 Turbo-Charging Data Binding
    • Chapter 4 Tuning Applications for Superior Performance
    • Chapter 5 Flex and AIR: Taking Applications to the Desktop
  • PART TWO: INTEGRATING WITH CLIENT- AND SERVER-SIDE TECHNOLOGIES
    • Chapter 6 Integrating with Java Using Services
    • Chapter 7 Integrating via Data and Media Services
    • Chapter 8 PHP and Flex
    • Chapter 9 Talking with JavaScript and HTML: Web Page Integration
  • PART THREE: GAINING REAL ADVANTAGE IN THE NEW WEB
    • Chapter 10 Flex Mashups
    • Chapter 11 Migrating Web 1.0 Interfaces to RIA
    • Chapter 12 Sculpting Interactive Business Intelligence Interfaces
    • Chapter 13 Working with Web 2.0 APIs
    • Chapter 14 Facilitating Audio and Video Streaming
    • Chapter 15 Using 3D in Flex


Programming Scala: Tackle Multi-Core Complexity on the Java Virtual Machine (Pragmatic Programmers) Buy from Amazon
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Programming Scala: Tackle Multi-Core Complexity on the Java Virtual Machine (Pragmatic Programmers)

by Venkat Subramaniam

The increasing popularity and availability of multicore processors is creating a whole new set of challenges--although you can enjoy true concurrency, you're now faced with higher contention and synchronization issues. Deploying an existing application on a multicore processor may bring out previously hidden concurrency issues. Java's multi-threading facility by itself isn't enough---it's a very low level abstraction. Instead, you need a paradigm that provides a higher level of abstraction to deal with concurrency. It's time to embrace Functional Programming.

Scala is a hybrid Object-Oriented/Functional Programming language on the JVM. Using Scala, you can create traditional imperative programs, intermix them with Java code, and at the same time take advantage of higher levels of abstraction. You can use features that lead to concise, highly expressive code that remove the pain of dealing with concurrency.

Programming Scala will show you the fundamentals of functional programming using Scala. Very quickly, you'll learn how this statically typed language can give you dynamic capabilities to create concise, scalable, highly capable concurrent code.

Pragmatic programmers always use the right tool for the job. For concurrent programming on the Java VM, Scala is the tool, and Programming Scala by award-winning author Venkat Subramaniam is your guide.



AdvancED DOM Scripting: Dynamic Web Design Techniques Buy from Amazon
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Price: $36.49
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AdvancED DOM Scripting: Dynamic Web Design Techniques

by Jeffrey Sambells and Aaron Gustafson
As a web designer or developer, you know how powerful DOM scripting is for enhancing web pages and applications, adding dynamic functionality and improving the user experience. You've got a reasonable understanding of JavaScript and the DOM, but now you want to take your skills further. This book is all you need to do soit shows you how to add essential functionality to your web pages, such as on the fly layout and style changes, interface personalization, maps and search using APIs, visual effects using JavaScript libraries, and much more.
  • Includes a quick recap of the basics, for reference purposes.
  • Packed with real world JavaScript solutions from beginning to end
  • Written by "Beginning Google Maps" author Jeffrey Sambells, and includes a case study by JavaScript guru Aaron Gustafson.

What you'll learn

  • A quick recap of the HTML and CSS DOM, methods, and events.
  • Shows you the basics of how to add dynamic effects and respond to user actions to your web sites using CSS and JavaScript.
  • Introduces Ajax to the mix, showing you how to use it, and when not to use it.
  • Learn best practices (such as graceful degredation) and productivity improvement via code reuse (libraries and APIs)
  • Create Mashups using search, photo and mapping APIs.
  • Build better, more dynamic user experiences using libraries such as Prototype and Scriptaculous.

Who is this book for?

This book is for intermediate to advanced web designers and developers who already have a reasonable to good knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The Definitive Guide to Terracotta: Cluster the JVM for Spring, Hibernate and POJO Scalability Buy from Amazon
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The Definitive Guide to Terracotta: Cluster the JVM for Spring, Hibernate and POJO Scalability

by Terracotta Inc.

Get the definitive guide on all the fundamentals of Terracotta as well as user secrets, recipes, and prepackaged frameworks.

Written by Terracotta CTO Ari Zilka and his team, The Definitive Guide to Terracotta: Cluster the JVM for Spring, Hibernate and POJO Scalability covers the following:

  • High Availability (HA) nth degree scaling and clustering for traditional J2EE and Java EE 5 applications (using Seam or other application) as well as Spring–based enterprise applications
  • Everyday Terracotta using its prepackaged frameworks and integration recipes, including configuration and customization for your application tuning, no matter the scale
  • Power user secrets available, including config modules, customized advanced performance tuning, SDLC, Maven, and more

What you’ll learn

  • See how Terracotta works fundamentally, and the user pieces and parts necessary for using Terracotta and its open source options.
  • Learn and apply case studies involving distributed cache, Hibernate, Master/Worker, and HTTP Session.
  • Understand thread coordination and advanced performance tuning.
  • Use more advanced case studies involving Spring, POJOs, FOO, and more.
  • Configure and create your own modules using the software development and deployment life cycle.

Who is this book for?

This definitive book from the Terracotta team is for both developers and architects who want to learn the “whats, wheres, whens, and whys” of the Terracotta scaling engine.



Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects (Pragmatic Programmers) Buy from Amazon
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Price: $21.75
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Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects (Pragmatic Programmers)

by Johanna Rothman

All of your projects and programs make up your portfolio. But how much time you actually spend on your projects, and how much time do you spend responding to emergencies?

This book will introduce you to different ways of ordering all of the projects you are working on now, and help you figure out how to staff those projects--even when you've run out of project teams to do the work.

Once you learn to manage your portfolio better, you'll avoid emergency "firedrills." The trick is adopting lean and agile approaches to projects, whether they are software projects, projects that include hardware, or projects that depend on chunks of functionality from other suppliers.

You may be accustomed to spending time in meetings where you still don't have the data you need to evaluate your projects. Here, with a few measures, you'll be able to quickly evaluate each project and come to a decision quickly.

You'll learn how to define your team's, group's, or department's mission with none of the buzzwords that normally accompany a mission statement. Armed with the work and the mission, you can make those decisions that define the true leaders in the organization.



Next Generation Java Testing: TestNG and Advanced Concepts Buy from Amazon
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Next Generation Java Testing: TestNG and Advanced Concepts

by Cédric Beust and Hani Suleiman

Enterprise Java developers must achieve broader, deeper test coverage, going beyond unit testing to implement functional and integration testing with systematic acceptance. Next Generation Java Testing introduces breakthrough Java testing techniques and TestNG, a powerful open source Java testing platform.

Cédric Beust, TestNG's creator, and leading Java developer Hani Suleiman, present powerful, flexible testing patterns that will work with virtually any testing tool, framework, or language. They show how to leverage key Java platform improvements designed to facilitate effective testing, such as dependency injection and mock objects. They also thoroughly introduce TestNG, demonstrating how it overcomes the limitations of older frameworks and enables new techniques, making it far easier to test today's complex software systems.

Pragmatic and results-focused, Next Generation Java Testing will help Java developers build more robust code for today's mission-critical environments.

This book

  • Illuminates the tradeoffs associated with testing, so you can make better decisions about what and how to test
  • Introduces TestNG, explains its goals and features, and shows how to apply them in real-world environments
  • Shows how to integrate TestNG with your existing code, development frameworks, and software libraries
  • Demonstrates how to test crucial code features, such as encapsulation, state sharing, scopes, and thread safety
  • Shows how to test application elements, including JavaEE APIs, databases, Web pages, and XML files
  • Presents advanced techniques: testing partial failures, factories, dependent testing, remote invocation, cluster-based test farms, and more
  • Walks through installing and using TestNG plug-ins for Eclipse, and IDEA
  • Contains extensive code examples

Whether you use TestNG, JUnit, or another testing framework, the testing design patterns presented in this book will show you how to improve your tests by giving you concrete advice on how to make your code and your design more testable.



Rails Recipes (Pragmatic Programmers) Buy from Amazon
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Rails Recipes (Pragmatic Programmers)

by Chad Fowler

Rails is large, powerful, and new. How do you use it effectively? How do you harness the power? And, most important, how do you get high quality, real-world applications written?

From the latest Ajax effects to time-saving automation tips for your development process, Rails Recipes will show you how the experts have already solved the problems you have.

  • Use generators to automate repetitive coding tasks.
  • Create sophisticated role-based authentication schemes.
  • Add live search and live preview to your site.
  • Run tests when anyone checks code in.
  • How to create tagged data the right way.
  • and many, many more...

Owning Rails Recipes is like having the best Rails programmers sitting next to you while you code.



Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition Buy from Amazon
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Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition

by Dave Thomas, Chad Fowler, and Andy Hunt
Ruby is an increasingly popular, fully object-oriented dynamic programming language, hailed by many practitioners as the finest and most useful language available today. When Ruby first burst onto the scene in the Western world, the Pragmatic Programmers were there with the definitive reference manual, Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide.

Now in its Second Edition, author Dave Thomas has expanded the famous Pickaxe book with over 200 pages of new content, covering all the new and improved language features of Ruby 1.8 and standard library modules. The Pickaxe contains four major sections: An acclaimed tutorial on using Ruby. The definitive reference to the language. Complete documentation on all built-in classes, modules, and methods Complete descriptions of all 98 standard libraries.

If you enjoyed the First Edition, you'll appreciate the new and expanded content, including: enhanced coverage of installation, packaging, documenting Ruby source code, threading and synchronization, and enhancing Ruby's capabilities using C-language extensions. Programming for the world-wide web is easy in Ruby, with new chapters on XML/RPC, SOAP, distributed Ruby, templating systems and other web services. There's even a new chapter on unit testing.

This is the definitive reference manual for Ruby, including a description of all the standard library modules, a complete reference to all built-in classes and modules (including more than 250 significant changes since the First Edition). Coverage of other features has grown tremendously, including details on how to harness the sophisticated capabilities of irb, so you can dynamically examine and experiment with your running code. "Ruby is a wonderfully powerful and useful language, and whenever I'm working with it this book is at my side" --Martin Fowler, Chief Scientist, ThoughtWorks


Pro EJB 3: Java Persistence API Buy from Amazon
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Pro EJB 3: Java Persistence API

by Mike Keith and Merrick Schincariol

EJB 3.0 sets a new precedent. It has made huge advances in ease of development, and its drastically simplified programming model has been widely acclaimed.

Mike Keith, EJB 3.0 co-specification lead, and Merrick Schinariol, reviewer of EJB 3.0, offer unparalleled insight and expertise on the new EJB 3.0 persistence specification, in this definitive guide to EJB 3.0 persistence technology. Expect full coverage and examination of the EJB 3.0 spec from these expert authors, including:

  • The new EntityManager API
  • The new features of EJB Query Language (EJB QL)
  • Basic and advanced object-relational mapping
  • Advanced topics like concurrency, locking, inheritance, and polymorphism

Assuming a basic knowledge of Java, SQL, JDBC, and some J2EE experience, Mike Keith and Merrick Schinariol will teach you EJB 3 persistence from the ground up. After reading it, you will have an in-depth understanding of the EJB 3.0 Persistence API and how to use it in your applications.



Grails Persistence with GORM and GSQL Buy from Amazon
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Grails Persistence with GORM and GSQL

by Robert Fischer

Unique to the popular Grails web framework is its architecture. While other frameworks are built from the ground up, Grails leverages existing and proven technologies that already have advanced functionality built in. One of the key technologies in this architecture is Hibernate, on top of which Grails builds its GORM (Grails Object Relational Mapping) model layer. This provides Grails a persistence solution.

Published with the developer in mind, firstPress technical briefs explore emerging technologies that have the potential to be critical for tomorrow’s industry. Apress keeps developers one step ahead by presenting key information as early as possible in a PDF of 150 pages or less. Explore the future through Apress with Grails Persistence with GORM and GSQL

This firstPress book covers Grails persistence with GORM, from defining your first model to the nature of transactions and advanced Hibernate querying. Other APIs and tools such as GSQL (Groovy SQL) are covered as well, as needed, to empower your Grails persistence efforts.


What you’ll learn

  • Extend the Grails web framework into a broader, semi–enterprise framework by including and integrating Hibernate–based Java persistence, known as GORM.
  • Use mappings to customize default behaviors and work with legacy schemas.
  • Use constraints to define your object once and have those constraints enforced both in code and at the database level.
  • Use advanced features of GORM and Hibernate Query Language (HQL) to simplify database querying and report generation.
  • Debug and tune trips for GORM and Hibernate.
  • Fill in the gaps with GSQL.

Who is this book for

This title is for those who have committed to dedicating some time to mastering Grails and are looking to move beyond the basics, and are especially interested in Grails and Groovy persistence for some limited transaction handling and/or accessing databases.



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