Java 2 Exam Cram (Exam: 310-025) Review

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(More customer reviews)Yesterday I took the Java 2 Programmer test for the first time passed with a 93% score. I have several years of programming experience with structured and OO programming languages but not much of Java. My total Java experience is about a couple of months only.
The reason I like this book is its brevity. I believe a study guide should have two qualities : focus and brevity. This book has both. There are a lot of good Java books that provide general information. The reason you use a study guide for a specific exam is because you don't want to be distracted by material not needed in the exam.
My suggestions for succeeding in the test are :
1. Study very carefully the exam objectives provided by Sun Education at their website. This (and not the contents of any book) is the true exam 'syllabus'. Read between the lines and into the words in the objectives and try to find out what exactly they expect you to know. The objectives change too - the whole section on 'java.io' was added recently and therefore not covered properly in any study guide. I copied and pasted the objectives in a word document and then used it frequently to search for relevant words, (e.g to find out if the atan2 function in java.lang.Math is part of the syllabus).
2. Read a good general purpose book. Since the scope of study guides is narrow they will provide you with a lot of distilled information but will also miss out some. I read the following : a) The Java Programmig Language, 2nd ed. - Gosling, Arnold. Chs. 2 - 9 and 12 - 15 are relevant for the test. This is a very good book and provides a lot of information in very few pages. b) Graphic Java 1.1 - Geary. Chs 5 and 14 for AWT c) I referred to The java Lang. Specification, 2nd ed. - Gosling, Joy, .. as the final authority to resolve any doubts. This book is not a tutorial and may be used as a final reference.
3. Read chapters 1 - 10 of the Exam Cram book (the book under review) thoroughly and do all the practice questions.
4. Read the chapter on I/0 and the four chapters on AWT from the book The Complete Java 2 Certification Guide by Roberts, Heller and Ernest. The reason I did not read the rest of the book is because its bulk intimidated me and I found the Gosling book more convenient.
5. Study the JDK documentation (and code) for at least the following : java.lang.String, java.lang.Math, java.io (according to the objectives in this section). Remember, the objectives on I/O were not published when the study guides were written, so none of these books cover I/O properly. Also, there was a question in the test on the GridbagConstraints class. You should look this class up in the JDK.
6. Take the mock exam at the end of the Exam Cram book (the book under review). For some reason, the book sets a time limit of 90 min. while the actual test allows you 120 min. I think this might be a typo, but I kept the more stringent time anyway.
7. Make sure to take some mock exams available on the web. There are some that are free. I suggest the one available at the 'sarga' website. The reason why I do not recommend Jxam is that I found many of its questions were outside of the exam objectives, e.g., all questions on applets, HTML, JARs, etc.
8. Study the cutout sheet from the Exam Cram book just before the exam as suggested by the author.
The exam will require you to think a lot and analyze a lot of code. So sleep well the night before. Good luck.

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Serves as the perfect complement to all study guides and training materials for the Sun Certified Java JDK 1.2 Programmer Exam. The best way to build confidence is through study of example questions similar to those on the real exam and this book will have numerous examples and a complete practice exam. Includes sections on proven test-taking strategies, warnings on trick questions, time-saving study tips, multiple-part question strategies, and shortcuts.

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Practical Java™ Programming Language Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)Practical Java Programming Language Guide used the "essay" style similar to "Effective C++" to explain some issues in Java. It covers General Technique,Object and Equality, Exception Handling, Performance, Multithreading and Class & Interface with total 68 'Praxis'.
This 'essay' style is my favorite. It represents topics in each small 'essay' and you can easily pick up the topic you are interested in without getting lost, or just read the book from cover-to-cover. It is also very useful for checking up something in which you'd like to have more understanding. You won't get bored there!
I would say this book is for intermediate to advance Java programmer. It is not a book to learn how to program in Java, it is a good book to get more understanding with Java. It will help you learn more about Java, become a better Java programmer. I feel like I've learn a lot even with my 4-years professional Java programming experience. Also, if you are new to Java, this book will help you Ace your Java interview:)
Sometimes, as a programmer, we tend to forget the low-level details as to why we do things that way. For example, the difference between "==" and ".equals()", we all know we need to use .equals() to comare Object reference, use "==" for primitive data type. After reading this book, I know more about "why" we did things that way than just "what" to do. That's just a small example, I bet you'll find lots of "ah-ha" monents in reading this book.
One shortcoming I'd like to point out is there are some duplicates in explaining some topic. Maybe the author wanted to emphasis some points but I feel like it is redundant. e.g. both Praxis 11 and praxis 15 talk about how to immplement equals() method which I think only one would be enough. Also, it would be great if the broadth of the topic was expanded some more.
Overall, it is a great book. I've been enjoying reading it and find it very helpful. I am looking forward to something like "More practical Java programming Language Guide" coming...

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This book does for Java what Scott Meyers' classic Effective C++ did for C++: identifies the key practices and rules that enable good developers to become great developers. IBM Java expert Peter Haggar brings together 68 rules for writing better Java 2 code, complete with insightful discussions and real-world examples. These are the "rules of thumb" expert developers have discovered: guidelines that consistently lead to clear, correct, and efficient code. Haggar focuses on the key issues virtually every Java developer faces, from general techniques (such as when to use polymorphism and when not to use method overloading); to working with objects, exception handling, performance, multithreading, classes, interfaces, and beyond. Haggar has a remarkable talent for crystallizing a problem and solution, and communicating it in words and code. The result: a book that can help any Java developer get dramatically better results -- fast.

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SOA Security Review

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(More customer reviews)Great book for starters.
However it misses the latest Standards in Security such as PKI, SAML, XACML, WS-Federation, WS-Trust and how it pertains to SOA based solution architecture. So much for a book titled "SOA Security". Also it totally ignores to explain how to ensure security at all integration tiers.
Not for security experts, more for people who are starters and do not have time to "Google" either.
Does not do detailed coverage only basic topics related to Web services security around SOAP and WSDL standards with Apache Axis sample APIs (which are out of box and can be googled easily) are discussed. It is a bit difficult to relate the examples to the meat on the book.
Also missing is the information on how to use the abused Apache API examples to compose/build a Secure SOA service base architecture or how to secure BPM workflows, SOA governance, Identity management using federation, entitlement issues with BPM portals,... the list goes on.
This book contains very repetitive content. The only good portion I found was the chapter on XML Web services. The authors should refer Information Security Management Handbook, Sixth Edition (Isc2 Press) and Core Security Patterns: Best Practices and Strategies for J2EE(TM), Web Services, and Identity Management (Sun Core Series) before the next version comes out.

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SOA is one of the latest technologies enterprises are using to tame their software costs - in development, deployment, and management. SOA makes integration easy, helping enterprises not only better utilize their existing investments in applications and infrastructure, but also open up new business opportunities. However, one of the big stumbling blocks in executing SOA is security. This book addresses Security in SOA with detailed examples illustrating the theory, industry standards and best practices.

It is true that security is important in any system. SOA brings in additional security concerns as well rising out of the very openness that makes it attractive. If we apply security principles blindly, we shut ourselves of the benefits of SOA. Therefore, we need to understand which security models and techniques are right for SOA. This book provides such an understanding.

Usually, security is seen as an esoteric topic that is better left to experts. While it is true that security requires expert attention, everybody, including software developers, designers, architects, IT administrators and managers need to do tasks that require very good understanding of security topics. Fortunately, traditional security techniques have been around long enough for people to understand and apply them in practice. This, however, is not the case with SOA Security.

Anyone seeking to implement SOA Security is today forced to dig through a maze of inter-dependent specifications and API docs that assume a lot of prior experience on the part of readers. Getting started on a project is hence proving to be a huge challenge to practitioners. This book seeks to change that. It provides bottom-up understanding of security techniques appropriate for use in SOA without assuming any prior familiarity with security topics on the part of the reader.

Unlike most other books about SOA that merely describe the standards, this book helps you get started immediately by walking you through sample code that illustrates how real life problems can be solved using the techniques and best practices described in standards. Whereas standards discuss all possible variations of each security technique, this book focusses on the 20% of variations that are used 80% of the time. This keeps the material covered in the book simple as well as self-sufficient for all readers except the most advanced.

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Role-Based Access Control, Second Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)The three authors are leaders in RBAC research and development, making this book one of the most authoritative and complete references to RBAC.
Chapters 1 through 3 give a solid foundation for understanding RBAC and how it evolved, starting with an introduction, an exhaustive survey of access control methods needed to fully understand the evolution, and a solid and detailed overview of RBAC itself.
In the subsequent chapters each aspect of RBAC is covered in depth. Topics include role hierarchies, separation of duty policies, administration, integrating RBAC into existing infrastructures, and migration to RBAC. In addition, there are chapters on related topics that give this book wide scope - "Using RBAC to Implement Military Policies" shows how to implement multi-level security models with RBAC. This information uses military policies, but the material is also of interest to any commercial organization seeking tightly integrated access controls and a high security posture. The chapter on the proposed NIST RBAC standard also covers key items of interest, including Common Criteria RBAC protection profiles and other conformance issues. There are also chapters on RBAC research and prototypes, and commercial products.
While this book is well written and uses illustrations to impart key concepts, you will need to be conversant with set theory in order to get the most from it, as well as understand RBAC itself. If you are a bit rusty I recommend refreshing your skills before diving into this book.
If you want to explore RBAC and the work of each of the authors visit NIST Computer Security Division and Computer Security Research by pasting the ASIN, B0001O48Y4, into the search box, selecting all products and clicking GO. Once you are on the site you'll find the RBAC section under Security Research/Emerging Technologies->Authorization Management and Advanced Access Control Models (AM&AACM) link.

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Role-based access control (RBAC) is a security mechanism that has gained wide acceptance in the field because it can greatly lower the cost and complexity of securing large networked and Web-based systems. Written by leading experts, this newly revised edition of the Artech House bestseller, Role-Based Access Control, offers practitioners the very latest details on this popular network security model. The second edition provides more comprehensive and updated coverage of access control models, new RBAC standards, new case studies and discussions on role engineering and the design of role-based systems. This authoritative book offers professionals an in-depth understanding of role hierarchies and role engineering that are so crucial to ensuring total access control with RBAC. The book guides security administrators through the various RBAC products available on the market and along the migration path to implementing RBAC. This unique resource also covers the RBAC standard proposed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

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Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for Java EE Study Guide (Exam 310-051) (Certification Press) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this book despite the other poor reviews on amazon. I was hopeful that the other reviewers were just being too harsh. But after reading the first couple chapters, it became clear that the other reviewers were being charitable. This book is filled with errors and is poorly organized.
The worst error I've spotted is on p16. The book says that "The current version of the SCEA exam tests your knowledge of J2EE 1.3 API." In fact, at the time I'm writing this review, and certainly at the time they wrote the book, the current version of the exam is still testing the J2EE 1.2 API. That is pretty bad when the course authors don't even know which version of J2EE they should be writing about. It also would be quite detrimental and confusing to readers who would assume they should be studying topics that were added in the J2EE 1.3 version.
In many places, the book also does not seem to be well synched with the topics, approach, and vocabulary of the exam. Some chapters seemed almost irrelevant to the exam.
If you buy this book, you should only consider it a supplement to help give you a general idea of what you need to study. I would suggest doing most of your studying with other books or resources.

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With hundreds of practice questions and hands-on exercises, Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for Java EE Study Guide covers what you need to know--and shows you how to prepare--for this challenging exam.

100% complete coverage of all official objectives for exam 310-051
Inside the Exam sections in every chapter highlight key exam topics covered
Simulated exam questions match the format, tone, topics, and difficulty of the real exam

Covers all the exam topics, including:

Basic Principles of Enterprise Architectures * Object-Oriented Design Using UML * Applicability of JEE Technology * Design Patterns * Legacy Connectivity * EJB and Container Models * Messaging * Internationalization and Localization * Security

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Big Java: Programming and Practice Review

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(More customer reviews)When I bought this book, I was unaware that it was written with the intention of being a class textbook for learning not just Java, but also the basics of computer science. Even so, this is an excellent Java book that will serve the reader well.
First, this book is extremely well organized. The table of contents lays out the biggest points of each chapter without cluttering. In turn, each chapter has its own table of contents, outlining more minor points. Things that relate directly to Java and the targeted course are outlined in black, while other topics such as coding suggestions, historical notes and bits of trivia are outlined in blue. This makes navigation through the book very easy and straightforward.
As any textbook has, this one has plenty of practice exercises. These exercises are very relevant to the topics covered and offer the reader some practice. If you buy this book and are turned off by the idea of doing a bunch of exercises, well, don't do them. Then again, practice does make perfect...
Many people like Java books that plunge right into graphics programming. I don't. This book does cover basic graphics and applet programming fairly early on (chapter 4), and that is not much to my personal preference. But, it's relevant in relation to the information in surrounding chapters.
The book even comes with a style guide, which is very nice when you would like some idea of coding standards. Perhaps you will adopt the author's suggestions, perhaps not. Either way, it's an excellent place to start.
This book covers some advanced topics, including XML, JSP, servlets, and relational database interfacing. The coverage is clear and occurs later in the book after the building blocks are out of the way.
There are some errors in the book. HOWEVER, there is an errata page, at the author's web site, that addresses the problems and gives very clear corrections. Most programming books seem to have errors in them, and this one is no exception. The fact that there is a very easily accessible path to get the updates (at no extra cost) is a big plus.
Before I got this book, I was using "Thinking in Java" (Eckel) as my primary book for learning Java. Big Java has taken TIJ's place. I heartily recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn the Java language.

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Offers an in-depth look into how Java relates to such technologies as searching, sorting, data structures, multithreading, networking, database connectivity, XML, and Java Server PagesPart I deals with fundamental principles of programming and problem solvingPart II introduces advanced concepts of the Java programmingReaders will find highlighted concepts and capsule introductions into advanced topics of computer sciencePerfect reading material for anyone interested in learning or reinforcing introductory programming concepts and who wants to take advantage of the exciting attributes of the Java language

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Java(tm) in Practice: Design Styles and Idioms for Effective Java Review

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(More customer reviews)Overall, this book does a decent job of explaining good design techniques to the programmer who is already familiar with Java. There are plenty of code examples, along with UML diagrams to help explain the designs that are presented. There's even an appendix on UML for those unfamiliar with the modeling language.
There are some flaws in this book, however. The book is not updated for Java 2, and is therefore rapidly becoming obsolete. Additionally, a significant number of typos and inconsistent use of terms clouds the already difficult subject matter. Especially bad is the discussion of the Cloneable interface, in which the authors state that different compilers treat Cloneable classes differently, but do not explain what the correct behavior is according to the Java Language Specification or how to work around these compiler problems.
There is some good material in the book, but in my opinion not enough of it and too many problems in the presentation, to justify the cover price.

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Internet Multimedia Communications Using SIP: A Modern Approach Including Java® Practice (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)FYI
This book helped me passed my Convergence+ and Security+ exam.
On with the quick review:
This is a must-have book for network engineers dedicated to improving their craft in IP Multimedia Communication, specifically working on SIP-based Softphones. This book has taught a non-programmer like me to deconstruct and analyze the internals of a Softphone, i.e the most famous Counterpath X-Ten Lite Softphone. Being a security guy, the chapter for Securing Multimedia Communications is an excellent introduction as well on how to implement SIP-VoIP Security starting from the network layer, the transport layer all the way to the application layer.
Obviously Rogelio's experience in the field is as wide as you can imagine which he was able to effectively discuss and present in this book in my humble opinion.
Note:
I am still using this book as reference on my desk when I deal with customers who would liked to integrate their sofphones or CRM with our proprietary predictive dialer.
Thanks Rogelio!
Ron
[...]

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Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) was conceived in 1996 as a signaling protocol for inviting users to multimedia conferences. With this development, the next big Internet revolution silently started. That was the revolution which would end up converting the Internet into a total communication system which would allow people to talk to each other, see each other, work collaboratively or send messages in real time. Internet telephony and, in general, Internet multimedia, is the new revolution today and SIP is the key protocol which allows this revolution to grow.The book explains, in tutorial fashion, the underlying technologies that enable real-time IP multimedia communication services in the Internet (voice, video, presence, instant messaging, online picture sharing, white-boarding, etc). Focus is on session initiation protocol (SIP) but also covers session description protocol (SDP), Real-time transport protocol (RTP), and message session relay protocol (MSRP).In addition, it will also touch on other application-related protocols and refer to the latest research work in IETF and 3GPP about these topics. (3GPP stands for "third-generation partnership project" which is a collaboration agreement between ETSI (Europe), ARIB/TTC (Japan), CCSA (China), ATIS (North America) and TTA (South Korea).) The book includes discussion of leading edge theory (which is key to really understanding the technology) accompanied by Java examples that illustrate the theoretical concepts. Throughout the book, in addition to the code snippets, the reader is guided to build a simple but functional IP soft-phone therefore demonstrating the theory with practical examples.This book covers IP multimedia from both a theoretical and practical point of view focusing on letting the reader understand the concepts and put them into practice using Java. It includes lots of drawings, protocol diagrams, UML sequence diagrams and code snippets that allow the reader to rapidly understand the concepts. KEY FEATURES* Focus on HOW multimedia communications over the Internet works to allow readers to really understand and implement the technology * Explains how SIP works, including many programming examples so the reader can understand abstract concepts like SIP dialogs, SIP transactions, etc. * It is not focused on just VoIP. It looks At a wide array of enhanced communication services related to SIP enabling the reader put this technology into practice.* Includes nearly 100 references to the latest standards and working group activities in the IETF, bringing the reader completely up to date. * Provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to build a basic, though functional, IP soft-phone allowing the reader to put concepts into practice. * For advanced readers, the book also explains how to build a SIP proxy and a SIP registrar to enhance one's expertise and marketability in this fast moving area.

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JavaSpaces™ Principles, Patterns, and Practice Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great introduction to the JavaSpaces technology, making it accessible to anyone with a basic understanding of Java. The main concepts are thoroughly and simply explained and the programming examples are very well developed and easy to follow. This book would be suitable for introducing undergraduates to basic operating systems concepts such as process synchronization and interprocess communication, as well as to some of the more exciting network based applications, such as distributed transactions and collaborative applications.
It's clear that JavaSpaces technology can greatly simplify the teaching of important operating system and networking concepts such as thread synchronication and interprocess communication. As someone who has taught these courses, I've found that students have a hard time dealing with system semaphore and socket primitives. Quite often the basic concepts you're trying to teach get lost within a forest of implementation details. Not so with JavaSpaces. Check out the nicely developed Dining Philosophers and Readers/Writers examples in Chapter 4. The basic semaphore class is very simple to implement in JavaSpaces, which allows the discussion to focus on synchronization issues. Ditto for the basic Channel classes developed in Chapter 5. As all of these examples show, the use of JavaSpaces technology raises the level of abstraction, thereby making distributed programming much more widely accessible. As further evidence of this, consider the ease with which a very sophisticated internet messenger service is developed in Chapter 10. Making this kind of application accessible to undergraduates is quite impressive.
This is a great book, and I will almost certainly use it the next time I teach our networking course.

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JSP Examples and Best Practices Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I am teaching myself server-side Java programming. After reading, using, and reviewing many books on Java server-side web development, I had found they fell into two categories: Beginner and advanced. The beginner books typically introduce a lot of bad coding practices, such as filling JSP pages with java code, or using outdated examples of Servlets that output HTML. After a few chapters of this, they jump to the Struts framework, thereby never helping the reader build good coding practices and skills.
The advanced books get quickly into frameworks like Struts, and also employ EJBs. EJBs are not needed in many web applications, where they introduce unneeded complexity. What I wanted but couldn't find was a good book that covered the middle ground: how to build applications based on JSPs and Servlets that demonstrate good design and coding practices, with a realistic sample application, and yet understandable for someone learning the J2EE technology.
When I found this book I was surprised to see that it concisely and clearly presented all the key topics I had hoped for. I found it by accident, because I never would have guessed from the scant 3 or 4 reviews on Amazon that it would be worth looking at.
Prerequisite knowledge for this book is basic Java skills and an introductory understanding of JSPs and Servlets. I liked this because so many beginner books spend a lot of time going over the basics. The book covers all the key intermediate-level topics you'll need to get started coding good Java web applications. This book goes beyond others I read in also showing how to use JUnit to do unit testing, and Ant to do application deployment. The author demonstrates these so clearly and simply that a person new to these tools will find it easy to follow and put to use.
Finally, the author finishes with taking the reader through how to build a basic but solid application framework that even the beginner to frameworks can follow. This framework is no Struts with its relatively steep learning curve. By the time the reader has got to the framework chapter he has learned what he needs to understand the framework. As if this were not enough, the author then shows how to deploy the framework, and then use it to build a sample application. All this is done in slim, concise, easily-to-follow chapters and code that is clearly and completely presented. You won't have to go hunting through the source code download or CD to research a bunch of code that is not illustrated in the book itself. It's all in the book.
A previous review rated this book low because he thought it didn't have a realistic application. I don't know what he is looking for exactly, but I thought the application was quite real enough in giving a fully functioning, realistic, web application. It is no super app, but neither is it a toy app. Again, it aims for the later novice to intermediate-level skill set. And I think it succeeds well.

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While most other books merely instruct on basic JSP and servlet development, JSP Examples and Best Practices gives you some of the best practices and design principles, enabling you to build scalable and extensible enterprise Java applications. And JavaServer Pages technology can be used to build complex enterprise applications in a highly re-usable manner.

This book takes basic JSP and applies sound architectural principles and design patterns, to give you the tools to build scalable enterprise applications using JSP. Further, this book covers features of the JSP 1.2 specification, including the standard filtering mechanism.

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Core Security Patterns: Best Practices and Strategies for J2EE™, Web Services, and Identity Management Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the best book I ever had for Java security. This book talks everything you need to know about java security architecture and how to implement them with patterns. In addition to patterns, the book also recommends security bestpractices considerations for J2EE production, how to do proactive and reactive security assessments using well-defined checklists, security design case-study for portal. Undoubtedly, this book is very easy to understand, good code examples and nicely organized to support the needs of a Java developer. It is highly recommended for anyone wants to get involved with security architecture in J2EE applications and web services. If you are a Java guy..then go for it.

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Praise for Core Security Patterns
"Java provides the application developer with essential security mechanisms and support in avoiding critical security bugs common in other languages. A language, however, can only go so far. The developer must understand the security requirements of the application and how to use the features Java provides in order to meet those requirements. Core Security Patterns addresses both aspects of security and will be a guide to developers everywhere in creating more secure applications."

--Whitfield Diffie, inventor of Public-Key Cryptography

"A comprehensive book on Security Patterns, which are critical for secure programming."

--Li Gong, former Chief Java Security Architect, Sun Microsystems, and coauthor of Inside Java 2 Platform Security

"As developers of existing applications, or future innovators that will drive the next generation of highly distributed applications, the patterns and best practices outlined in this book will be an important asset to your development efforts."

--Joe Uniejewski, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, RSA Security, Inc.

"This book makes an important case for taking a proactive approach to security rather than relying on the reactive security approach common in the software industry."

--Judy Lin, Executive Vice President, VeriSign, Inc.

"Core Security Patterns provides a comprehensive patterns-driven approach and methodology for effectively incorporating security into your applications. I recommend that every application developer keep a copy of this indispensable security reference by their side."

--Bill Hamilton, author of ADO.NET Cookbook, ADO.NET in a Nutshell, and NUnit Pocket Reference

"As a trusted advisor, this book will serve as a Java developer™s security handbook, providing applied patterns and design strategies for securing Java applications."

--Shaheen Nasirudheen, CISSP,Senior Technology Officer, JPMorgan Chase

"Like Core J2EE Patterns, this book delivers a proactive and patterns-driven approach for designing end-to-end security in your applications. Leveraging the authors™ strong security experience, they created a must-have book for any designer/developer looking to create secure applications."

--John Crupi, Distinguished Engineer, Sun Microsystems, coauthor of Core J2EE Patterns

Core Security Patterns is the hands-on practitioner™s guide to building robust end-to-end security into J2EE' enterprise applications, Web services, identity management, service provisioning, and personal identification solutions. Written by three leading Java security architects, the patterns-driven approach fully reflects today™s best practices for security in large-scale, industrial-strength applications.

The authors explain the fundamentals of Java application security from the ground up, then introduce a powerful, structured security methodology; a vendor-independent security framework; a detailed assessment checklist; and twenty-three proven security architectural patterns. They walk through several realistic scenarios, covering architecture and implementation and presenting detailed sample code. They demonstrate how to apply cryptographic techniques; obfuscate code; establish secure communication; secure J2ME' applications; authenticate and authorize users; and fortify Web services, enabling single sign-on, effective identity management, and personal identification using Smart Cards and Biometrics.

Core Security Patterns covers all of the following, and more:

What works and what doesn™t: J2EE application-security best practices, and common pitfalls to avoid

Implementing key Java platform security features in real-world applications

Establishing Web Services security using XML Signature, XML Encryption, WS-Security, XKMS, and WS-I Basic security profile

Designing identity management and service provisioning systems using SAML, Liberty, XACML, and SPML

Designing secure personal identification solutions using Smart Cards and Biometrics

Security design methodology, patterns, best practices, reality checks, defensive strategies, and evaluation checklists

End-to-end security architecture case study: architecting, designing, and implementing an end-to-end security solution for large-scale applications

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J2EE Best Practices: Java Design Patterns, Automation, and Performance (Wiley Application Development Series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is the best J2EE helper book period. I've been developing J2EE based applications for 2 years now and have read many books on the subject. Most of the J2EE books just repackage the specifications and write about common sense approaches.
J2EE Best Practices, will give you concrete information on how to use EJB 2.0 for the "real" world now!. You can and will use this book to ensure the success of your current EJB 2.0 project.
The material on CMR Entity beans is extremely valuable for anyone trying to implement Business Objects based on J2EE.
I use Cocoon for my Web Interface, but this book has some good info for Struts users as well.
Go to your nearest book store and get that edge you've been looking for. While your buddies are reading "Core J2EE', "Bitter EJB', "Expert One on One J2EE Design..", "Mastering J2EE..", etc...

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Mastering BEA WebLogic Server: Best Practices for Building and Deploying J2EE Applications Review

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(More customer reviews)I really like this book. It is not for beginners, and is not an "Intro to J2EE". However, for advanced developers, and especially those leaning towards the administation aspects of WebLogic Server, this book is an excellent resource.
The examples in this book are straighforward, and the accompianing discussion is well written and easy to follow.
A lot of discussions in this book cover advanced topics leaning towards deployment and administration (such as tuning JVMs, or understanding Thread usage), but there are some excellent discussions regarding architecture as well. There is not a lot of material discussing developing J2EE code.
This book should be a part of any advanced J2EE developers library, especially those using WebLogic (since so many of the examples are targeted towards that platform).

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Designed to show experienced developers how to become power developers with BEA WebLogic
Covers BEA WebLogic Server version 8.1 and earlier versions
A perfect companion to the bestselling book, Mastering Enterprise JavaBeans, Second Edition (0471-41711-4)
Companion Web site includes technology updates and links to related sites

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GWT in Practice Review

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(More customer reviews)I am surprised to hear so much lofty praise for this book. It is mediocre at best, and the editing is quite horrible. Here the advice I would give the authors and in particular the editors:
- I hate having to flip from one chapter to the previous one in order to find a particular snippet being referenced. If you are starting a project, all the source for that needs to be close to each other. I dislike being told 'Go find table 1.1, (with no page number given) and use the code from there.
- The code examples given clearly have NEVER been through the compiler. There are missing methods in examples, and silly typos that are quite unacceptable since it leads me to question the effort put into creating the book. (see page 52, listing 2.12 for example, - Private is NOT the same as private. setInitDisplay is never defined. )
- My preference - and probably for a number of other people - is to use the well defined hello world approach, rather than a discourse on how configuration is to be set up. Eclipse should be introduced earlier. I'm sure others would disagree, but getting a HelloWorld going gets my blood flowing
- The section on design patterns is a TOTAL waste. Please dont introduce examples that focus on MVC, not GWT. I am not reading GWT to understand how MVC works. Make simpler examples that gets rid of this fluff, and focusses on GWT.
- How exactly does showing what StringBuffer looks like in pretty & obfuscated mode help the user? It looks like an attempt to pad the size of the book
Manning books are always a hit and miss. THis is a clear miss. Really, the editors need to pull up their socks and get things out right, not get it out quick.

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