The first titles in the new J2EE Deployment and Administration Handbook series from Wrox Press are now available.

The Deployment and Administration Handbooks simplify the varied and often complex task of getting J2EE applications up and running on a J2EE 1.3 certified application server. Despite the J2EE standard, every application server is different. Each has its own administrative interface and deployment process. Each interprets and implements the specifications differently, adding its own proprietary features and functionality.

To develop powerful J2EE applications that fully utilize the runtime services provided by the platforms in which they run, you need be well versed with the configuration and deployment of J2EE components on the application server.

Just released are:

JBoss 3.0
BEA WebLogic Server 7.0

And coming soon:

IBM WebSphere 4.0 Application Server

I was a reviewer for the WebLogic book and I would definitely recommend it. Concise and very readable. This looks like being a valuable series, quite different from the other Wrox series.

Rod Johnson, author of Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development

I am wondering what this book (or any other book on J2EE server documentation) offers that makes it stand out from the vendors documentation -other than being an actual book. I have seen a lot of "administration" books that turned out to be plain
"how-tos", whereas, with a product like WebLogic (or any other J2EE server for that matter) you should also have a good idea about the how, the why and the inner workings.

Why would you publish a book on WebSphere 4.0, not 5.0? Don't we know enough already about how "good" WAS 4.0 is from the infamous J2EE vs. .NET "showdown" staged by The Middleware Company?

The JBoss title provides a comprehensive coverage of the JBoss 3.0 server, focusing on

-JBoss architecture
-Deploying and configuring EJBs, web applications, EAR files, JCA resource adapters, JMX MBeans etc on JBoss
-JBoss CMP 2.0 features
-JBoss clustering
-Configuring JMS and JCA
-Configuring security, logging, JavaMail
-JBoss custom features like scheduling
-Administration and monitoring of the server.

The book will be a valuable resource for anyone using JBoss in production and development.The book is published by WROX Press and is available on Amazon,

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1861008120/qid=1041628886/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-6889188-8834314?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

<b>Let me also take this opportunity to express my immense gratitude to all the JBoss developers who have made this book possible.</b>

The JBoss 3.0 WRox book is mostly redundant information that is already available from the Official JBoss documentation available for a CHEAPER PRICE on the JBoss website. Some sections are just plainly incorrect (Locking sub-chapter for instance) and don't document JBoss correctly. Disturbingly, the flow of many chapters follows the same flow of the JBoss Official documentation and even illustrations/diagrams are surprisingly similar. Its clear the author obtained 95% of his material from the JBoss documentation and, IMHO, paraphrased the Official JBoss documentation in some parts. Although I think it is great that other publishers besides SAMS and O'Reilly are realizing the market momentum JBoss has achieved, I do not recommend this work for the JBoss community at large.

FYI. Meeraj is not and never has been a JBoss contributor.

Bill,

thanks for the heads up. It is disturbing indeed. It seems the book is stolen from the JBoss book. If that is the case, there are laws protecting against plagiarism in the US and JBoss should sue WROX.

Does JBoss have any economic interest in this book? is wrok paying JBoss back in any way?

Actually, we have a significant economic interest in the book, it is one the key elements in funding the development of Open Source JBoss. We hope that people would come directly to "the source" for their knowledge to start.

I was wrong, we have an economic interest in OUR OWN BOOK, NOT THE WROX BOOK. This book was done by completely ignoring the JBoss developers and community as a whole.

"I was wrong, we have an economic interest in OUR OWN BOOK, NOT THE WROX BOOK. This book was done by completely ignoring the JBoss developers and community as a whole."

Hm strange world you live in. This book makes JBoss more popular, more widely used and better understood by people who are deploying apps on it. So what the book does is *increase* the value of JBoss in the JBoss Community.

This is bad? You should be proud that people write books about Jboss; it is a most excellent piece of software and this book shows it!

 Stefan

I think most application servers come with good source of documentation to administer and manage it. JBoss is no exception to it. But if you look at JBoss wrox book it looks clone of document and misses lot of implementation details. It does ignore the JBoss developer and community.

Stephen,

You are correct, I would love to see writers write original content about JBoss. You can never have enough different perspectives about technology. What I do not like is people that take others work and try to prosper from it. There is plenty of

Bill,

With all due respect, the book is NOT STOLEN from the JBoss documentation. The primary source of information for this book has been the JBoss source code.

I agree, JBoss group provides very good documentation. Of course, I have referred to JBoss documentation for correctness of information.

However, what this book does is provide an easy to use reference with illustrative examples focused on deploying applications on JBoss rather than covering the JBoss internals.

Thanks
Meeraj

Thanks
Meeraj

<bill>
FYI. Meeraj is not and never has been a JBoss contributor.
</bill>
What is your point? I don't think Meeraj ever claimed he was a JBoss contributor. Or is the point that only JBoss contributors are allowed to write about JBoss? This is *not* the kind of attitude that will help JBoss gain corporate respect. The author of the WebLogic book didn't write any of the WLS code either, so did he also have no right to write about it?

The "Official" JBoss docs are good, and I would definitely recommend people buy them (I did and it was good value). However, it's crazy to discourage people from writing books about JBoss.

As a very happy user of JBoss, which I highly recommend, I would undoubtedly buy books from JBOSS group if at all available. Indeed I have and deeply enjoy both Lindfors's JMX as well as Stark's JBoss, even though the last one refers to the 2.4 version which is somewhat outdated. Nevertheless, I think it is an awesome book not only to JBoss users but also to any developer wishing to really understand J2EE concepts such as JNDI, EJB containers, security, JAAS, etc.
 I would like Bill Burke to clarify his tatements/positions. When JBoss sells real books and not only PDF files I and many others will be sure to buy them. As a matter of fact I might buy JBoss books even if they were costly, for they are very good. Please understand that I would continue to buy books also from other sources and think their efforts might well add value to the JBoss.
Meeraj efforts to write a good JBOSS 3.0 were not wasted at all in my opinion. I have his book, enjoy it and see value to it even though, it does have errors which must be addressed.
On EJB Security he says JBoss completely disregards local method permission settings, which IF true would be a HUGE JBoss bug. So the book is not perfect. That is not to say it is not good. It is very convenient even if not completely reliable.
On a different note, I also have Rod Jonhson's book and think it is excellent. Though, I do not agree with all his views, he explains his positions very clearly, and I definitely feel most developers would gain much by having it.

> When JBoss sells real books and not only PDF files I and
> many others will be sure to buy them. As a matter of fact
> I might buy JBoss books even if they were costly, for
> they are very good. Please understand that I would
> continue to buy books also from other sources and think
> their efforts might well add value to the JBoss.

Mr. Lecter,
Because the WROX book is, IMHO, disturbingly similar in flow and content to our Official JBoss Documentation, I was extremely upset by this considering I'm one of the authors of the documentation. Wouldn't you be? I'm all for different publishers and authors writing JBoss documentation/books/articles/whatever. But I'd like to see some creativity and a new perspective rather than an edited form of the original documentation.

> Craig Berry:
> Obviously, the documentation provided through the JBoss
> group has a more 'official' stamp but I was more
> interested in a user's experience to working with JBoss.

IMHO, the author relied less on his own experience and more on the experience, form and content of the authors of the Official documentation.


> Are these excellent books available for purchase in
> electronic format PDF?
> Rolf

Yes. Go to www.jboss.org. Also, Sacha Labourey and I have written a companion workbook to Oreilly's EJB 3rd edition that should be out sometime this spring covering JBoss 3.2.

A first draft is available here:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/entjbeans3/workbooks/index.html

> I usually won't buy any books on s/w under GPL anyways.
> Thanx
> - Nikolas

FYI, JBoss is LGPL. A very different animal.

>Although it does not have a good market share, I think
>that it will dominate in the near future.

A recent study over the summer put JBoss at 14% of Market share compared to Weblogic,Websphere, and Oracle that were in the 20s. JBoss was 4th on list. Considering JBoss had a less than 1% share 14 months earlier, JBoss Group's booming services business, and strategic partnerships announced this fall, I'd say that we will be the dominant player by end of 2003. What Apache has done with the webserver market, we will do with J2EE.


Regards,

Bill

When the JBoss Group produce a better book that is available in print form from Amazon then this book is far from redundant. As far as I know this is the only printed material that covers JBoss 3.0 and I will probably buy a copy.

PDF is fine but no substitute for the printed page.

Ian.

I would just like to interject and say why we elected to publish a book on JBoss. Some of the feedback from the JBoss documentation/book seemed to indicate that it was perhaps a bit too inwards looking and did not provide an easy to use guide to working with JBoss. This to me seemed like an opportunity to publish a book on JBoss with a different objective.

Of course the nature of the JBoss server means that we did need to explain a fair amount about configuring MBeans etc. which brings it closer to the documentation than was intended. However, the focus of the book is still very much about providing the necessary configuration to deploy applications to JBoss and not JBoss as an end unto itself.

Most topics have multiple sources of information on them, but this doesn't necessarily make one more valid than the other. Obviously, the documentation provided through the JBoss group has a more 'official' stamp but I was more interested in a user's experience to working with JBoss.

Finally, we are planning an Oracle 9iAS title in this series, which is due out around May.

Now that Wrox has ceased operation, will the planned Oracle9iAS, WebSphere 5.0, and WebLogic 8.1 handbooks see the light of the day? Has any other publisher shown any interest to buy the book rights?

That's too bad you feel that way. I am a normal J2EE developer and I found the book was very useful. The JBoss docs go way too much into the internals of JBoss. I would call this book 'JBoss for busy people'.

Bill,
   Thats amazing observation on your part!. Quite impressive. I usually won't buy any books on s/w under GPL anyways. Thanx


- Nikolas

Are these excellent books available for purchase in electronic format PDF?

Kind regards,
Rolf

The book is available on Amazon

The Jboss book is an excellent reference for anyone wanting a thorough understanding of setting up JBoss and running it in development and production. It provides an excellent coverage of using CMP2 with JBoss with good illustrated examples.

Professional IBM WebSphere 5.0 Application Server:
http://www.wrox.com/books/1861005814.htm

JBoss, Weblogic and Websphere.
Seems that these books are going to be good.
And specially the recommendation of Rod for Weblogic. I want to have one, even though I dont work on Weblogic.

There is one major player in Application Server market which Wrox press seems to be ignoring, Oracle 9i Application Server (Release 2). This is a complex product from installation to administration. I would like to see a book on 9iAS by Wrox Covering J2EE, WebCache and Forms Services in detail.

Regards Rasin

Rasin, I completely agree. Oracle 9i (Orion based) is a good product, but I've found that it's hard to interest clients in it. Maybe if there were a few books it would make a difference!

Although it does not have a good market share, I think that it will dominate in the near future.
You might have heard that how fast OC4J container deploys ear and war files.

> I completely agree. Oracle 9i (Orion based) is a good product, but I've found that it's hard to interest clients in it.

Yes, but for the clients who already use oracle database and specifically those who use Forms will definetly show interest.


> Maybe if there were a few books it would make a difference!

I did'nt get this statement.

Few books pertaining to 9iAS or other App Servers.

Thanks Rasin.

I meant "if there were some books covering Oracle 9iAS".

Strange, it seems that these books are not listed on www.javashelf.com. I will investigate why and also add a section on JBoss. Amazon also lists two JBoss books by Marc Fleury, for information.

Bertrand
http://www.javashelf.com