The 'Sampling JUnit' chapter creates a test case for an application controller, which examines how several components work together. The 'Testing in isolation with mock objects' chapter introduces and demontrates mock objects, shows how to use mock objects as a refactoring technique, and looks at how mock objects can be used in an HTTP connection sample application.

'AsjpecJ: syntax basics' looks at pointcuts, advice, static crosscutting, and provides tips and tricks. The 'Authentication and authorization' chapter examines a simple banking application and compares conventional authentication and authorization techniques to those using AspectJ.

The 'Developing applications with Tiles' chapter looks at how to design applications with dynamic includes, how to use the Struts and Tiles frameworks together, Tiles Definitions and attributes, and application migration to Tiles. 'Validating user input' looks at how to configure and use the Commons Validator using multipage and localized validations, and how to write your own validators.

The 'Bitter Messages' chapter reviews the JMS API and its introduction into the J2EE platform in the form of Message-Driven Beans. It looks at potential pitfalls in designing message-based applications and uncovers antipatterns related to application performance and design. 'Bitter Tunes' discusses the importance of good performance tuning techniques; it also emphasizes the need for an automated test suite and the importance of testing before making assumptions about performance.

Jack Herrington looks at the general characteristics that any high quality code generator should have. He compares code generation tools for both traditional and extreme programming approaches such as ModelJ and XDoclet, and gives a synopsis of various MDA generators such as AndroMDA, ArcStyler and OptimalJ. He also provides tips'n'tools on how to build custom generators.

The second part of the aspect-oriented refactoring series introduces several practical AO refactoring techniques. It shows how to refactor crosscutting concerns such as exception handling, concurrency control, and worker object creation in an existing system. These techniques save significant amount of code as well as improve comprehensibility and maintainability. This article also discusses the role of AO refactoring in adopting AOP.

Aspect-oriented refactoring helps in reorganizing code corresponding to crosscutting concerns to further improve modularization and get rid of code-tangling and code-scattering. In this two-part series, Ramnivas Laddad examines the fundamentals of Aspect-Oriented refactoring, the steps involved in the process, and looks at a few common techniques.

Jess is a rule engine and scripting environment for the Java platform. JSR 94 is a developing JCP standard for interfacing rule engines to Java software. The reference implementation of JSR 94 is a driver for Jess; with it, you can connect Jess to Java software using the vendor-independent JSR 94 API. This article shows you how to use the JSR 94 API to access Jess from your J2EE or J2SE applications.

An exciting, upcoming offering of the Java Community Process, the JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL) combines the simplicity of HTML with the power of Java. For programmers and nonprogrammers alike, JSTL provides simple and reusable tools for common web-development tasks: loops, conditions, database access, XML manipulation, internationalization (i18n), text formatting, and more. In this article, we look at JSTL's basics -- its history, goals, and schedule.

The Art of Java Web Development is a guide to various topics required for state of the art web development. In this review, Kris Thompson, a Java framework expert, walks us through the different parts of the book. He discusses the evolution of frameworks, the various frameworks reviewed (Struts, Tapestry, WebWork, InternetBeans Express, Velocity and Cocoon), and framework best practices.

JUnit in Action shows you how to benefit from unit testing using the JUnit open source testing framework. It discusses unit testing techniques and best practices and gives examples of tough situations such as how to unit test EJBs, database applications, JSPs and Taglibs. In this book review, Dion Almaer gives a detailed synopsis of the sections on JUnit, Testing Strategies, and Testing Components and highlights some of the key strategies and tools used in the book.

In this book review, Dion Almaer discusses the importance of this book for developers, how it clearly discusses AOP concepts and validates AspectJ as a very real technology through various examples. He examines the three parts of the book, including sections on monitoring techniques, policy enforcement, pooling and caching, and advanced topics such as AOP design patterns and idioms.

Bruce Tate, author of Bitter Java and co-author of Bitter EJB, looks at various topics covered in his two books, Bitter Java and Bitter EJB. He talks about the future of JDO, the top issues with storing state and messaging, and goes over some effective tools for the build process, testing, and measuring performance. He also discusses when a project should use test-driven development.

Kito Mann, author of JavaServer Faces In Action compares UI-oriented and foundation-oriented frameworks, and what JavaServer Faces (JSF) will mean to users of frameworks such as Struts, Webwork and Tapestry. He talks about what's new in the beta release, the state of vendor tool support for JSF, and lists various tools and apps making use of JSF today. He compares JSF to ASP.NET WebForms and outlines the challenges for industry-wide adoption of JSF.

Gavin King, author of Hibernate In Action talks about how Hibernate got started, why it has become so successful, and some of its best features. He discusses the need for queries vs. traversing object hierarchies in Java, how Hibernate deals with stored procedures, and the importance of transparent persistence. He looks at the biggest challenges he faced building a persistence framework, questions the need for domain models in many applications, gives his opinion on JDO and bytecode manipulation, and describes how Hibernate uses CGLib for dynamic proxying.

Shawn Bayern, author of JSTL In Action talks about the JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL), the problems it solves, interesting features in JSTL, and the expression language. He looks at how JSTL fits into an enterprise architecture, and how it can help with division of labour in a J2EE project. He also discusses the relationship between JSTL, the Apache Group and Sun.