Reviews for Java EE 5 Development with NetBeans 6

1. A good book on Java EE and NetBeans

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2009

   Heffelfinger has written this book to guide the reader through creating a series of applications using a step-by-step method, making extensive use of screenshots and highlighted code snippets to supplement the instructions. Heffelfinger doesn't expect the reader to mindlessly follow these steps though, as he takes time to briefly explain about technologies and why we need to do certain things. An example of this is where Heffelfinger mentions alternative products before using a product that ships with NetBeans, in chapter 1 MySQL and Postgres are both mentioned and while they are popular RDBMSs and arguable more so than the Java DB, using either in this context would have added little of real value, and in all probability they would have simply been an unnecessary distraction. I appreciated the logic behind this approach and was pleased to see it used throughout the book.
   
   Each of the chapters uses their own applications focusing on their particular technologies, which works well as it means the reader doesn't have to move from one chapter to the next in a predefined order. Heffelfinger repeats relevant notes where they are required to aid the reader, or direct them to the relevant information should they choose to read the book out of sequence. I personally started at the beginning and worked my way through the book, however, I have no doubt that this flexible approach would benefit more knowledgeable readers who are interested in specific Java EE technologies or NetBeans features.
   Alas this book isn't perfect, to me if a book is based around the step-by-step style then I feel I should be able to create the applications from the book alone and not be forced into downloading the code samples. The step-by-step style was the case for the first couple of applications, however, once we moved onto Servlet Development in chapter 2, Heffelfinger opted to leave out a simple JavaBean, explaining that it was a simple JavaBean and therefore it was not shown, but at only thirty one lines of code, including comments was this really necessary? Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident and the policy was prevalent throughout the remainder of the book.
   
   As for the downloaded code samples themselves, I personally found these to be of a mixed quality, which isn't to say the code or applications themselves are poor as they certainly achieve their aims, but is more a reflection of the randomness of whether they would run without modification or configuration, and while I accept that for some, configuration is required, it would have been beneficial if these steps were documented, possibly in an appendix. An example of this can again be found in chapter 2, where the Form Based Authentication code sample requires the Enable Authentication Constraint checkbox to be ticked, while the next code sample for Creating a JSP Fragment in NetBeans, comes with this checkbox already ticked. Despite this I managed to get all of the code samples, working without any major issues, except for those in chapter 9 which continue to frustrate me.
   
   I enjoyed reading this book and found it easy to read, with the content pitched at the right level for its target audience, developers new to Java EE 5 and NetBeans. That isn't to suggest it's the only book on NetBeans or Java EE 5 that you'll ever need to own, but then again I don't believe this is Heffelfingers aim.