Head First EJB

What you need for this book

Besides your brain and a pencil, you need Java, J2EE and a computer.

You do not need any other development tool, such as an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). We strongly recommend that you not use anything but a basic editor until you complete this book. A bean-aware IDE can protect you from some of the details that really matter (and that you’ll be tested on), so you’re much better off developing the bean code completely by hand. Once you really understand what’s happening, you can move to a tool that automates some of the bean-creation steps. We do recommend that you use a tool to build the XML deployment descriptor. You can use the j2EE Reference Implementation deploytool, or xDoclet.

Getting J2EE

• If you don’t already have a 1.3 or greater J2SE SDK, you need it. Although J2EE is not guaranteed to work with J2SE version 1.4 or beyond, you shouldn’t have problems with J2SE 1.4. But the spec guarantees ONLY J2SE 1.3 support. (You might be tested on that!)

• If you don’t already have an EJB 2.0-compliant server, go to java.sun.com and download J2EE 1.3. It includes the JAR file with the entire J2EE API (including the classes you’ll need for EJB development), and a practice Reference Implementation (RI) server.

  Do not get the new J2EE 1.4! The exam is based on J2EE 1.3, because 1.4 is too early in its life to be in widespread use in business. We expect that very few enterprise systems will migrate to J2EE 1.4 until late 2004 at the earliest. When J2EE 1.4 support hits critical mass, the exam will be upgraded to the new spec.

• The J2EE SDK does not include the API documentation, and you need it. Go back to java.sun.com and get the J2EE API docs. You can also access the API docs online, without downloading them, but that’s a pain.

• Once you’ve downloaded and unpacked/zipped/whatever (depends on which version and for which OS), you need to add a few environment variables, if you’re going to use the J2EE RI as your practice server. The download includes instructions, but expect to modify your PATH and CLASSPATH, and add new entries for J2EE_HOME and JAVA_HOME.

• If you’re going to take the exam, you’re gonna need the spec. Download the EJB 2.0 (not 2.1!) specification and keep it handy. There is nothing on the exam that isn’t mentioned in the spec. Most of our mock exam answers reference specific pages in the spec, where you can go to learn more about why you might have missed that question.

Java 2 Standard Edition 1.3

Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.3 (which includes EJB 2.0)