Justin Cheers, that's just what I was looking for....
Anymore anyone...? Kola >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Justin MacCarthy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >> Sent: 19 November 2002 15:30 >> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Subject: [ cf-dev ] review: Macromedia Reality ColdFusion MX / J2EE >> >> Here is a quick review of my initial reading of >> >> Macromedia Reality ColdFusion MX / J2EE >> by Ben Forta / Drew Falkman / Kristian Cibulskis / Bonnie Plottner. >> http://www.forta.com/books/0321129482 >> >> Any mistakes, omissions, mail me, I'll fix 'em. >> >> >> What is it ? >> -------------------- >> >> This book explores the use of J2EE and ColdFusion MX. It describes the >> use >> of EJB, JMS, Java Classes, XML with MX. This book is not for beginners, a >> decent understanding of J2EE, CFML, SQL, XML etc is required. OO would be >> helpful, but this book is a gentle introduction in itself. >> >> >> Details >> -------------------- >> The applications described in this book are pretty good. Of course they >> are >> limited by size, to be an effective example, but the are large enough to >> explore ideas and concepts, and to explore various features of MX and >> J2EE. >> >> The example applications are a Portal, an E-Commerce app, a B2b project , >> a >> CRM system and a Content site. >> >> >> Each example project is spilt into 5 sections: >> >> Product requirements >> Initial Thoughts >> Development >> Solution >> Delivery >> >> Each of these sections, explores the developers process, at each stage of >> the application design. This is done though the eyes of the various >> developers working on the application, and in that way explores the >> different layers involved, the presentation layer, the business layers >> and >> the Data layer. >> >> >> Interesting things discussed in this way: >> >> The Development process >> Patterns >> UML >> Using the Jakarta Project and other open source projects >> TAGlibs >> JMS >> Instant Messaging via Jabber >> EJB and eb-sql (even CMP, BMP MDB) >> CFC's >> Deployment of mixed apps. >> >> The title is "Reality" CFMX, and this book lives up to the title. The >> applications described present the same issues that real web developers >> deal >> with, day to day. Often books use example applications that suit the >> language/platform that the book is targeting. Of course in the real >> world, >> life is not so easy. For example, in chapter 3, on building a B2B >> application, they use EJB's to encapsulate some business logic. However, >> instead of just blindly using EJB's for everything, they discuss a >> weakness >> of EJB's; the speed of access to tabular, read-only data. So they decide >> to >> bypass the EJB for read-only operations, and instead encapsulate those in >> a >> CFC. This is kind of solution used in the "real world". It's refreshing >> to >> see it in a book. >> >> What I didn't like. >> -------------------- >> >> This is the first Macromedia book I've read. It's the first Ben Forta >> book >> I've bought since the "CF Version 2 Construction Kit". >> >> The complaints I have are only about the layout/ style. I didn't like the >> recreation of the emails and memos, in a style to look like emails & >> memos, >> complete with notepad lines, tilted text etc. I'm more of an O'Reilly >> type >> guy myself. >> >> A couple of other things: >> >> No appendices - It would have been great to include a section with book >> recommendations, and resources. Especially, developer versions or free >> J2EE >> servers (http://java.sun.com), jBoss (www.jBoss.org), OpenJMS >> (http://openjms.exolab.org/), Tomcat (http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/) >> etc.. A section on setting up your development machine, installing MX & >> the >> J2EE software, etc. would be helpful too. >> >> No labels on the code snippets - e.g. code 1.2 etc.. >> >> No mention of testing methods - (well ok a tiny bit about "Road Testing" >> the >> app) . - I can't blame the guys too much for this, as there are not too >> many >> tools available in this area for CF, but maybe a little about using >> Cactus >> (http://Jakarta.apache.org/cactus) /JUnit (http://www.jUnit.org) to test >> EJBs and possibly using ANT (http://jakarta.apache.org/ant/index.html) >> for >> automating the packaging and >> deployment. >> >> >> Conclusion >> ------------------- >> >> I liked this book. It does a good job of exploring the use of Java with >> CFML. It would be a valuable addition to your (more experienced) >> developers >> bookshelves, and might inspire them to explore Java from MX, and increase >> their skills. >> >> http://www.forta.com/books/0321129482 >> >> >> Well done guys! >> Justin >> >> >> -- >> ** Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/dev%40lists.cfdeveloper.co.uk/ >> >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> For human help, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- ** Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/dev%40lists.cfdeveloper.co.uk/ To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For human help, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
