Recommended Reading

This book refers to many of the 23 design patterns discussed in the classic book Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software from Addison Wesley (ISBN 0-201633-61-2). Although many of the patterns presented in this book merely codify the practice of any skilled OO practitioner, it provides a common language for architects and is essential reading for any serious developer. It is assumed that the reader has read, and has access to, this book.

I also use pattern names introduced in Core J2EE Patterns: Best Practices and Design Strategies from Prentice Hall (ISBN 0-130648-84-1), as these are widely accepted. Although the present book can be read without reference to Core J2EE Patterns, it is recommended reading. Note, however, that I advocate a different approach in several areas. Also, some sections of Core J2EE Patterns, especially those relating to entity beans, are out-dated by the release of the EJB 2.0 Specification.

Some J2EE patterns are also discussed from EJB Design Patterns from Wiley (ISBN 0-471208-31-0). Again, this is recommended, although not essential, background reading.

A good reference covering the J2EE 1.3 platform is essential. I recommend Professional Java Server Programming J2EE 1.3 Edition from Wrox Press (ISBN 1-861005-37-7). Ed Roman's Mastering Enterprise JavaBeans, (Second Edition), from Wiley (ISBN 0-471417-11-4) is a good book on EJB.

Full Javadoc for the J2EE 1.3 platform is available online at
http://java.sun.com/j2ee/sdk_1.3/F;techdocs/api/index.html

Finally, all professional J2EE architects and developers should refer to the specifications that define the J2EE 1.3 platform, which are available from http://java.sun.com/j2ee/download.html. Throughout this book, I will refer to the relevant sections (such as EJB 17.4.1) of the following specifications:

• J2EE 1.3

• EJB 2.0

• Servlet 2.3

• JSP 1.2

Where relevant, I'll also refer to the J2EE 1.4 specification releases, now in public draft and also available from Sun: notably EJB 2.1, Servlet 2.4 and JSP 2.0.