Spring in Action

For anybody who is looking to start with the Spring Framework I definitely recommend the “Spring in Action” book. While you find loads of resources on the Web (aka lots of time to be invested) the book has indeed the approach you need if you are a beginner.

The reader is accompanied through the different chapters where the concepts are introduced incrementally and supported by good code samples. Also to be appreciated is the occasional use of UML diagrams to explain the interaction between classes.
It is available on Manning, and definitely worth the 30 bucks.

Part1 Core Spring is by far the most interesting as it covers IoC, bean wiring and AOP. Other chapters present the Enterprise features of Spring, from database access (JDBC and Hibernate) to security, messaging and Web Services. The book has also an introduction to Spring MVC and some words about the integration with other frameworks.

Key features: Easy to read, step-by-step approach, clear code samples.

Make sure it is the 2nd edition (Aug 2007) which is based on Spring 2.

Building XML Web Services with Java: Hands-On

Few weeks ago I attended the “Building XML Web Services with Java: Hands-On” training course offered by LearningTree International.

Aside the excellent central location in London and the nice facilities (canteen, coffee corners, Internet access, lab) available to the students I really have to say it is a very good training which I would definitely recommend to anybody who wants to get going with the Web Services and SOA business.

The program of the course covers different aspects related to Web Services with special focus on the standards, protocols and the Java APIs.

JUnit JNDI DataSource helper package

“jrunittesthelper” is a library offered by JavaRanch Codebarn which can be used to simulate a JNDI lookup for database connections. It comes really handy for Junit test cases written to test production code which would typically require a JNDI lookup in order to instantiate the JDBC datasource.

Installation and Configuration

Download the zip file from JavaRanch Codebarn

Include the jrunittesthelper.jar in the classpath (ant or maven) of your test packages

Create a jndi_unit_test_helper.properties

Maven Tips & Tricks – Extension

Just added 3 more topics. Check it out: Maven Tips & Tricks.

Maven Tips & Tricks – Part 1

Check this out: Maven Tips & Tricks.

It is my collection of tips, notes, workarounds and good practices about using Maven 2 and some of its plug-ins. Hopefully a good way to start with the tool and get around some of the initial effort required by the configuration of the POM, plug-ins and various settings.

This is just a start (5 topics) but the goal is to add more samples and notes later, making it (possibly) a good reference.