Head First Ejb: Passing the Sun Certified Business Component Developer Exam

This is the third book in the most excellent Head First series, and, as far as I can tell, just about the only book that covers the Business Component exam. We're are in luck that we have a good one. Actually I'd only give it 4 1/2 stars, mostly because of the outstanding quality of the first, "Head First Java". This book lacks the CD with the online test, which really helps since that's the format the real test takes. Good luck though trying to find any better practice exams than the one that comes with the book. The cover price of the book is nothing compared to just its worth alone. Gone are the quality control problems that the second book, "Servlets and JSP's", had. The book is much more thoughtful and less rushed. Of course I have to complain again about the indexes. I need to return to things I've read and that is very hard to do in the format the book is written in. There are few answers to the many exercise pages and you spend a lot of time thumbing through the pages trying to find answers. A good reference book will help here.This is not a reference book. It is however, in many ways an excellent primer that will complement a good reference. So if you're taking the exam -- buy the book -- and be grateful it's there.PS: I also now know why so many Java applications go so slow. Java people have no clue how databases work (I think perhaps even including the authors). This is clearly Sun's fault. Avoid CMP at all costs.

So many books (too many books) forget that people who are studying using a book look at one spread (two pages) at a time. After reading through HFE (twice!), then going back to some of my other books, I've become spoiled! Some books take the linear approach (write the whole dang book and let some mindless word processor paginate it). I guess one might guess that I don't appreciate that approach very much. It's obvious that with HFE, there was a lot of careful thought about what made-up the page / spread. I image discussions about maybe we have some extra room here, we could talk about this or that related thing. Or blast! We're running out of room here. I'd like to talk about this or that, but we need to be really tight here. Or, this is important enough to justify another page or two. Let me say that this makes the book much more pleasing and effective as a study guide than one with that linear approach.

I passed my programmer's exam because i studied the other wonderful book produced by these two authors; sun's certified programmer book. It helps me to code better too. The certification definitely helps me to become a very competent java programmer.Having passed the first exam, I started studying for my SCWCD exam. But then after working with Jakarta Struts for a while, I don't know whether it's worth while to take the SCWCD exam. I surely hate the JSP snippets, it makes JSP pages unmaintainable. So, I seriously do not know how SCWCD will help me to do my job better. Dilemma! Dilemma! We're not in college anymore; hence anything we learn should be worth the money, time, and effort.That's my humble opinion.Hence, i turn my attention to this book; I skimmed through it for the first couple of days and realize that this is the certification that I shoud pursue next; SCBCD instead of SCWCD. I look beyond the certification; the ability to program EJB to do a better job. Having intrinsic reasons to do something, for example learning the subject for the sake of the knowledge and implementation, is far better than having a piece of paper that says you are certified.I started reading the book and i honestly just cannot put it down. So far, the items covered in this book make a lot of sense to me; in terms of how i can use them to write better codes and design better EJB. I am a visual learner. Thus, the graphics in this book really enhance and expedite my learning process. When I read them, I understand the concepts instantly! Plus, they're funny. It makes the learning process very fun! Make sure you have some notebook and draw/sketch the important concepts. They help understand some complex points presented.All in all, for those of you who want to learn EJB but don't know where to start, this book could be your answer. You may not be going for the certification but the book will guide you through to make sure that you grasp all the needed concepts to become a competent EJB programmer.

I'm surprised, pleased, amazed, put your adjective there... it's one of the best technical books I ever read, and by far the most entertaining! I congratulate the authors for making learning so easy! I am taking an 'official' presential j2ee course and I have to tell you, I have learned more in two nights reading this book than in 2 months of course.I have taken a lot of courses on study and teaching techniques (I'm a teacher myself) and I think this is the way you have to present a technical content. You end with a solid understanding of the subject, you remember the subject... and you smile at it! can you ask for more?

This book is no longer relevant. It does not address EJB 3, it addresses EJB 2.0. The EJB specification has radically changed. Do not waste your time on this book. I recommend a more current EJB 3 book, such as EJB 3 in Action.

Learning about Java Beans made easy

I bought Head First EJB because: 1. I didn't know anything about EJB, and 2. I bought Head First Java a while back and really enjoyed the style and learned a lot. This style is not for everyone as I read in some of the other reviews. But I personally prefer this style to the "traditional" how-to-program books - much more readable to me. Keep it up, Head First!

cheap price; quick and dirty to get up and running to teach son java and all the toys

Really nice and helpful book for learning EJB courses. It helped me a lot while preparing the final exam. I learnt a lot of practical skills here. And they are up-to-date so that I still need to review them with the book after I started to work.

I used this book to pass the exam with about a weeks preparation. It covers the syllabus of the exam pretty comprehensively. Its an engaging read for an EJB book, and does an excellent job of describing concepts. As for gripes, I think it would have been nice to have had some practical coding examples for each chapter (even if not mentioned in the book, to have access to on the website). Also, although the explanations are clear and innovative, they can sometimes seem a bit long winded, which can be a pain when revising. All in all, excellent value for money.

I can buy Head First books with close eyes and without reading any reviews. I have read many books from this series particularly for Java and these books are just amazing. Although, this is an old book but it gives you the real understanding of the concepts. These books are easy to read with pictures and just great. I would recommend this book to any one if you really wants to know about EJBs.My request to Head First team is that they should update their books with time and should have more books written on Java technologies.

thank you

I am still reading but up to now it`s been a good investment. I am learning ejb easily. Enjoying it!