Rating: 
Summary: different, excellent
Review: At my first look at this book I thought it was a comic book, but then I realized it is actually a comic book, but also a good, sound introduction to EJB technology. Let's be honest.. how many of us are absolutely sick of dry, boring texts that try to sell you ejb technology and themselves as they were rocket science? Most computer related books nowadays are ridiculously formal and dry. Is this the way to attract the interest of students or new developers? I don't think so, and neither do the authors of this book. This text is both a good intro to EJB and an example of how to teach. So it will be useful for both the novice programmer and the expert one who is involved in teaching or mentoring. Be warned that this book is really "different" so if you are kinda stiff and find it disconcerting to have lots of images scattered along the text
and like to concentrate only on the "essential raw matter" this
might not be the book for you. A fine example of the fact that only really serious people are not afraid of being funny...
Rating:
Summary: I really appreciate the Head First style of writing...
Review: Enterprise Java Beans are not easy to understand. A great way to get started in that area is the book Head First EJB by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates (O'Reilly).
Chapter list: Welcome to EJB; EJB Architecture; Exposing Yourself; Being a Session Bean; Entities are Persistent; Being an Entity Bean; When Beans Relate; Getting the Message; The Atomic Age; When Beans Go Bad; Protect Your Secrets; The Joy of Deployment; Final Mock Exam; Index
When I first started trying to learn EJB technology awhile back, I used a different book. Within two chapters I was totally lost and feeling really stupid. Not one to give up quickly, I gave it another try with Head First EJB. I learned more in the first chapter of that book than I learned in the entire prior book. The Head First method of writing and learning almost ensures that you'll be able to pick up even the most difficult concepts, and you'll definitely have more fun doing so.
The primary goal of this book is to help you pass the Sun Certified Business Component Developer Exam. Since Kathy and Bert are co-developers of the test, you can pretty much figure out they understand the content and style of the questions that you will face. It'd be hard to go wrong using this as a primary study guide. You can read the material to fill in the gaps of your understanding, and then use the mock exam to figure out if you're ready for the real test. But even if the test is not on your radar screen, this book will give you the foundational information you'll need to start out with EJBs. Once you've got that down, then you can go play with the more "serious" material...
Once again, a great title from the Head First team. I can't wait to see what they will cover next.
Rating: 
Summary: Presents concept concisely
Review: Good book to capture the 'finer points' which are often overlooked. Would suggest for a guy with some EJB experience. May not make great sense for a novice EJB programmer. Nice book for SCBCD.
Rating:
Summary: An Engrossing Adventure in the Land of EJBs
Review: Head First EJB is nothing short of phenomenal in a sea of mostly dry, uninspired, exposés of this very-involved subject matter. I teach all levels of Java including EJBs and advanced J2EE in a variety of advanced undergraduate software development courses to students at Purdue University. It is particularly challenging to motivate students to study and learn the intricacies of J2EE Architecture and Software Design, and its eventual deployment onto real-world Application Servers. Head First EJB stands alone in its treatment and presentation of advanced EJB concepts. This book rocks!
I have always said that a bad teacher can take the most inherently interesting material and make it boring, but a great teacher can take the most inherently boring material and make it exciting. I have added this book as one of the required texts for future offerings of my advanced undergraduate "Enterprise Application Development" course. I congratulate the authors on this marvelous, highly-readable and enjoyable body of work.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book needs getting used to...
Review: I bought this book because it is the only one available for the SCBCD exam. Being a techie Iam used to reading Books that are a little BLAND to put it mildly. This book is a little long for a study guide but it is extremely well written and covers pretty much everything that you need for the exam and it is such a delight to read.The illustrations are so damn good that you can remember them when you take the exam(Its true...I got a question in the exam about client trying to remove a stateless session bean and I remembered in the book where the container says some thing on the lines of 'Like I care').On first look it feels like you are reading a dummies book and once you get over that fact its very helpful.My only complaint with it is that its not easy to go back to a particular topic it so you cant really use it after the exam.But I guess thats not what the book was written for..
Rating:
Summary: EJB Laugh First!
Review: I got the book yesterday, and I love it! I wasn't even planning on taking this exam right now, but since the book is sooooo funny, I just want to keep reading it, so I thought I better as well study it seriously and take the exam now. Seriously, it is the funniest technical book you'll ever have seen. I think Kathy and Bert were right on target with the choice of style and tone for the book. After this one, I'll never want to read another boring technical book ever again! Besides the funniest drawings, pictures, and notes, the content is really well organized and focused on what you need to know for the exam, which is its only purpose. On this token, it **explains** things forwards and backwards, so you WILL learn this material. It is always a lot easier to learn if you know why something was done, why it was done in a particular way, and what the consequences would be if it was done any differently. This book is not a catalog of EJB specs: a lot of thought went into the presentation of the material, and it worked.
Rating:
Summary: Easy explanation of a complex subject
Review: I got the opportunity to preview this book before its release. It was not like reading any serious EJB book, but like reading a comic book (with pictures). I am pasting this from one of my messages in some other forum. This happened while I was in the preview mode and was getting a chapter at a time.
"I took the printout and went to my son's baseball game. Generally, when I take something to read with me (like any book on EJB), the game appears more interesting and I can't concentrate on my reading. However, last evening it was different. The material was so so interesting that I could finish reading all of it, in a breeze. One kid came to me and asked what comic am I reading. I was on the page with a lot of comic-style conversation between the provider, assembler and deployer going on." The best thing about this book is it is crystal clear in its explanation. It has a very logical flow which gives a deeper understanding of the subject. The difficult topics like bean life-cycles and associated interaction diagrams, system vs appl exceptions and how these are managed between container, bean and client, transactions/CMT and their propagation, persistence/CMP and EJB-QL have been made very clear. Important points have been reiterated many times to get them through our head. How the bean life-cycles/pooling/activation/passivation effects performance is explained very well. The sections like "BULLET POINTS", "there are no dumb questions", scenarios, summary, etc can prove very useful to clear the concepts and also if someone is appearing for an interview or the SCBCD exam. I find the certification books, in general, are good at clearing the conceptual nuances because that's what is asked in these exams. The mock questions are just superb. I wish I had this before my SCBCD exam; definitely it would have improved my score. Before reading this book, I went thru' Monson-Haefel's EJB-3rd ed book. That book has EJB1.1 and EJB2.0 strewn all over. I think if someone is interested in EJB1.1 vs EJB2.0 comparison kind of thing, that book may be good. Or may be useful for a EJB1.1 developer. With the EJB framework being way too complex with significant changes between 1.1 and 2.0, I found that book very very confusing. I would recommend the "Head First EJB" to anyone, from manager to a serious programmer. It should be used along with the EJB2.0 Specs during code development.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book - Got 95 for SCBCD
Review: I got this book as the authors wrote the exam, but I found this not only a great guide to the exam, but also to EJB. The comic style had me worried at first, but content is very relevant, readable, funny and understandable. In short the best introductory explanation of EJBs I've read. I supplemented this with reviewing relevant parts of the EJB specification and Valentin Crettaz's cheat sheets.
Rating:
Summary: Great certification prep book
Review: I just passed the exam using only this book and my own EJB experience. This book provides a thorough review of everything needed on the exam. For all you "just the facts ma'am" types, I'd like to say that I'm one too, but if you relax and enjoy the humor in this book, it actually does make it an easier read. The conversational style also helps in comprehension and retention. The only downside is that occasionally the humor contains what I would consider to be inappropriate language. Overall however, I highly recommend this book.
| 
