I wanted to buy an apache wicket book but I got stuck on stripes

So today I wanted to buy an apache wicket book, because I try to create a simple example which shows how you could use apache activemq as embedded JMS broker in a web application with spring and hibernate to process data asynchronously.

I have already written the whole business layer (spring, hibernate and JMS) but for a simple demonstration I need a web ui framework.

I didn’t want to write the ui in JSF, so I thought this is a good way to learn Apache wicket. I went to my locale bookstore but they didn’t had the “wicket in action” book.

But an other book got my attention. Stripes …and Java Web Development is fun again.

Stripes is an open source web application framework based on the model-view-controller pattern. It aims to be a more lightweight framework than Struts by using Java technologies such as annotations and generics that were introduced in Java 1.5, to achieve “convention over configuration”. [Wikipedia]

As fare as I can tell Stripes looks quite interesting. I’m not yet finished with reading, but I must say after few chapters I already have a glue how to implement the ui layer. The book covers also a chapter how you could integrate hibernate and spring annotations.

So I’m looking forward to see how stripes fits in with spring and hibernate.

Thanks Head First Servlet and JSP

…. I am now a Sun Certified Web Component Developer (SCWCD). The Oreilly Book Head First Servlet and JSP gives you a quick overview about what you should know. One advantages of the Book is it’s very “brain friendly”. But I got some tough  questions on the exam which were not covered in the Book.

When you want a Book which covers almost everything and when your are interested in a Book which you can keep after the exam as reference book the I recommend you the Book from David Bridgewater.

Also a good source to prepare yourself on a Sun certificate is the javaranch webiste.

I also got asked why should I take the exam. One statement I mostly heard was they only test you on “old technologies” like JSP and Servlets” and why should I take the exam when JSF is not part of the exam.

But most of the Java web frameworks use JSP and Servlets as the fundamentals. So with the SCWCD exam you will be forced to learn the fundamentals. You get a glue how JSF could be realized. Honestly there are a lot of things you will never use but I think when you prepare yourself seriously then it gives you a great benefit.

Steve which works in the same company as I took recently the Sun Certified Business Component Developer and he created some nice fact sheets which you can use to prepare yourself for the Sun Certified Business Component Developer exam.