"Real World Java EE Patterns" is a book targeted rather for developers with some experience with JEE. If you are a beginner, you can miss some context. If you have some experience with JEE, in this book you'll probably find solutions to problems that are familiar to you.
Adam Bien is great at explaining difficult topics. Difficult? I didn't find anything difficult in this book ;) E.g. transactions isolation is explained very clearly.
The book is very good catalog of JEE Patterns. Each pattern is described separately in similar manner. Each chapter has subchapters: "Problem", "Forces", "Solution", "Testing", "Documentation", "Consequences" and "Related Patterns". In "Problem" a reader can find short description of a problem the pattern should solve. "Forces" shows features that solution should have. "Solution" contains description of pattern, what classes it consists of and what is their responsibility. Usually accompanied by very clear and simple pieces of code. In "Testing" and "Documentation" author highlights what should we test when we use certain pattern, and what should be documented (quite obvious, isn't it?). In "Consequences" we can read about what are pros and cons of the pattern. "Related Patterns" is self explanatory. Most interesting subchapter is "Solution", and it also has sub-subchapters. One of them is "Rethinking". It is good part for experienced JEE developers. Adam shows why some patterns are obsolete. It doesn't mean you should never use it, but in most cases it is no longer necessary in JEE5 or 6. Some patterns, when moved from EJB2 to EJB3, are not adding any value, but instead are adding layer of abstraction and unnecessary complicating the system.
What I like about Adam Bien is that he is not only writing and talking about programming, but he's also programming. While reading the book, one can feel that the author has real experience with the topic. Sometimes he advices not to use what is common "best practice", when it is not necessary and is not adding any value. Good programmer should be able to balance pros and cons of possible solutions, not just blindly follow common practice.
There are small mistakes in the book, but only editor ones, like misspellings and formatting mistakes, single lines of code on next/previous page etc. Nothing really annoying, but there is room for improvement on this field.
Thank you Adam for this book!
