J2EE Study Group Curriculum Details

Gary Berosik and I [Stephen Thompson] have spent alot of time reviewing various options for study material on J2EE. We have broken it into two separate categories. Level 1 is the J2EE Application technologies and Level 2 is the Architecture components.

Level 2		J2EE Architecture Web Services Container EJB Container Persistence Layer (databases)
Level 1		J2EE Application Technologies Presentation & Control: Servlets, JSPs Model: EJBeans: Session, Entity, Message Data Layer: JDBC, Bean/Container managed persistence

In the interests of ensuring a common base from which to proceed, Gary and I choose to focus on the Level 1 technologies first before proceeding to the Level 2 architecture - componant swapping activities. Level 2 Architecture - Componant swapping will wait until Fall (September and later) when the group has a common understanding of the application level technologies. I include myself in that number, too. It seemed to be too much to just jump into componant/container level swapping without having experienced the application level elements of J2EE: the different bean types, web-services, data layer communication, and the compile-deploy process.

So for the summer of 2002 the monthly meetings of the Java_SIG group of OTUG will focus on the application level technologies of EJBs, JSP, JDBC, etc. We wil linstall the SUN reference version of the EJB container (with Tomcat for web services) and Cloudscape for the data layer.

The study sessions will use the SUN J2EE tutorial with self-directed readings from Roman's Master EJBs vers II book. The schedule is tentatively planned as follows:

May 28th:

	Install J2EE and associated software
	Complete the "Getting Started " part of the Sun J2EE Tutorial insure correct installation practice deploying an example with SUN's J2EE deploy tool

On Own:

	Read Tutorial section: "Enterprise Beans"
	Read Roman's Book chapters 1-3 (or as much as you wish)

June Meeting:

	Complete Tutorial section "Session Beans"
	Get a start on section "Bean Managed Persistence" if time

On Own:

Continue to read in Roman's Book

July Meeting:

	Complete "Bean Managed Persistence" section
	Complete "Container Managed Persistence" section

On Own:

Continue to read in Roman's Book

August Meeting:

	Complete section "Message Beans" (fairly short)
	Complete "JSP Technology" and "JSP Custom Tags" sections
	We will skip the "Servlets" material. See the egroups file section for a self-directed tutorial on Servlets I wrote (and presented in April)

I have plans to burn a CD with the J2EE software on it for use by the Group in the May meeting. If you have the ability to create a CD then please do so and bring it along for insurance (in case I don't get time to make one) It should contain:

• JRE 1.3
• JSDK 1.3
• J2EE 1.3.1
• J2EE Tutorial bundle
• J2EE Documentation
• ANT 1.4

BRING a LAPTOP so we can all get "hands-on" practice. If mine is the only one, then it will be "less filling" for those confined to looking over someone's shoulder!!!

About OTUG:

The Object Technology User Group is an umbrella user group spanning languages, methods, tools, and technologies for the object community in the Minneapolis - St. Paul area.

OTUG exists to foster an environment for professional discussion and education in all aspects of object technology. Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month and are a mix of general and special interest discussion, panel sessions, and featured presentations. One need not be a member to attend a meeting, but members receive The OTUG Connection, a monthly newsletter featuring meeting announcements, columns, book reviews, and technical articles. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in object technology.

See www.otug.org for more information.