Chapter 1, Getting Started with GlassFish will discuss how to download and install GlassFish. We will look at several methods of deploying a Java EE application through the GlassFish web console, through the asadmin command, and by copying the file to the autodeploy directory. We will cover basic GlassFish administration tasks such as setting up domains and setting up database connectivity by adding connection pools and data sources.

Chapter 2, Servlet Development and Deployment will cover how to develop, configure, package, and deploy servlets. We will also cover how to process HTML form information by accessing the HTTP request object. Additionally, forwarding HTTP requests from one servlet to another will be explained, as well as redirecting the HTTP response to a different server. We will discuss how to persist objects in memory across requests by attaching them to the servlet context and the HTTP session. Finally, we will look at all the major new features of Servlet 3.0, including configuring web applications via annotations, pluggability through web-fragment.xml, programmatic servlet configuration, and asynchronous processing.

Chapter 3, JavaServer Pages will talk about how to develop and deploy simple JSPs. We will cover how to access implicit objects such as request, session, and so on, from JSPs. Additionally, we will look at how to set and get the values of JavaBean properties via the <jsp:useBean> tag. In addition to that, we will find out how to include a JSP into another JSP at runtime via the <jsp:include> tag, and at compilation time via the JSP include directive. We will discuss how to write custom JSP tags by extending javax.servlet.jsp.tagext.SimpleTagSupport or by writing TAG files. We will also discuss how to access JavaBeans and their properties via the Unified Expression Language. Finally, we will cover the JSP XML syntax that allows us to develop XML-compliant JavaServer Pages.

Chapter 4, JSP Standard Tag Library will cover all JSP Standard Tag Library tags, including the core, formatting, SQL, and XML tags. Additionally, JSTL functions will be explained. Examples illustrating the most common JSTL tags and functions will be provided; additional JSTL tags and functions will be mentioned and described.

Chapter 5, Database Connectivity will talk about how to access data in a database via both the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) and through the Java Persistence API (JPA). Defining both unidirectional and bidirectional one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationships between JPA entities will be covered. Additionally, we will discuss how to use JPA composite primary keys by developing custom primary key classes. We will also discuss how to retrieve entities from a database by using the Java Persistence Query Language (JPQL). We will look at how to build queries programmatically through the JPA 2.0 Criteria API and automating data validation through JPA 2.0's Bean Validation support

Chapter 6, JavaServer Faces will cover how to develop web-based applications using JavaServer Faces—the standard component framework for the Java EE 5 platform. We will talk about how to write a simple application by creating JSPs containing JSF tags and managed beans. We will discuss how to validate user input by using JSF's standard validators and by creating our own custom validators, or by writing validator methods. Additionally, we will look at how to customize standard JSF error messages; both the message text and the message style (font, color, and so on). Finally, we will discuss how to write applications by integrating JSF and the Java Persistence API (JPA).

Chapter 7, Java Messaging Service will talk about how to set up JMS connection factories, JMS message queues, and JMS message topics in GlassFish using the GlassFish web console. We will cover how to send and receive messages to and from a message queue. We will discuss how to send and receive messages to and from a JMS message topic. We will find out how to browse messages in a message queue without removing the messages from the queue. Finally, we will look at how to set up and interact with durable subscriptions to JMS topics.

Chapter 8, Security will talk about how to use GlassFish's default realms to authenticate our web applications. We will cover the file realm, which stores user information in a flat file, and the certificate realm, which requires client-side certificates for user authentication. Additionally, we will discuss how to create additional realms that behave just like the default realms, by using the realm classes included with GlassFish.

Chapter 9, Enterprise JavaBeans will cover how to implement business logic via stateless and stateful session beans. Additionally, we will explain the concept of container-managed transactions and bean-managed transactions. We will look at the life cycles for the different types of Enterprise Java Beans. We will talk about how to have EJB methods invoked periodically by the EJB container, by taking advantage of the EJB timer service. Finally, we will explain how to make sure that EJB methods are only invoked by authorized users.

Chapter 10, Contexts and Dependency Injection will talk about how JSF pages can access CDI named beans as if they were JSF managed beans. We will explain how CDI makes it easy to inject dependencies into our code. We will discuss how we can use qualifiers to determine what specific implementation of dependency to inject into our code. Finally, we will look at all the scopes that a CDI bean can be placed into.

Chapter 11, Web Services with JAX-WS will cover how to develop web services and web service clients via the JAX-WS API. We will discuss how to send attachments to a web service. We will explain how to expose an EJB's methods as web services. Finally, we will look at how to secure web services so that they are not accessible to unauthorized clients.

Chapter 12, RESTful Web Services with Jersey and JAX-RS will discuss how to easily develop RESTful web services using JAX-RS—a new addition to the Java EE specification. We will explain how to automatically convert data between Java and XML by taking advantage of the Java API for XML Binding (JAXB). Finally, we will cover how to pass parameters to our RESTful web services via the @PathParam and @QueryParam annotations.

It is required to install the Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.5 or a newer version, and GlassFish v3 or v3.1. Maven 2 is highly recommended, as all of the code examples use it. A Java IDE such as NetBeans, Eclipse, or IntelliJ IDEA is optional.

If you are a Java developer and wish to become proficient with Java EE 6, then this book is for you. You are expected to have some experience with Java and to have developed and deployed applications in the past, but need no previous knowledge of Java EE or J2EE. You will also learn how to use GlassFish 3 to develop and deploy applications.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "The <servlet> and <servlet-mapping> XML tags are used to actually configure our servlet."

A block of code is set as follows:

<servlet-mapping>
  <servlet>SimpleServlet</servlet>
  <url-pattern>*.foo</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

<b>Application Menu</b>
<ul>
  <li/> <a href="main.jsp">Main</a>
  <li/> <a href="secondary.jsp">Secondary</a>
</ul>
Current page: <%= pageName %>

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

javac -cp /opt/sges-v3/glassfish/lib/javaee.jar net/ensode/glassfishbook/simpleapp/SimpleServlet.java

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "At this point, we should click on the Deploy an Application item under the Deployment section in the main screen".

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