The result of this book is like the happy delivery of a second newborn baby, because it almost did not make it to birth. Just like the famous 1970's rock song with the title Nobody's Fault but Mine, by the mega influential stadium rock band Led Zeppelin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody%27s_Fault_but_Mine), let me say that this book was my responsibility, and so the delays were all mine. I had Java EE 7 instead of a Bible in my hand to keep me going.

As I finish the last section of this book inside a wonderful villa, Alhaurin el Grande, in sunny Andalucia in Southern Spain, I realize that there are so many people at Packt Publishing to thank for getting me over the finish line. Without these folks, my spectacular and bumbling efforts at writing copy and technical content would be nothing at all. Thanks to Kevin Colaco, Anish Sukumaran, Akshay Nair, Larissa Pinto, Silva Sundaran, Cedric Gatay, Sandeep Nair, Bala Subramanian, and Richard Kennard.

There were countless Java people in the 20 months of this project who provided advice and good suggestions for this second book. I can only mention selected people by name in a random order of importance: Chris Phelps, David Blevins, Roberto Cortez, Beverley Pereira, Josh Juneau, Daniel Byrant, Carl Dea, Alex Heusingfeld, Kazuyoshi Kamitsukasa, David Heffelfinger (a fellow Packt Publishing author), Aslak Knutsen (Red Hat and Arquillian), Yoshio Terado, Todd Costella, Ixchel Ruiz, and Andres Almiray. I want to especially thank Heather Vancura of the Java Community Process and Oracle for organizing the book signings at JavaOne 2015 (Digital Java EE 7) and Devoxx UK 2014 (Java EE 7 Developer Handbook).

I would like to thank my parents, June and Carl, for giving me the belief and will to carry on.

Finally, I would like to especially thank my endearing partner in life, Ms. Terry Neason. She put up with my constant procrastination about life, work, and the universe. She also provided love, wisdom, emotional support, and everything else when I most needed it.