About the Book

About The Book

Leveling up on a new platform version means reading specification documentation and digging around blog posts, it's time-consuming and tedious, but not anymore.

This book contains all you need to know about what's new in Java EE 8. You already know Java EE, so why read a long book that explains what you already know? All features are discussed in detail with plenty of code examples to show how it works.

You can save yourself considerable time and learn only what you don't know. If you are time poor, then this book is for you.

By the end of this book you will be up to speed on the latest features of Java EE 8.

What the book covers:

The two new APIs:

I discuss the two new APIs in details and provide code examples for each feature.

• Java API for JSON Binding 1.1 (JSR 367)
• Java EE Security API 1.1 (JSR 375)

The three major updated APIs:

The headline features for each API are explored and supported with working code examples.

• Servlet 4.0 (JSR 369)
• Bean Validation 2.0 (JSR 380)
• Contexts and Dependency Injection for Java 2.0 (JSR 365)

The four minor updated APIs:

The important additions to each API is demonstrated with code.

• Java API for RESTful Web Services 2.1 (JSR 370)
• JavaServer Faces 2.3 (JSR 372)
• Java API for JSON Processing 1.1 (JSR 374) 
• Java Persistence API 2.2 (JSR 338)

Bonus Chapter

I have included a chapter about the new HTTP/2 protocol. The chapter covers the topology of a connection, request/response multiplexing, header compression, stream prioritization, server push, flow control and much more. This chapter contains all you need to know about HTTP/2.

How are the chapters structured?

Each chapter is dedicated to one API and is divided into six main sections. 

Overview

The overview section introduces the main features of the JSR and notable changes. The API’s evolution, motivations and goal are discussed in order to provide a background for the subsequent decision where appropriate.

Change Impact

The impact of adopting the new API is discussed in terms of the benefits and cost.

Headline Features

The headline features of the JSR are identified. Minor changes are included in this section for completeness.

Feature n

Each important feature of the JSR is discussed with code examples that demonstrate the feature in action.

Test Your Knowledge

Each chapter finishes with a few multiple choice questions that test your knowledge of the JSRs new features. Answers are given at the end of each chapter.

Interesting Links

At the end of each chapter is a collection of links to useful and interesting resources. These link will include the specification and associated Github repositories, interesting articles and other resources that may be of interest to the reader.

Answers

The answers to the Test Your Knowledge are given at the end of each chapter.

About the Author

Alex Theedom

@alextheedom

ALEX THEEDOM is a Java EE consultant and developer who passionately evangelize about Enterprise Java. He is an Instructor at LinkedIn Learning and the author of Java EE 8: Only What’s New published by Leanpub.com and co-author of Professional Java EE Design Patterns published by Wrox Press. He blogs profusely at readlearncode.com and writes for IBM developerWorks about Java EE. When he’s not in front of the screen you can often find him presenting at conferences on his favorite Java EE related topics.