Fastest way to learn Flex and Java EE?

Question

Ok so me and my 2 friends have to make a webapp and well we think it's a good opportunity to learn JEE and Flex. The thing is we have very little knowledge about them and we have only 3 months to do it (it doesn't have to be super complicated). So my question is: what, in your opinion, would be the fastest way to learn them both? I guess we need to know some JSP, Serlvets, JPA (??), Flex, maybe JavaScript+CSS? Anything else like EJB? Should we also learn Spring (or Struts)? Obviously reading books would be a good idea, but I bet we won't make the deadline if we try to read all the books...

@Edit: I know the basics of JSP/Servlets (read Head First JSP&Servlets) but I made only 1 project so far (a semi-decent hangman with JSP/Serlvets and JPA for persistance) that's about it. Flex - I'm just starting, I know really the basics of mxml and as3.

As for why: 1) because we need to do a project for the uni and well I was thinking bout becoming a web dev (yup - jee+flex) after graduation, this is the perfect opportunity to learn them.

Answer 1

If it's a simple web application, you should focus on this:

• J2EE: if you have no knowledge about it: try learning Grails http://grails.org , which is a really easy to learn web framework for the Java Platform. It's based on Groovy instead of Java, but since Groovy is really close to Java, it won't be a problem (actually, it's easier than Java in many aspects) (a Grails application is actually a JEE application)

• Grails have a Flex plugin which will make your life a LOT easier too: http://www.grails.org/Flex+Plugin

• Download the Flex 3 developer guide at this link: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/flex3_documentation.zip It's really simple and easy to understend. This link will actually download the whole Flex documentation for you (which will be really handy)

• Insted of using a conventional text editor, use Flex Builder. It's paid, but is really worth the value (and it's cheap: only US$ 299,00)

Answer 2

JEE6 is easy, Flex integration will be painful

Here's how you could do your first webapp in 30 minutes with CDI/JPA/JSF

Answer 3

Fastest way to learn it? Start trying!

Answer 4

I've created a short list of resources for learning about integrating Flex and Java.

Answer 5

The easiest way is to start doing something (you'll meet the problems one by one, not all together).

You'll need to use JPA, Spring (as IoC container), Spring Security, JSF or Spring MVC, Flex.

Read a bit about all these technologies, what are they used for. And start working:

1. Configure security with Spring Security (you'll also need a DB for this purpose). It's rather difficult part because there are very few good documentation about Spring Security.

2. Create JPA mappings (i.e. domain model), DAOs, services (all these steps are rather simple because it's a routine and there are tons of docs with comprehensive and thorough examples).

3. Make decision between Spring MVC and JSF and create part of front-end (I would prefer Spring MVC in your case). It's also not very complicated part because you can find a lot of material and you can use StackOverflow efficiently to complete this part.

4. Integrate Flex with your application. I would recommend to read about this kind of integration before you start step 2.