Books/tutorials that learn by writing an appliaction?

Question

Ok so how I see it the best way to learn is to write a real app so I've been wondering are there any books/tutorials that get you through different languages/frameworks by writing a single app and not by showing some random code snippets. What I mean is that in chapter one we create the app, then in chapter 2 we add some features and incrementally we build the app adding new features (like first some basic classes, then the gui then event handling etc.) and in the last chapter we have a full blown app.

I'm particularly interested in materials about:

• Spring framework
• Hibernate

And not java relate:

• Python (2.x or 3.x)
• Django

Answer 1

Django 1.0 Website Development by Ayman Hourieh walks you through creating a social bookmarking application. It covers everything to take you from zero to a deployed application including topics such as Javascript, tagging, and internationalization.

Answer 2

I would recommend Spring in Practice.

From its description:

(...)

Unlike the many books that teach you what Spring is, Spring in Practice shows you how to tackle the challenges you face when you build Spring-based applications. The book empowers software developers to solve concrete business problems "the Spring way" by mapping application-level issues to Spring-centric solutions.

(...)

Part 3 provides domain-specific recipes. Here, you'll find practical solutions to realistic and interesting business problems. For example, this part discusses Spring-based approaches for ecommerce, lead generation, and CRM.

There are several recurring themes throughout Spring in Practice, including Spring MVC, Hibernate, and transactions. Each recipe is an opportunity to highlight something new or interesting about Spring, and to focus on that concept in detail.

Check the Book Review on DZone.

Answer 3

A good introduction in Java webprogramming would be:

• Stripes: ...and Java Web Development Is Fun Again

In only 396 pages you will learn to build a Java CRUD webapplication in MVC style. Technologies involved: Java, JSP, JPA/Hibernate, templating, multilangual API, etc.