Spring/EJB 3 books?

Question

Ok so I'm a complete beginner when it comes to Spring and EJB and I really want to change it, the problem is I can't find any single book on Spring 3/EJB 3, everything is about 2 (for Spring/EJB) or 2.5 (for Spring). What are the differences between 2.x and 3? Should I just go with the 2.x books and then google the differences? I was thinking about getting Pro Spring 2.5 from Apress and Head First EJB (huge fan, ut from what I've heard it is rather out of date), or are there better positions?

@Edit: that's what I thought, that 3's are too new. For EJB3 a friend of mine told me to get Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0, Fifth Edition from O'reilly but then again it got only 3/5 on their site, so I'm still not sure should I get it.

Answer 1

Spring 3 and EJB 3.1 are both so new that the books haven't caught up with the frameworks.

Your best bet for bleeding edge is the web, of course. EJB 3.1 is probably best supported on Glassfish. I'd recommend their documentation.

But there's value in Pro Spring 2.5 and Head First EJB if you've never used either one. The foundational information you learn will help pick up the latest.

Do be careful about Head First EJB. Make sure it's an edition that isn't EJB 2.0. If you can't find a good EJB 3 book, stick with Spring until something comes out.

Answer 2

EJB 3.0 has been around for a while. I've heard good things about EJB 3 In Action but haven't used it myself. The O'Reilly book is also the other source everyone talks about. Spring In Action was an excellent book on Spring 2.x. Manning is scheduled to release the new addition for Spring 3 in June. You can get the early access addition (partly finished) from the Manning site for the book.

If you are asking about a book that talks about EJB 3 and Spring 3 together I don't know if there is really anything out there. I also don't know what materials are out there about EJB 3.1 and Spring as they are supposed to be closely related. Hopefully the In Action Books get you where you need to go

Answer 3

For EJB 3, my recommendation would be EJB 3 in Action by Debu Panda, Reza Rahman, Derek Lane:

It's a very good reference and I really enjoyed reading it. It's just a great book (plenty of good reviews on Amazon).

For Spring 3, I'm aware of

But haven't read it.