Service-Oriented Java Business Integration

While not for the beginner, "Service-Oriented Java Business Integration" is an excellent reference for anyone looking to implement SOA-based solutions in their organization. Chapter 9, "POJO Binding Using JSR-181" is an excellent reference for those developers looking to implement complex solutions using POJOs - the best reference for JSR-181 I've seen so far and Chapter 15, "Enterprise Integration Patterns in ESB" is a must-read for all SOA architects.

The Service Oriented Java Business Integration has an organized structure, and is very well written overall. It is specifically targeted towards Java developers, as well as professionals who are integration architects. One of the best features of this book is the hands on method that it uses. Every concept is handled with detail, and it also provides aids for sample uses. It offers both diagrams and explanations for them, and it has a total list of code and instructions for deploying the samples, as well as running them. <br /> <br />The author also takes the time to explain what will happen when the code is processed. This book is excellent for times when you need to wait for something, such as when you're on a flight, and there is little to do. Even if you don't have a computer handy to try out the things that the author talks about, a reader can understand a lot with the code listings, as well as the instructions. Many problems which are noted by the author are things which many integration architects have to deal with on a daily basis. <br /> <br />The book has a number of good sections which are related to JBI, ESB, along with XPath, XFire, and ServiceMix. All these things are explained with examples that are highly detailed. There are excellent sections which show you how to properly develop customized JBI components, as well as packaging and deploying them. The chapters in this book which I enjoyed the most are the ones for EAI patterns, as well as the ones which explained the versioning for services. I highly recommend this book for those who are beginners of either SOA or JBI. <br /> <br />One thing that you have to keep in mind is that this book is quite hands on. Any Manager or Architect who must understand ESB, particularly at the strategy or conceptual level, would gain a lot from this book, especially if they aren't big fans of code samples. I found this book to be ideal if you're looking to learn the buzz words, along with a little bit of code(low level). This is a book of concepts, and those who are looking for a more conceptual guide will be enthralled with this book.

<br />If you are an Architect or Manager and need to understand ESB only at a strategy and conceptual level and you very much hate code samples, then this is not the right book to purchase. If you need just ESB theory, you can look at the book "Enterprise Service Bus". And if you want all nifty gritty details of JBI, the specification from Sun should help you. But if you want to understand those buzz words and also like to see some low level code, this book is something which you cannot ignore. <br /> <br />This is a book of concepts and code that clearly explains what JBI and ESB is. If you need a technical book with how-to approaches on ESB, this is the only book available today. Few other books are available with low level code, but you will never end up running the samples due to the requirements of heavy IDEs and/or Workshops. But using this book even a less experienced developer will be able to run the samples in day 1. <br /> <br />Anyone can understand the need to use a suitable runtime or framework, if you have to understand any concepts in code. The author has done enough justice there by selecting Apache Open source ServiceMix which is freely downloadable. Even though the code samples are run using this framework, the concepts and integration tricks used here are reusable and extendable to any other ESB runtime. This is something the other reviewer has missed, it seems. <br /> <br />The author balance complex message exchange patterns with a large number of visuals. I spotted few minor editing typos, but they don't get in the way of the material. <br /> <br />I recommend this book to anyone who needs to understand JBI, ESB and Web Service integration. <br />