Java Beans is the most important new development in Java this year. Beans is the next generation of Java technology that not only adds features the language lacked, but also lets Java programs interoperate with a number of development environments. The initial release includes a bridge for Microsoft's ActiveX/COM; future releases will include bridges for Netscape's LiveConnect and IBM's OpenDoc. Since it's a "component architecture" for Java, Beans can be used in graphical programming environments, like Borland's JBuilder, or IBM's VisualAge for Java. This means that someone can use a graphical tool to connect a lot of Beans together and make an application, without actually writing any Java code -- in fact, without doing any programming at all. Graphical development environments let you configure components by specifying aspects of their visual appearance (like the color or label of a button) in addition to the interactions between components (what happens when you click on a button or select a menu item). One important aspect of Java Beans is that components don't have to be visible. This sounds like a minor distinction, but it's very important: the invisible parts of an application are the parts that do the work. So, for example, in addition to manipulating graphical widgets, like checkboxes and menus, Beans allows you to develop and manipulate components that do database access, perform computations, and so on. You can build entire applications by connecting pre-built components, without writing any code. Developing Java Beans is for people who need to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in programming technology. Minimally, developing Beans means adopting several simple design patterns in your code. However, that's only the beginning. To take full advantage of the Java Beans architecture, you should understand how to write classes that are serializable, use events for communication between classes, know when and how to provide BeanInfo classes that give graphical environments more information about your components, and provide property editors and customizers that let graphical tools work with more complex Beans. The book covers:

• Events, event listeners, and adapters

• Properties, indexed properties, bound properties, constrained properties, and vetoable property changes

• Persistence, serialization, versioning, and object validation

• Packaging Beans using JAR files

• The BeanBox, a prototypical development tool

• Reflection and introspection

• Property editors and customizers

• The ActiveX bridge; using Java Beans in Visual Basic programs

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 22 Ratings

Confusing book about beans - 2001-01-12
Reviewer Rating:
This is not a good tutorial about Java Beans. In order to explain the Java Bean concept you have to start with the Java Beans specifications of Sun. This would answer question about which things are relevant and why they are relevant in JavaBeans development. Now the the reader almost jumps into a long winded explanation about events and adapters, wondering why this is relevant and what the writer wants to explain. To make matters worse: the example contains errors! Basically, after the first three chapters I was utterly confused.

This book also needs a clearer description about the use of Java Beans. In a next update we definitely need a chapter about how JavaBeans are used in Java Server Pages.

Good book, but not only about Java Beans though. - 2000-11-09
Reviewer Rating:
This book is titled "Developing Java Beans". It spends lots of time to talk about the detailed architecture of Event model and other important topics used in Beans. It is well written and easy to follow. However, may not be the good book for those poeple in a rush just want to how to write a Java Beans.

Events? Adaptors? Applets? What about Beans? - 2003-06-02
Reviewer Rating:
I've been programming for 10 years, and I have 2 bookcases full of ORA and ADW books. I have to say that this is among the most confusing programming books I've seen.

I'm in the same position as the guy below who's confused after 3 chapters. The first couple of chapters of this book seem to be a tutorial about event handling, and applet creation. Applets? I have no idea where the author is going with this stuff. It's not that I don't understand the concept of event handling, it's just that this guy does not explain what the heck handlers and listeners have to do with beans. I'm sure they do, somehow...

Perhaps if the author provided an an explanation up front about where he's going with the code, I'd stick with the program. Even better, how about an overview of why beans are so great and useful, with some trivial examples. Then progress to the 'real world' stuff.

I'm dissapointed with this book because I need to learn about Beans... fast. 3 chapters of working bean code and good examples would have been enough for my instincts to kick in and take me the rest of the way. I don't have the time to search for answers, I thought that a $30.00 investment in an ORA book would have saved me hours of searching. Well, not this time.

If you can get the applets from chapters 1 and/or 2 working, please post how in this forum. You'd be doing a lot of folks a favor. Good luck figuring out if you should be compiling *.java.1 or *.java.2 examples.

That's enough about this one... Now I have to find a GOOD beans book.

A good book for the uninitiated - 2000-09-05
Reviewer Rating:
Actually I bought this book about two years ago, and at that time Java Beans were gaining popularity as an instance of component model for distributed computing. I was at that time interested in Enterprise Java Beans rather than client side beans. So I did not really use the book that much. However, from the limited reading I did, it seemed like a very well written book for the uninitiated, gave a good view of the Beans, how to create the client side beans etc. However, since then I have moved my field of interest from Java to some thing else, and in the mean time EJB have taken an increasingly important role in the server side component model. So I hope this book is updated or the same authors write a separate book on EJB (more meaningful to do the latter).

java beans - 2005-05-02
Reviewer Rating:
A nice little text with useful snippets of code, and advice on
applying them. However, the order of presentation can be a little
confusing. Also, some of the topics were a little beyond what I
needed it for, though that is not a bad thing.

What I found annoying at times was that it did not always address a
question I may have had about how to apply a particular class.
Having "Learning Java: 2nd Edition" helped somewhat to alleviate
this as it had more in the way of explanations than this book.

For the absolute beginner I would probably recommend another book.
However, if the reader has background knowledge in Java, or other
programming languages then this book will probably prove to be
useful.

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