Pro Spring Integration Review

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(More customer reviews)Let's be honest: Most tech books aren't gripping reads. I think that's something we're all used to. Pro Spring Integration takes that issue to the next level, though, and that's very unfortunate. The information on Spring Integration the book provides, whether you've read the framework's excellent documentation or not, is top notch. They not only cover all the features of Spring Integration 2.0.1, they also touch on some additional frameworks you might use to enhance or augment its feature set. Their overview of the Spring Framework itself is one of the more useful, thoughtful ones I've seen in any of the books I've read, and their coverage of the new SpEL (Spring Expression Language) added in Spring 3.0 was most welcome. I've actually learned about several Spring and Spring Integration features that have substantially simplified a complex Spring-based application I work on at my day job, and that is a good testament to the value of this book.
That makes it all the more unfortunate that the writing and editing of the book make it so much less accessible than it could be. The writing is heavy, wordy--it feels like reading a Ph.D. thesis rather than a more informal tech book. Many concepts are discussed repeatedly, reiterated a dozen times. In all, I'd say this book is probably a solid hundred pages longer than it actually needs to be. An extra hundred pages filled, like the rest of the book, with misspelled words and grammatical errors. (Note: When I graduated high school, my mother didn't read my yearbook; she spellchecked it, cover to cover. Those sorts of errors are particularly distracting to me--your mileage may vary on how much of an issue they are.)
While the majority of the examples in the book are both correct and comprehensible, an important combination, there are a few that show the effects of edits and refactoring, where the authors have gone back and modified the sample a little to try and illustrate more or different concepts. Those effects are expressed either in the form of discussion text around the example that no longer matches the code being shown, or example code that doesn't compile or run. However, with most examples that have those issues there is another example in the same section that fills in the gaps and would have made the earlier sample compile and run correctly if they had been merged. Between them, you're able to see all the pieces.
The samples in this book are unique, compared with other books I've read, in that they all use a combination of Spring component scanning and autowiring, JavaConfig and XML-based configuration. This showcases a lot of the flexibility you have, as a Spring user, in wiring up your applications. It also makes some of the simpler examples noticeably more complicated than they needed to be. They're harder to follow since it's more difficult to tell where any given piece is coming from. That's a reality in modern applications, though, and something that many developers are actually coping with day-to-day. As a result, I view the samples as a point in this book's favor.
All in all, I would not recommend this book as one you would buy and read through. If you're using Spring Integration, or thinking about using it and wondering what benefits it has to offer, though, I would definitely recommend this book as a cookbook, or a reference manual when you'd like a more thorough explanation of a Spring Integration feature you're using, or thinking about using.

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Pro Spring Integration is an authoritative book from the experts that guides you through the vast world of enterprise application integration (EAI) and application of the Spring Integration framework towards solving integration problems. The book is:
An introduction to the concepts of enterprise application integration
Areference on building event-driven applications using Spring Integration
Aguide to solving common integration problems using Spring Integration

What makes this book unique is its coverage of contemporary technologies and real-world information, with a focus on common problems that users are likely to confront. This book zeroes in on extending the Spring Integration framework to meet your custom integration demands. As Spring Integration is an extension of the Spring programming model, it builds on theSpring Framework's existing support for enterprise integration. This book will take you through all aspects of this relationship and show you how to get the most out of your Spring applications, where integration is a consideration. It discusses simple messaging within Spring-based applications and integration with external systems via simple adapters. Those adapters provide a higher-level of abstraction over Spring's support for remoting, messaging, and scheduling, all of which receives coverage in this book.


What you'll learn
Introduces the wide world of Spring Integration with an overview of application integration, the patterns involved and then quickly moving into applications
How to identify integration problems that are best solved using Spring Integration and enterprise application integration (EAI)
Discover and apply EAI patterns and related architectural concepts like staged event driven architectures (SEDA)
Explore the concepts behind message-oriented middleware (MOM)
How to interface with external systems using Spring Integration
Extend the Spring Integration stack with custom adapters, endpoints, and more
What are the next steps to production with expert insight into error handling, monitoring, management, and scaling the enterprise Java application

Who this book is for
This book is for any developer looking for a more natural way to build event-driven applications using familiar Spring idioms and techniques. The book is also geared towards architects seeking to better their applications and increase productivity in their developers.

Table of Contents
Enterprise Application Integration Fundamentals
Exploring the Alternatives
Introduction to Core Spring Framework
Introduction to Enterprise Spring
Introduction to Spring Integration
Channels
Transformation and Enrichment
Message Flow: Routing andFiltering
Endpoints and Adapters
Monitoring and Management
Talking to The Metal
Enterprise Messaging with JMS and AMQ
Social Messaging with Email, XMPP, and Twitter
Web Services
Extending Spring Integration
Scaling Your Spring Integration Application
Spring Integration and Spring Batch
Spring Integration and Your Web Application

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Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions Review

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(More customer reviews)To do justice in reviewing this book, I should depict every single pattern and give you multiple examples on how it would apply to your job as a Project Manager, Software Architect, Technical Lead or a Developer. That would be a 500-page book all by itself. In short, this is one great book. The first book to actually take a complex and ever growing topic such as MOM, Message Oriented Middleware, and give you its benefits and the best practices/patterns all in one book.
The author starts by giving the reader the top reasons why messaging should be chosen for the next project:
1)Remote communication
2)Platform/Language Integration
3)Asynchronous communication
4)Variable timing
5)Throttling
6)Reliable Communication
7)Disconnected operation
8)Mediation
9)Thread Management
The author goes into detail on each of these reasons. These reasons would convince any software architect, but the author goes even further than that and reiterates the benefits of each of these reasons and elaborates on them thru out the book.
Chapter 3 of the book starts by breaking up a messaging system into its main components and briefly explaining each one:
1)Message Channel
2)Message
3)Pipes and Filers
4)Message Router
5)Message Translator
6)Message Endpoint
Each of these high level topics is then broken down and various patterns are shown for each section. Just like the GoF book, the reader can simply go the desired section and read the patterns that are associated with that "subsystem"
Each section is then followed by a full-blown example, which to me is priceless. The examples are shown using the most popular middleware vendors such as TIBCO, IBM, Microsoft, Web Methods, SeeBeyond and a couple JMS vendors. The examples show the similarities and differences in implementation but clearly show how EACH pattern that was just covered in the previous section applies to the example.
Having worked with many of the MOM vendors covered in this book, Chapter 7, Message Routing, is my favorite chapter. The author breaks down this topic into 14 different patterns:
i)Pipes and Filers
ii)Message Router
iii)Content-Based router
iv)Message Filter
v)Dynamic Router
vi)Recipient List
vii)Splitter
viii)Aggregator
ix)Resequencer
x)Composed Message Processor
xi)Scatter-Gather
xii)Routing Slip
xiii)Process Manager
xiv)Message Broker
The chances are, not many of us need to write a MOM due to the fact that there are many vendors out there that are doing that already! But one could certainly use this section for education purposes, and/or use it a checklist of "nice-to-haves" when shopping around for a MOM vendor. By reading the book, you can figure out what "features" apply to you, your application and your enterprise, and take that list and see which vendor has implemented that feature.
In summary, Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf have done a fantastic job depicting a very complex topic. I have made a place for this book right next to the original GoF Design Patterns book.

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*Would you like to use a consistent visual notation for drawing integration solutions? Look inside the front cover. *Do you want to harness the power of asynchronous systems without getting caught in the pitfalls? See "Thinking Asynchronously" in the Introduction. *Do you want to know which style of application integration is best for your purposes? See Chapter 2, Integration Styles. *Do you want to learn techniques for processing messages concurrently? See Chapter 10, Competing Consumers and Message Dispatcher. *Do you want to learn how you can track asynchronous messages as they flow across distributed systems? See Chapter 11, Message History and Message Store. *Do you want to understand how a system designed using integration patterns can be implemented using Java Web services, .NET message queuing, and a TIBCO-based publish-subscribe architecture? See Chapter 9, Interlude: Composed Messaging.Utilizing years of practical experience, seasoned experts Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf show how asynchronous messaging has proven to be the best strategy for enterprise integration success.However, building and deploying messaging solutions presents a number of problems for developers.Enterprise Integration Patterns provides an invaluable catalog of sixty-five patterns, with real-world solutions that demonstrate the formidable of messaging and help you to design effective messaging solutions for your enterprise.The authors also include examples covering a variety of different integration technologies, such as JMS, MSMQ, TIBCO ActiveEnterprise, Microsoft BizTalk, SOAP, and XSL. A case study describing a bond trading system illustrates the patterns in practice, and the book offers a look at emerging standards, as well as insights into what the future of enterprise integration might hold.This book provides a consistent vocabulary and visual notation framework to describe large-scale integration solutions across many technologies. It also explores in detail the advantages and limitations of asynchronous messaging architectures.The authors present practical advice on designing code that connects an application to a messaging system, and provide extensive information to help you determine when to send a message, how to route it to the proper destination, and how to monitor the health of a messaging system.If you want to know how to manage, monitor, and maintain a messaging system once it is in use, get this book. 0321200683B09122003

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Open Source Soa Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a fantastic introduction for intermediate to advanced programmers to get their coding hands on the various constructs of SOA. His examples explore an integrated set of open source tools that build the full SOA stack. He also makes an excellent overview of the capabilities and contrast the various offerings. A wonderful, detailed tour of a complex, critical topic. Also, at least so far, all the code examples worked! Thanks for a great book!

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You can build a world-class SOA infrastructure entirely using popular, and mature, open-source applications. Unfortunately, the technical documentation for most open-source projects focuses on a specific product, the big SOA picture. You're left to your own devices to figure out how to cobble together a full solution from the various bits. In other words, unless you already know how Mule and Tuscany work with jBPM, you're stuck.

Open Source SOA shows readers how to build an entire SOA application using open-source technologies. It shows readers how to apply key ideas like Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) design and Business Process Management (BPM) and learn the tools and techniques to implement them effectively.

To pull everything together, the author describes real-life case studies from his own work to tie together all the principles and practices. These hard-to-find case studies are pure gold for the reader, as most developers keep these trade secrets to themselves.

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Open-Source ESBs in Action: Example Implementations in Mule and ServiceMix Review

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(More customer reviews)This book has helped me a great deal in selecting which ESB we should use. The intro sections are excellent for this purpose. The examples are mostly in mule and servicemix but a number of other ESBs are covered in both summary form and in examples that proves to be highly valuable when formulating your selection.
The other related plus point is that the authors provide you with a view into the roadmap of the ESBs (especially ServiceMix and Mule) so that you can see where they are going in the current beta releases. In a dynamic opensource base this is essential since things change so quickly and books become quickly out of date. The website also has useful material.
The same examples are given in mule and servicemix throughout the chapters and this helps you to think about how best you would use the technology and you can formulate conclusions like "AHAH...Mule requires me to import less ESB classes and stay decoupled from the ESB better", or "Servicemix requires less code to do this type of routing".
The source code for the examples is provided via a website complete with junit code and ant files to run them. This is excellent since it proves really easy to get some handson experience and (for example) see the differences in startup times and hotdeployment capabilities between the ESBs.
The other rather innovative addition is that it lets you download the ebook for free using a codewheel in the book. This proves useful for referencing material and answering those "what was the page that talked about X" questions you have while reading the book.
I hate to give a book 5 out of 5 but this is really very good for those just getting into ESBs and especially for people trying to decide which ESB to use.

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Most modern business systems include independent applications that exchange information with each other-a technique usually called enterprise integration. An architectural approach called the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) offers developers a way to handle the messages between those independent applications without creating a lot of custom code. While commercial ESB solutions can be quite expensive to implement and maintain, a set of high-quality open source ESB tools offer the same functionality at a substantially lower cost.

Open Source ESBs in Action shows you how to implement and use two open source ESB implementations: Mule and ServiceMix. The authors introduce you to these freely-available ESB tools and present practical examples of how to use them in real-world scenarios. You will learn how the various features of an ESB such as transformation, routing, security, connectivity and more can be implemented using Mule and ServiceMix. You will also learn how to solve common enterprise integration problems using a structured approach.

Beyond simply learning how Mule and Service Mix work, you'll learn the core techniques of ESB implementation such as Process Choreography, or the implementation of complex business processes through an ESB, and Service Orchestration, or exposing a set of services as a single service. The book shows you the fundamentals of ESB-based event processing and Quality of Service concerns like security, reliable delivery, and transaction management.

Working in integration projects is exciting, with new technologies and paradigms arriving every day. Open Source technologies like Mule and ServiceMix both offer lower-cost solutions and a higher degree of innovation than commercial ESB implementations. Open Source ESBs in Action will help you master ESB-driven integration techniques quickly and will provide you with knowledge you need to work effectively with Mule and ServiceMix.

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