Comprehensive beginner tutorial?

[tresspicher]

Hi all,

I was recently assigned to a project using JBoss SEAM. I already have Michael Yuan's book, but it seems to assume a lot of knowledge about JEE 5, JSP, JSF, and EJB3. What I am looking for is a comprehensive tutorial geared toward SEAM. Because it seems that SEAM has addressed a lot of problems with the existing interaction between the above mentioned components, I would really like to learn those concepts with regard to SEAM and not independently. Can anyone point me to something like what I'm looking for?

Thanks in advance,
Tres

[trickyvail]

Personally I think that Michael Yuan's book is currently the best Seam book available for purchase. The documentation that comes with seam is a goldmine of information too, but definitely assumes the reader understands JSF and EJB3.

There is another book called Beginning JBoss Seam (Nusairat Apress 2007) which is much more beginner orientated. It has a section outlining the new features of Java 5 and chapters devoted to JSF and EJB3. This book is very light when it comes to seam information but it may be helpful to you at the outset of your journey.

[davidintx]

I agree that you don't want to spend lots of time learning how to deal with issues and problems in various technologies, when seam provides answers to many of those issues and problems. On the other hand, as you mentioned, you need to have some knowledge of how those technologies work.

For our team, the book I recommend people read immediately after Michael's book is "Java Persistence with Hibernate". Most of the book covers JPA/EJB3 concepts that are independent of Seam. Chapter 11, Implementing Conversations, is one area that Seam handles for you, and Chapter 17 is an introduction to Seam, but the other 15 chapters are stuff you should know when building a properly designed Seam app.

The next book I recommend is Core Java Server Faces (be sure to get the 2nd edition). There is more overlap between some of the concepts covered here and what Seam does for you automatically, but this book does provide plenty of background information that Seam assumes you know as well.