EC26 - Java SE / EE for Experienced C++ / C# Programmers - 5 Days

Course Description

This course covers all major aspects of client / server programming with Java. It is essentially a condensed version of courses EC21 (Java SE Primer), EC22 (Java SE Programming) and EC31 (Java EE Server-Side Programming) and is aimed at highly competent programmers who have detailed knowledge of similar programming techniques using C++ or C#.

Pre-requisites

It is stressed that due to the condensed agenda for this course, students must have a strong working knowledge of C++ or C#.

Objectives

The aim of this course is to give experienced C++ or C# students a fully rounded general knowledge of client / server programming with Java providing not just basic skills but moving onto more advanced topics including Collections, Threads, I/O, Servlets and JavaServer Pages.

During the course the student will write many applications, classes, servlets and JSPs ensuring that the statements taught are fully understood and practical experience is gained.

On completion of this course the student will be able to:

  • understand the fundamental language differences between C++ or C# and Java
  • Take advantage of and understand Interfaces
  • Use the Collections Framework
  • Create and handle Exceptions
  • Use the Java Input/Output classes
  • Understand and use Serialization to achieve persistence
  • Understand multi-threading and synchronization and use the various techniques available to create separate threads
  • Write Servlets that interact with HTTP clients
  • Understanding servlet multi-threading issues / pitfalls, session tracking and JavaBean manipulation.
  • Write Applications/Servlets that manipulate records in a Database using JDBC
  • Code effective JavaServer Pages using Model, View, Controller design pattern methodologies.

Environment

Development will be performed using:

  • Eclipse
  • IntelliJ
  • NetBeans
  • JBuilder

Customisation

For on-site courses (i.e. at your premises), we are more than happy to tailor the course agenda to suit your exact requirements. In many cases, we are able to build your in-house standards and naming conventions into the delivered course.

Course Details

INTRODUCTION TO JAVA
What is Java?
The Java Programming Language
The Java Platform, Java installation - Path requirements
What Can Java Do?
Overview of the many subjects covered by Java
Advantages of using Java
Creating a java class
Running Simple Applications
A simple first example - The "Hello World" Application

THE JAVA AND C++ / C# DIFFERENCES
Variables
Usage Types, Data Types, Literal Values, Naming Standards, Scope, Initialisation, Constants, Escape Characters
Arrays & Multi-Dimentional Arrays
Strings
Strings are objects!, Concatenation, Testing for String equality, Manipulation
Creating & Manipulating Objects, Calling Methods, Passing Arguments and Method Overloading, Returning Values from Methods
Constructors, Static Code
Inheritance - Extending a Class
What does a Subclass Inherit?
Methods in java.lang.Object
Garbage Collection & Finalization
Enums (Java 5)

PACKAGES
Packages, Using Package Members, Importing

ABSTRACT CLASSES AND INTERFACES
Abstract Classes and Methods
Interfaces
Defining an Interface, Implementing an Interface

JAVA KEYWORD SUMMARY
Accessibility Modifiers
Declaration Parameters
Class modifiers, Variable modifiers, Method modifiers

CONVERSION, FORMATTING AND PRECISION
Data Type Conversion, Wrapper Classes
Autoboxing (Java 5)
Decimal Precision and the BigDecimal class
Numeric Formatting, Date Formatting
Formatting (Java 5)

CASTING
Literal Values, Implicit & Explicit Casting, Casting With Operators
Casting Objects, Narrowing & Widening

THE ECLIPSE/RAD/WSAD DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT (if applicable)
The Workbench
Perspectives, Views, Toolbars, Editors
Importing and exporting, Searching
Rearranging Views, Fast Views
Working With Java
Working with buildpaths and classpaths
Fixing Problems, Creating new Classes and Interfaces
The Java Editor
Editing code and elements, Content/Code Assist, Code Formatter
Managing Imports, Local History, Refactoring
Other Views
The Type Hierarchy, Using the Outline View
Running and Debugging apps

COLLECTIONS
Collection Interfaces And Implementations
Summary & Comparison Of Collection Implementations
Lists: ArrayList, Vector, LinkedList
Maps: HashMap, Hashtable, TreeMap, LinkedHashMap
Sets: HashSet, TreeSet, LinkedHashSet
Iterator And Enumeration Interfaces
Other Collections: Stacks, Properties
Sorting Objects
The Comparable Interface, Comparators
More ways to Sort Objects:
java.util.Collections, java.util.Arrays
Collections Method Reference

INNER CLASSES, ANONYMOUS CLASSES AND LAMBDA EXPRESSIONS
xxRegularxx Inner Classes
Referencing the Outer and Inner classes from within the Inner class
Example of xxRegularxx Inner Class In Use
Method-Local Inner Classes
Anonymous Inner classes
Implementing Interfaces with Anonymous Inner Classes
Anonymous Inner Classes within Method calls
Lambda Expressions (Java 8)
Sorting Using the Comparator Interface - pre Java 8
Sorting Using the Comparator Interface - Lamba
Using Method References - Java 8
Functional Interfaces - Java 8
Built-In Functional Interfaces
Built-In Functional Interfaces - Functions
Built-In Functional Interfaces - Predicates
Other Built-In Functional Interfaces

GENERICS
Parameterised Collections
Parameterised Types And Iterators
Parameterised Maps
Passing Parameterised Types As Method Arguments
Sorting Data With Generics

THE FOR-IN STATEMENT
What the for-in statement can be used with
Writing Your Own Iterable Classes

THREADS & SYNCHRONIZATION
What is a Thread?
Creating Threads
Method 1 - Extending the Thread Class
Method 2 - Implementing the Runnable Interface
Controlling Threads
Thread Priority, Terminating Threads, Daemon Threads, Thread Synchronization
Applet Animation and Threads
Animation Flickering, Double Buffering to avoid flickering
Using an Inner Class to Handle Multiple Threads

ERROR HANDLING
Java Exceptions
Runtime and Checked Exceptions, Try / Catch Processing, The Finally Block
Passing Exceptions up the Stack
The throws statement
Creating new Exceptions
The Throw Statement, Error and Exception Classes, User Defined Exceptions

JAVA I/O
The Java I/O API
The File class, Input and Output Streams, Readers and Writers
Reading from System Input, Reading from Files, Standard Output Stream - System.out
Types of I/O classes
Buffering input/output, ByteArrays, CharArrays, DataStreams
Serialization - Persistence of Objects

JAVA 8 Features
Interface improvements / Functional interfaces
Lambda expressions
The java.util.function package
The java.util.stream package
The java.time package
Collections API additions
Concurrency API additions
IO/NIO API additions

JUNIT INTRODUCTION
JUnit Example
JUnit assert Methods
Testing for exceptions
Testing Collections

JUNIT 4
Testing with JUnit4
Other JUnit 4 Features

JAVADOC
What Does Javadoc Generate?
Javadoc Tags
Where Can Tags Be Used?

DATABASE ACCESS
What is JDBC?
What alternatives are there? JDBC vs SQLJ
How does JDBC work?
JDBC Drivers and the JDBC API, Statements & Prepared Statements
Working with data
Accessing data - Working with Result Sets
Handling Warnings, Errors and NULL Values
Scalability Issues
Transaction Control and Isolation Levels
Configuring and using DataSources (using JNDI)

SQLJ (If Requested)
SQLJ Programming - Development Cycle using DB2
SQLJ Cursor Techniques

SERVLETS
Servlet Overview
Servlet vs CGI Advantages
The Java Servlet API
Servlet Life Cycle
Multi-threading issues / pitfalls
What Servlets Are
Non-Http Servlets - Implementing the Servlet Interface
Non-Http Servlets - Extending the GenericServlet class
Http Servlets - Extending the HttpServlet class
What Servlets do
HTML Get and Post Requests & Catering for both
Getting data to Servlets - the HttpRequest Object
Sending HTML back to the client - the HttpResponse Object
Using the Data sent to a Servlet
Form Validation
Data Validation
Servlets can invoke other servlets
Dispatching a Resource from within a Servlet

USING ECLIPSE/WSAD/RAD TO CODE SERVLETS (if applicable)
The J2EE Heirarchy
Web Projects, Where Servlets should go
Creating Servlets
Testing Web Applications
Server Perspective, Servers, Server Configurations and Instances
Debugging Servlets

ACCESSING DATABASES VIA SERVLETS
Servlets, JDBC and Connection Pooling
DataSource Definitions and Getting Database Connections via a DataSource

DATA SCOPE / PERSISTENCE
Variable Scope & Protection
Instance variables are shared!
Thread Safety - Synchronized Code
What is Request Scope?
Storing Objects for the lifetime of the Request
What is Session Scope?
Storing Objects for the lifetime of the Session
Session Tracking using Cookies, URL Rewriting, HiddenFields
Session Tracking API
Session Creation and Lookup, Storing and Retrieving Session API Information, Lifecycle, session tracking without Cookie support
Session Binding
What is Application Scope?
Sharing Data between different Servlets

JAVASERVER PAGES
JSP Overview
The Problem with Servlets - Why use JSPs?
How JSP Pages Are Executed
Writing a JavaServer Page
JSP Tags, Directive Tags, Scripting Tags & Scriptlets, Action Tags
JSP Pre-Defined Objects
Including Static and Dynamic Content
Forwarding execution to Servlets, JSPxxs or HTML pages.
JSP Initialisation and Cleanup

USING ECLIPSE/WSAD/RAD FOR JSP DEVELOPMENT (if applicable)
Overview
HTML Page Designer, Creating and editing HTML files
Testing JSPs
Testing and Debugging JSPs

JSP DESIGN PATTERNS
MVC Architecture
Where are JSPs used?
Other JSP Design Patterns

MORE JSP CAPABILITIES
JavaBeans
Using JavaBeans
Form / Bean / JSP Interaction
Variable and JavaBean Scopes
Invoking a JSP from a Servlet
Passing Objects from Servlet to JSP
Passing JavaBeans from Servlet to JSP
Error Handling and JSP Error Pages
Full Shopping Cart Example

CUSTOM TAG OVERVIEW
Why use Custom Tags?
How are Custom Tags implemented?
Custom Tag Elements, the Tag Library Descriptor (TLD)
The Tag Handler Class, using JavaBeans to Implement Tags

TAG FILES
Defining tag files
Using Tag Files in your JSP
Using Tag Files for Simple Templating

JAVASERVER PAGES STANDARD TAG LIBRARY (JSTL)
JSTL Expression Language
Core Tags
Internationalisation (I18N) Tags
Functions

Course Format

Practical sessions make up a large part of the course, allowing delegates to demonstrate and reinforce the lectures given. During these sessions the delegate will build a simple but complete application.

Examples are used extensively, ranging from simple code 'snippets' to full applications with complete 'real world' functionality. These are supplied at the start of the course and it is encouraged that the delegates execute and 'experiment' with these under the instructor's guidance as they are introduced.

These examples are available to take away, along with the delegate's own work.

The comprehensive Student Guide supplied is fully indexed serving as a useful reference tool long after the course has finished. Delegates will also be able to access a free help-line with technical questions relating to topics covered on the course.

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