Bitter Java

It is a well-known fact that most software projects fail. Drawing important lessons from failure is the goal of Bitter Java, a systematic account of common server-side Java programming mistakes, their causes and solutions. This book covers antipatterns for base Java and J2EE concepts such as Servlets, JSPs, EJBs, enterprise connection models, and scalability. It illustrates common pitfalls of Java programming through code examples and then presents re-factored code and explains why the new solutions are safe.
Written in an engaging style, this book begins each chapter with an extreme sports adventure gone wrong, and cunningly weaves the moral of the story into the discussion of Java development problems. Bitter Java begins with an overview of antipatterns and lays the foundation for server-side Java development. The author quickly builds momentum with a set of core server-side antipatterns for servlets and JSPs. He uses a bulletin board example to discuss common mistakes in basic server-side design, and iteratively refactors it until he reaches good design. By reusing this example, the author guides the reader through increasingly complex antipatterns of caching, database connections and EJBs. High-level discussions of programming hygiene and performance tuning, complete with related antipatterns, help to round out the coverage.