After purchasing several recent publications from O'Reilly that I was a bit disappointed with, I am glad to see a book of such high quality as Java Management Extensions be published by O'Reilly. Java Management Extensions lives up to the high quality that we as readers and software engineers have come to expect from the O'Reilly brand and this book should not leave anyone who wants to learn to use JMX disappointed.
Java Management Extensions follows a similar format, at least in my opinion, to other excellent titles such as Enterprise JavaBeans and Java and XML. The author begins by giving you a small sample to "break the ice" with the technology and then begins to discuss MBeans, how they are used, and the different types. The author gracefully navigates the reader from the simple Standard MBeans to the more advanced Open MBeans. I'll be honest that I became a bit tired of the repetitive detail in which the author described each interface. However, this should not be seen as a negative against either the book or the author. The author does such a wonderful job in the earlier chapters describing the MBean design patterns that as the reader advances towards more complex MBean types, the pattern is pretty well understood and just appears to be repetitive. I believe that the author was well justified in describing each interface and support class and how they apply to the different MBean types.
The examples appear to be very clear and very easy to follow. I felt that the author did a wonderful job, as in EJB and Java and XML, explaining the examples and demonstrating the uses of different MBean types. Unlike the primary competitor to this book that I am aware of from Marc Fluery, the author explains the technology in a way that I believe readers will understand how to apply the JMX technology to their own projects. It seemed in my opinion that Marc Fluery in his book understandably is tying his explanations of JMX towards JBoss, given that JBoss is his project. But on the other hand I sincerely appreciate and include in my high marks for quality that the author can so excellently explain a technology like JMX and make the technology understood by the reader without tying explanations to one particular project.
Reading Java Management Extensions will not make one an expert JMX programmer, but like Enterprise JavaBeans and Java and XML, this book will provide the reader with an excellent foundation for beginning to understand where in the software design JMX participates and how to use it. I expect for anyone using this technology that Java Management Extensions will become a frequently used reference book.
I congratulate the author on writing an excellent textbook on JMX and I thank O'Relly's editors, reviewers, and publication staff on stepping up and delivering a great product. It is my opinion that O'Reilly has been the top publisher in years past for high-quality technical books and it is really good to see that they intend to maintain that position by publishing great books like Java Management Extensions.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who is considering using this technology or is curious about it.
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