One further suggestion: don't hesitate for a second to start playing.
You can spend 20 hours reading the best book out there and I would still
say you won't learn as much as 10 hours of just hacking away at code
will teach you.
Some people like to take a sample app and rip it apart, and that's fine.
I personally do better when I come up with some sort of project and
just start doing it, solving each problem and learning what I need to as
I go. Pick something that isn't going to be too difficult, but
something that will be just challenging enough.
When I was learning Struts, I made myself a file manager. Still use it
today :) Other good projects would be your own simple blog system, a
message forum, simplistic CRM app, a webmail client or a multi-page
survey system. Anything that gets you interested and will touch on a
bunch of areas to explore.
Also, on a specific topic, I would stear clear of EJBs for a while.
There's plenty leading up to that, and many people don't like using them
anyway and its possible you'll never have to. Once you have a decent
grounding in everything else, you should be able to learn EJBs as you
need to without too much difficulty. Maybe you'll be lucky and not have
to until EJB 3.0 is out and you won't have to deal with everything we
have to deal with today :)
I personally would suggest starting with straight servlets and JSPs.
This should give you experience with the fundamentals. Then, move on to
a framework. I would suggest Struts because there's plenty of examples
and docs and help available and it is pretty simple. Some will argue
you should just right into JSF or some other framework du jour, but even
if you eventually wind up not using Struts, you'll have some experience
with frameworks in general and since most other frameworks take cues
from Struts in various ways, the uncerlying concepts tend to transfer
quite a bit, even if the specific don't.
Also, if you don't know it already, don't ignore HTML, Javascript and
CSS. Web developers that can handle all aspects of development, even if
they generally don't have to, tend to be a heck of a lot more useful
than those that can't (I deal with a lot of people who can code the hell
out of an EJB, but don't know what <a> or <img> do!!) You may wind up
working somewhere that has dedicated page developers and you'll just be
coding the back end, but rarely is the separation so absolute that
knowing something about the other side doesn't help.
One last bit of advice... DO NOT use an IDE initially! Write all the
code yourself, even the simpple, mundane stuff. Once you know all that,
THEN move to an IDE that makes your life easier. I can't tell you how
many people I've met that started out with an IDE, and they just click
the "Generate xxxx code" button, but when I ask them what the code is
all about, they have no clue, they just know what goes in and what goes
out. Those people are inevitably not as capable as those that could
write that code by hand but choose not to. I personally STILL use only
a text editor, but it's a matter of choice for me. In beginning, don't
make it a choice, make it a means to learn better. Think about making
your life easier only AFTER the knowledge is embedded in your brain :)
Ok, really one last bit... don't hesitate to ask questions! There are
plenty of people out there that are more than willing to help. But, be
careful to stay on-topic. I doubt anyone will say anything about a few
general web development questions on the Tomcat mailing list, but
eventually someone is going to point out that the questions aren't
really on-topic for the list. I would suggest JavaRanch
(http://www.javaranch.com/) and any of the Java newsgroups out there.
Hope that helps!
Frank
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hi Claudio,
first steps are always exiting. You need to get yourself knowledgeable.
There are good books and good online resources to get you started.
Btw. Tomcat doesn't do EJB, you would need Jeronimo for that (which used
Tomcat for JSP/Servlets). So Servlets/JSP is your entry point.
My absolute favorites are:
Book: Head first servlets and JSP (O'Reily -- eventually available in
Latin languages)
Online: javaranch.com theserversite.com
just as an entry point...
:-) stw
"Claudio Veas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 16/10/2005 22:43:51:
Hello my name is Claudio Veas Im from Argentina and I have successfully
installed Tomcat 5.0.28 if Im not mistaken. This is the first time with
Tomcat so I wanted to ask you people which should be my first step into
the
world of web applications you know ( JSP, EJB) but ima total newbie in
all
this so if you can help me start Ill apreciate it.
Thanks on advance
Claudio Veas
PD:
Im from Argentina and My english is not so good so excuse any
mistake in my grammar
--
Frank W. Zammetti
Founder and Chief Software Architect
Omnytex Technologies
http://www.omnytex.com
AIM: fzammetti
Yahoo: fzammetti
MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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