Advanced Java

Course Overview

As Java has matured, it has evolved into a powerful and robust platform on which to build applications. The Java 2 Platform provides a secure environment in which to build total solutions for enterprise systems.

This course will provide a platform for the experienced Java developer to examine and understand best practice Java Programming. The course is designed to illustrate common Java idioms and to provide implementation guidelines to improve the performance of Java Systems. This course features both lectures and practicals. The hands-on sessions will illustrate and reinforce many of the major topics covered.

• Object Oriented Design for Java
• Developing Applications for Java 2 Enterprise Edition
• Java and XML Development Workshop
• Enterprise Javabeans Workshop
• Java Web Development Workshop
• Java Web Services Workshop

Audience

• Experienced Java developers wishing to improve their core understanding of Java.

Skills Gained

• Understand the JVM processes involved in object creation and destruction
• Understand the Collection API and choose the most appropriate implementation
• Understand the Java I/O API's and use the most appropriate implementation
• Internationalise an application
• Use String Regular Expressions
• Write thread safe code
• Secure their applications
• Appreciate the key idioms needed in Java

Prerequisites

• Delegates must have a good general knowledge of Java. Attendance of our Java introductory courses along with 6 months programming experience should prove sufficient.

Course Outline

• Understand the Java Object Lifecycle.
• Construction semantics and issues; Static Initialiser blocks; The Classloading mechanism; Create your own classloader; Garbage Collection; Reference Chaining with Weak, Soft References
• Value versus Reference.
• Override equals/hashCode; Cloning; Immutable classes; TypeSafe enums; By value/by reference semantics.
• Using the Collections API.
• Choosing the correct implementation; Sorting collections; Improving the performance; Implementing type safe collections; Efficient use of the iterator
• Using the I/O API.
• Making efficient use of the I/O API; examining the NIO package
• Using the JNI API
• When to use; How to use; Performance traps
• Internationalisation
• I18N internationalisation; Unicode; Locales; ResourceBundles;Date and Calendar; The role of patterns
• Writing threadsafe code
• Understand the threading environment; Create a Thread Group; Manipulate JVM Thread Pools; Use Monitors; Wait sets; Volatile keyword; How to avoid deadlock ussing lock splitting, ordering and timeouts
• Common Java tools.
• Explain and use command line tools. javac and switches; The JVM performance switches; Use javadoc to create a help system; How to obfuscate a class to prevent decompilation; deploy developed code using the Jar mechanism; Standard extension mechanism.
• Apply Security to an application
• The J2SE security model; Policy files; Access Controller; Permissions; Signing; Use JAAS to authenticate a client; Authentication Vs authorisation; Authentication schemes; Sign Jars and Applets
• String Handling
• Performance issues; Use of StringBuffer and CharSequence; Regular Expressions
• The Way Ahead
• What's new in Java 1.4; What's coming in Java 1.5: Generics and Enums