Re: How to start with JAVA on I-series

Prasanna,

I just went through the same thing, it took me over two years to finally
get going with it, as it was hard to justify the time investment when
there were so many other projects that needed my attention. Of course it
didn't help that I started out not knowing *any* Java. I can tell you the
steps I went through, maybe it'll help you find your way.

First I picked up the book "Learning Java", 3rd edition, by O'reilly. I
read it cover to cover; an excellent resource. It taught me the Java
syntax, and laid out the API's available using the JDK (Java Developper
Kit).

I then got a couple of Joe Pluta's books, to learn about WDSC and the Java
Bean approach to programming. I also got the IBM Press book "Building
Application with IBM Websphere Studio and Java Beans" and worked through
the examples; it's a little dated by I think a new edition is due to come
out this winter.

After learning Java, getting a feel for using WDSC, and development using
Java Beans; I started a project. I wrote a Java application to update our
LDAP from our HR database, then recycled the code to create a Swing (GUI)
application to further manage the LDAP. The development of these
applications was / is quite iterative, with me continually going back to
learn more from books and web forums as I get stuck. As an exercise, I
called a couple of my LDAP java programs from both CL, and Net.Data.

Once I had a feel for application development, I had to lay the foundation
to enable us to develop Java applications as a group, the technologies I
used are as follows:
* Subversion for source code version control
* Eclipse (WDSC) for code development
* Apache Ant for building and deploying
* Java Web Start for distribution

One piece that hung me up for a while was where to put this stuff on the
System i. The WAS stuff get's bundled in an EAR file, so you don't have
to worry about it, but the Java Web Start, and the batch applications have
to sit in the IFS. I wanted to stick to a standard, like we did for our
RPG development, but learned that their isn't really a standard for Java.
So I created a folder called /sfw to contain all things java, and created
"apps" "lib" and "ext" folders. I bundled all my complied classes into
Jar files, and put the application jars in "apps", the shared/library jars
in "lib" and the 3rd party jars in "ext". I then configured Java Web
start to use this folder, and I run my batch / CL jobs from this folder as
well.

My next step is to learn JSF for web application development, but from
what I understand this will be easier now that I have a background in
Java/Swing (GUI) development, as the API's share a lot of common
principles.

This may be more info than you were looking for, but I spun my wheels a
number of times just trying to find the right direction. And if you are
able to dedicate some time to it, I'm sure it will take less than two
years. Nevertheless, I'd say allow 4-6 months of applying yourself to
become proficient. It'll be well worth it once you get there though!
Java is an extremely flexible powerful language with an enormous API set
that is well supported on the System i. The more I learn about it the
more keen I am about leaving PHP (my personal background) to the simple
web stuff, and doing "real" development with Java.

Brian

Prasanna Kamthankar wrote:

Hi

I am As400 Professional. Now I want to learn Java on i-series how to start , I am confused?

Can anyone help me out?

Prasanna