Upcoming book reviews: 'Lotus Notes Domino 8: Upgrader's Guide' and 'RESTful Java Web Services'

11/18/2009 12:11 PM by Chris Toohey

Do you like Domino Servers that are upgraded to the latest release? Do you like RESTful Web Services?? Me too, which is why I'm pleased to announce that -- in approximately 10 days -- I'll be receiving two new books from Packt Publishing for review on this site!

Packt Publishing has great administration and development references, but after getting my hands on a copy of Upgrading to Lotus Notes and Domino 7 back in 2006, they've been one of the go-to resources for me when I needed a reliable source of how to.

And with titles like I have coming in the mail, how can I not be jazzed!

Lotus Notes Domino 8: Upgrader's Guide
As I mentioned, I was hooked after reading Packt's Upgrading to Lotus Notes and Domino 7, and this update (originally published December 2007), certainly caught my eye... but not for the reasons that you may think. See, I'm not so much of an admin as I am a developer, and while knowing the super-slick features and functionality at the deep-dive level is certainly interesting enough, I was really excited by an excerpt from the book's forward:

Developers are not forgotten, as new features and tools are revealed. You will delve into the world of SOA, as the authors show you how Lotus Notes can be part of an SOA strategy that can accelerate your business integration and generate value. The book finishes with a few words about other Lotus products, such as Lotus Sametime, Lotus Quickr, Lotus Connections, and IBM WebSphere Portal—like IBM Lotus Notes, all built on the open-standards-based Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) technology. These products are all converging to become the next generation of people productivity solutions.

If that wasn't enough, my inner-geek is eagerly anticipating the arrival of the second Pack Publishing book to dominoGuru.com-central:

RESTful Java Web Services
Do you remember the reason Tim and I started YellowCast? Well, aside from doing 6 episodes of a uber-l33t development podcast that focused on Lotus development, it was to record our development of a REST API for Lotus Notes Domino. And while the inability for Domino to properly consume HTTP Methods (even with webdav enabled), we were at a loss. Well, that's not entirely true. See, we thought that we could get the job done by hijacking the HTTP Request via a RESTful Java Servlet, consuming the HTTP Method, and proxying the request as needed.

It's still a solid plan, and with this book, I hope that I'll know enough to make it happen!

From the Packt Publishing website:

This book is a guide to developing RESTful web services using Java and the most popular RESTful frameworks available today. It covers the theory of REST; practical coding examples for RESTful clients; a practical outline of the RESTful design process—yes, it's different from traditional web application development; and a complete implementation of a non-trivial web service using the following frameworks: Jersey's JAX-RS, Restlet's Lightweight REST, JBoss's JAX-RS RESTEasy, and Struts 2 with the REST plug-in.

If the quality of these books are anything like the other Packt Publishing releases I have, I am not only in for an interesting read, but my complete understanding of the capabilities and functionality of IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8 combined with my ramped-up Java Web Services skills will put lazers on the heads of my Lotus Domino servers!

The only question is, Constant Reader, which one do you want me to read/review first?