- More than 50% new and revised material
- Four new chapters and one new appendix covering the latest features of the new release
- Basic and advanced concepts (such as inheritance, relationships, and so on) of Java Persistence API defined entities
- Information on integrating EJB applications with the outside world via the Java EE Connector technology
- Tips and techniques for designing and deploying EJB for better performance
- Best practices for EJB 3.0 application design, development and testing
- Complete usage of EJB annotations along with equivalent XML configuration
- JBoss Workbook that discusses the exercises for each chapter (although the chapters are themselves vendor-agnostic)
The authors are Rima Patel and Gerald Brose who co-authored the 3rd edition (where I served as technical editor) and also Micah Silverman has joined as a new author in the series. The previous founder of the book series, Ed Roman, is no longer involved in the book anymore, having left the enterprise Java space for the gaming industry in 2003.
See also the EJB 3 Glossary InfoQ posted last week, and InfoQ's own books: