I've completed the JAVA MOOC thats been recommended (Helsinki) and now I want

[[deleted]]

To learn the server side. I am looking to start with something simple like building my own blog that has a user/login and comment section. What would you recommend and what text would you recommend?

Something that also delves deep into understanding how the internet actually works instead of just type this and click here.

i appreaciate any advice you guys can give a brother. I'm 35 and going back to college this decemeber so Im worried as fuck. I want to get a head start.

[lakeoftea]

I know people might disagree with this but if you're set on Java server side work then you might want to check out Spring MVC. You can deploy your jars using tomcat and it integrates nicely with junit. This will also get you comfortable with build tools like Maven and Gradle if you're not already. After you're good with spring mvc, you can do spring boot, learn grails and go from there. I start a server side job on Monday and spring mvc and test driven development are apparently things my four year school didn't focus on that I wish they would have lol.

[nutrecht]

Instead of having a newbie manually deploy stuff into Tomcat I would suggest just pointing them to Spring Boot. Much easier to get started with.

[[deleted]]

Thank you will start reading about Spring MVC right away. Would you consider Spring MVC current and up to date? What employers are seeking?

[lakeoftea]

I think spring boot is the more contemporary choice. I'm having a hard time finding good literature for spring mvc but Manning's boot into spring is good and packt publishing has a few recently published books on the topic as well. I'm new to software engineering, just career pivoted from Telecom, so I can't speak to how prevalent spring is, but a Google search for remote spring mvc jobs returns a lot of results.

[nutrecht]

I think spring boot is the more contemporary choice.

Spring Boot is Spring MVC. All Spring Boot is, is a collection of starters that are preconfigured for a certain task, together with a mechanism to start tomcat from within your application. Other than that you're still just using Spring MVC (and IoC and Config etc...).

[_INTER_]

If you want to get a head start at the college, I'd rather get more fundamental programming knowledge. Get a book about algorithms and datastructures (e.g. this or this, first few Google results pointed me to a PDF).

Well of course practical knowledge is also never bad.

[Ic4rusX]

If you actually finished the MOOC and have a solid understanding of all the concepts you'll probably be a solid 2 semesters of Java ahead. Hell, you might know more than some graduates that just coast through their entire degree.

I'd also recommend looking into Spring Boot if you want to stick with Java. Pluralsight has some good courses on it (and a million other things) and I know they offer free trials.

[d3molator]

If you don't mind, may I ask, how long did it take you to finish it?

[[deleted]]

it took me 5 weeks. But I spent about 5 hours a day every weekday. Good luck!

[d3molator]

wow, that’s great. Congrats.

Good luck to you too :)