In order to be able to run the code examples in the book, you will need the Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.7 and Apache Maven.

Alternatively, you will need an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Eclipse is strongly recommended as it is the same environment I used to capture the screenshots. However, even if you want to use another IDE, the steps should be quite similar.

The difference between the two alternatives mainly resides in the role that you want to assume during the reading. While you may want to only start and execute the examples as a user, you would surely want to see the working code in a usable environment as a developer. That's the reason an IDE is strongly recommended in the second case.

The first chapter will provide the instructions necessary for installing all that you'll need through the book.