Java Network Programming, Third Edition

Servlets

Special Edition Using Java Server Pages and Servlets

Format: Paperback
Author: Mark Wutka
ReleaseDate: 15 January, 2000
Publisher: Que
Rating:

Good for syntax, bad for "Using Java"
It really introduces the Java language, explains how it works, and makes it fairly easy to keep up. This book has an excellent first few chapters. Once you start getting into the technologies that surround Java, such as database connections and CORBA, this book gets tough to follow. There is code example after code example with little or no explanation of what the code is doing step by step. I know that I like when the author walks me through code so I can understand the first time, and not have to look at more examples. This book does not do that. Overall I think there is material to be learned from this book, though I'm not sure if it's easily extracted. I haven't read the WROX JSP book, but from what I have seen, that might be a better way to go.

Must have for serious developers
This is probably the best servlet book I've ever read and I've read several. I normally don't write book reviews but I saw this book had some poor reviews and felt it necessary to add my two-cents worth. The book explains obscure points that aren't entirely clear in the specification itself and cautions against problems that aren't obvious unless you're a very experienced programmer. It also provides lots of invaluable suggestions for those of us trying to figure out exactly how the J2EE architecture should be implemented. If you're just learning servlets, Java, or web programming you probably want to start with a simpler book.

Fabulous Book

I'd seen books on Java (servlets), books on JSP, books on XML, and understand the concepts of presentation/application/data layers for web applications. I've never been so happy to find a book as I've been to find this one! If you're like me, this is the perfect book for you, and from what I can tell, it's one of a kind. Unfortunately, all the books seemed to treat these techonologies as if they were stand-alone solutions. The clear focus of this book is how to get these technologies to work together to provide an elegant, modular, and easily maintainable solution to application problems.

Even in the first chapters (basic JSP application), the book is already laying out it's primary theme. It specifically draws your attention to the way the JSP's use Java in two basic areas. The first half being the creation and manipulation of objects, and the second half being the presentation of the data. It then explains that in a few chapters you'll learn that the top half should be in a servlet and the JSP should focus on the second half.

IRT some of the other reviews I've read. . .

Yes, you need to know some Java. This book isn't going to explain classes, polymorphism, inheritance, or interfaces to you -- it expects that you know what they mean. But simply working through a few Sun trails or a Java-in-24-hours type book will be enough.

Also, if the phrase "multi-tier application architecture" sounds like a foreign language phrase, then this book isn't really focused toward the obstacles that you're currently dealing with. A good chunk (about 1/2, I'd say) of the book is meant to clear up how to use these technologies in a multi-tier environment. If you don't know what one is, then a lot of the book is going to seem irrelevant.

But if you do know what "multi-tier" means, and you have understanding of the technologies, this is the book that fills in the gaps involved with integrating them together in a single solution.