Customer Reviews

BEA WebLogic Workshop: Building the Next Generation Web Services Visually

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am new to workshop. After reading this book, I got good idea how to write web services under workshop. However, this book is only for beginner level only. If you are familiar with workshop already, this book is Not for you.

This book guides you to learn webshop step by step for most of the core webshop functionalities(eg, JMS, EJB, database controls). However, sometimes, it lacks of detail explanation(that's why I only give it 4 stars).

If you are new to webshop, this book is for you.

First off, it is worth noting that this is for Weblogic 7. Several things have changed since then. For example: In weblogic 7, you just created a project. In future versions of Weblogic, there are several types of projects that you can create. Also, I didn't have a Hello World default example (I was able to download one for Workshop 9.2 from the BEA website). The screen shots look considerably different than the newer versions.

On the plus side, there are a lot of pictoral and code examples in the book. There are references to mode in-depth information "that will be covered in a future chapter". So, if you choose to, you can jump to that chapter to read futher on a topic of interest.

Overview of the book:

The first two chapters cover an introduction and a typical getting started. Other chapters are:
3. Tour of the Weblogic Workshop IDE
4. Creating Conversational Web Services
5. Creating Asynchronous Web Services
6. Mapping from XML
7. Using the Core Controls (service, timer, database controls)
8. Using the advanced controls (EJB, JMS)
9. controlling the Web Service Protocols
10. Calling Web Services from Outside Weblogic Workshop
11. Using Javascript in XML Maps

There is also a java primer in the appendex which covers basics about java as well as methods for classes used by weblogic (hashtable, socket, datagramsocket).

The CD includes a 90 day trial of WebLogic Platform 7 and sample code referenced in the book. Granted, you can use this version when trying stuff in the book, it will still require the user to "do the translation" when the try the same stuff in the version of weblogic workshop they currently use.

Obviously, some translation is required to convert some of the steps to work with your version of Weblogic Workshop. I'm not sure why this edition has not been updated (maybe emails to the publisher or authors might coax them to update it). This is a perfect format for getting your feet wet on how to use Weblogic Workshop (minus the formentioned translations required).

I give it 4 stars because:
The book is appropriate the target audience (those new to weblogic): 5 stars
The content is out of date, which may cause those who are new to weblogic workshop to be a bit frustrated translating the examples and screenshops to their current version of weblogic (-1 star)

If you are not new to weblogic, this will definately not be for you.

This book walks you through installing and writing Web Services using Workshop. It covers the basics of Web Services, and gears you to write more complex and advanced Web Services using the BEA tools.

Great book for anyone who needs to start writing Web Services quickly.