Customer Reviews

Building Web Applications with UML (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I really don't like giving this book only three stars but it just doesn't deliver much useful information for experienced developers. It is an easy read and it's explanation of a UML notation for the Web is interesting but it is only a very small part of the book - a whitepaper on the subject would have been more than adequate. The first half of the book gives a good but rudimentary overview of Web application development. If you are new to Web development then you will find this section useful. The second half of the book also gives a good but very simplistic overview of the object-oriented development process. Once again, if you want a nice high level overview of the process then this section is good too. However, I think most people buying this book are going to be looking for more detailed information than this book delivers. Maybe Addison Wesley needs to have a "Beginner" and "Professional" series like Wrox Press does.

If you use UML for designing web sites this book is a must have. The book covers everything from beginner to advanced for UML web development. This book is built for the hardcore designer and will really make you think about the way that you design. The book has lots of examples and comes with a reference guide to boot. It has a home on my bookshelf.

This book is not bad as books go. It is a good introduction for beginners but if you want to write real Web applications you will have to look somewhere else (at least this is what I would have to do) My main criticisms and suggestions for improvement are:

1) better explanation of boundary, entity and control objects 2) nowhere is there a mention of statecharts (essential for this kind of application area?) 3) Using packages to suggest that they are the same as architecture is not 100% kosher in my opinion (see page 108) 4) There are other ways to define a logical model for applications than the usual layered model (see again pages 107-108). For example, the SELECT method uses service-based models that are more robust an closure to the real business model. The layers model will be difficult to scale and I am not sure if it is really robust as suggested in the book's cover.

As a buyer, I got carried away by the words 'Web' and 'UML' in the book's title.

I bought this book looking for a common language for describing web project requirements and design that we could use for project specification and working with partners. I am an experienced Web Project Manager with a lite experience of UML in the past.

The book assumes UML knowledge, but the first 150 pages are dedicated to explaining web technology to the reader. Not quite "The Internet for Dummies", but hardly critical content?

When eventually the author gets into the meat of the Web Extension for UML, it's interesting, but he still spends a lot of time talking about thick-client applications, which really are the exception on public websites. There is one pretty extensive example based on ASP, complete with code. The WAE is useful, but of 300 pages, I found only about 50 useful. A lot of it has already been publisher by the Author on his own website.

The first half of the book is an introduction to web applications while the second half of the book illustrates the author's UML extension for designing web applications. The introductory material includes a substantial discussion on the definition of a "web application". Essential web technologies are discussed in a summarized fashion including HTTP, HTML, forms, frames, session management, DOM, ASP, JSP, scripting, JavaScript, events, applets, beans, ActiveX, RMI, CORBA, DCOM, XML, and security. The only missing item is Adobe's portable document format, PDF, which is a cross-platform document format used in both web sites and web applications.

The author has developed a UML extension for modeling web applications. The extension includes stereotypes for a server page, client page, form, frameset, JavaScript object, target, web page, ASP page, JSP page, servlet, and script libraries. Many of these stereotypes have an associated icon. New associations include <<link>>, <<targeted link>>, <<frame content>>, <<builds>>, <<IIOP>>, and <<RMI>>. The <<builds>> association indicates a dynamically generated web page. The classic "shopping cart" application is designed and implemented. The design includes a set of UML diagrams using the UML extension for web applications. The source code in the implementation uses ASP, VB Script, and HTML.

This book is a refreshingly good read for motivated web businesspeople readers, given it's technical subject. It also delivers exactly what it promises. As used in the books title, the author defines the fussy term "web application", vs. web site, in both formal and inform terms. Informally and quite succinctly, he defines web applications as a software application which uses a web page as its front end (ie. it's user interface). Formally, a web application is a web site where user input and/or navigation affects the state of the business beyond simple hit counters and and access logs. Based on such definitions, an e-commerce enabled web site would clearly be a web application, whereas web site, however kewl, is not. If you are just building web sites, you will probably find this book to be overkill.

PART ONE is an excellent introduction to the role of ubiquitous web application tools such as HTML, JavaScript, Style Sheets, DOM, ASP, Java, ActiveX, CORBA and XML to name some highlights. PART TWO walks the motivated reader through a well-developed, and to me, surprisingly involved, iterative process for turning vague ideas into solid application.

The appendices are even helpful. Appendix A is a visual directory for the Web Application Extension for UML. Appendix B is a sample use case which reader will find very useful as a template for future projects. Ditto for Appendix C, a sample model for a Glossary Appllcation using ASP.

Do not be mistaken. By itself, this book will not likely make you an expert in UML. Fortunately, it also manages to avoid any heavy-handed favoritism between technology products mentioned, including products from Rational Corporation. Refreshing!

As a web development project architect who is on the steep part of the learning curve, I will doubtlessly be able to add some rigor to my firm's process, beginning with initial client discovery and leading through delivery of a killer pre-development site design documentat -- one in which developers, graphic designers, managers and most importantly, clients, will appreciate. Additionally, the superior documentation which this process affords will, no doubt, significantly improve software, which is what it's all about.

That said... bring on the next mega-project. I think I feel a home run coming on!

You are about to start building your first web application. You have been surfing the web, reading magzines about technology, architecture, methodology etc. You are overwhelmed by the changes in technology. You are looking for someone who will put all this together and give you an overview how to build a web application. Well, then, this book is for you.

You will get a thorough introduction to the client side, serverside technologies in the first part. The second part gives you an overview of how to gather user requirements, develop use cases, do the analysis, design and finally implement the design in the architecture decided.

The only disadvantage in the whole scenario is it assumes familiarity with UML notations. If you are new to Object oriented technology, then understanding UML is a good thing to do before jumping to the second part of this book.

It is a tribute to the versatility of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and a compliment to its authors that it can be used to model web applications. Given the origins of the UML as a tool to model projects using Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), it is easy to believe that that is the only place where it can be used. Web programming is largely done in JavaScript and VBScript, where the first is only somewhat object-oriented and latter nowhere close.
In this book, the author introduces some new notation that can be used to model the construction of web applications, and given the topics of recent journal articles, it is somewhat overdue. I have read some articles recently where the topic is the planning of a company web site. The consensus is that one should plan for several months before the official launch. Translated into real terms, this amount of planning can be summed up in a single phrase, "model it."
The real significance of this book is the introduction of the concept of modeling with regard to web applications and that is what makes it valuable. Without the appropriate terms, it is not possible to properly describe a course of action, and the author introduces the necessary terms. The core of the book details the steps in a typical project:

1) The Process
2) Defining the Architecture
3) Requirements and Use Cases
4) Analysis
5) Design
6) Implementation

applied to the goal of designing, building and maintaining a substantial web presence. With the emphasis on the modeling, very little in the way of HTML and scripting skills are needed and very little code is presented.
If you are in the process of planning a web application, either a replacement or a new one, then it is worth your while to examine this book. For many businesses, a quality web presence is now an absolute necessity for survival. This book will help you achieve that.

There is only enough subject in this book for a white paper. You have to read to page 150 to get to any actual UML.

Sadly, the ideas in this book for using UML to build web applications are excellent. But that only took fifteen pages in a 250 page book.

This is a good book to borrow. Spend the thirty minutes it takes to read what good information there is, then spend your money elsewhere.

You may want to skip the first 80 or so pages of this book if you are already a seasoned web programmer. This section is an introduction to web based programming.

The rest of the book is a very informative, practical guide to the use of UML within a web based project. I also found the book to expand upon and clarify the ideas from 'The Unified Software Development Process' book.