Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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85 of 88 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent coverage of Web Services Topics, December 22, 2001
I've been thoroughly impressed with this book. It throws a wide net over most of the current web services standards and technologies, and gives you at least an understanding of where they all fit, while still providing you with enough depth on the crucial ones (SOAP (with Axis), UDDI, etc.) so that you can get started with real projects.I particularly liked the way in which the authors have created an all-in-one reference book on the most important web services technologies. For instance, I've never been able to read SOAP messages without having a reference on XML namespaces and XML schemas handy -- no more -- it's all here in this book. The coverage of the new Apache Axis project is especially good; not only does it explain the advantages of the new architecture for handling SOAP headers, but it gives code examples for making use of these new features. This is to be expected, since many of the authors of this book are major contributors to the Axis project. I also found the chapters on Web Services security and UDDI to be helpful and enlightening. While all of the chapters in the book don't live up to the promise of these excellent chapters, it's still overall an great introduction to this new set of technologies. And by the way, the guy that gave the book 1 star because it has "no source code downloadable" should have first tried going to www.samspublishing.com and done a search on the author's names -- the page for the book CLEARLY has a section for "downloads" where you can get the source code.
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Poor for working schmucks, great for students, December 2, 2004
This book can be summed up in one word: bloated. It is too heavy and based on theory rather than real-world examples and summarized concepts. I am a product developer in the working world, and I simply don't have time to churn through this huge book. The only chapter that was slightly relevant was the one on Apache Axis. If you want to learn the ins and outs of web services from a theoretical and architectural standpoint, this might be your book. Otherwise I would go with another book if you want working examples and concise writing.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly excellent treatment of Web services, January 29, 2002
This is by far the best book on Web services I have read! There are so many good things going for it. Let's start with the authoring team. I did some research on the Web: three members of the W3C Working Group on XML Protocol (next-generation SOAP), two co-authors of the UDDI specifications, two architects of the next-generation Apache Web services engine (Axis). These people know what they are talking about from both a theoretical and practical standpoint. The book addresses all levels of the Web services technology stack with amazing focus and depth. This book does not just regurgitate the specifications--it goes well beyond them to cover adjacent domains that are relevant. With the knowledge that I have gained from reading this book I feel I am in a much better position to analyze my web services needs, design a service architecture and implement the services necessary to bring it to life. Most importantly, I feel like I have learned how to evaluate the inevitable trade-offs I'll have to make doing real-world development. There are so many examples of this... Chapter 3 does an excellent job of comparing and contrasting RPC-oriented Web services with document (messaging) oriented Web services. This is the kind of out-of-the-ordinary material that imparts truly valuable knowledge on the reader, stuff you will not find while reading the bare specs or one of the quickly hacked together books on Web services. Chapter 5 talks a lot about security, an otherwise missing topic in the Web services space, and about enterprise-quality Web services. I learned some things about configuring application server security that I had missed after two years of J2EE development. In short, this book is a must-read for both beginning and experienced Web services developers and anyone interested in better understanding the space. If you're a pro, you will learn a lot from the realistic examples and the authors' real-world experience. If you're a beginner, do not despair. Chapter 1 makes the drive towards Web services easy to understand by exposing the technology and market forces behind the rapid change the industry is going through. Chapter 2 is the best, simplest, most focused introduction to data-oriented uses of XML I have ever seen. After these two, you'll be all set for tackling the rest of the book. As for me, I'll go study the example code now...
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