Customer Reviews

Core Servlets and Javaserver Pages: Advanced Technologies, Vol. 2 (2nd Edition) (Core Series)

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"Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages, Volume 2: Advanced Technologies" targets developers who already know Java and basic servlets/JSPs. Note this book's second edition does not cover the latest technologies. It uses J2EE 1.3/1.4 and Struts 1.3.

The main topics are advanced deployment descriptor settings, security, custom tags, filters, event handling and JSTL. Then there are three chapters on Struts 1.3. These additional chapters were very good although I'm not sure what they have to do with "core servlets." The browser screenshots were good for showing output and the examples were excellent.

As with "Core Java", the 700 page book contains some long classes. I could have done without the complete 5 page deployment descriptor at the end since it was gradually built up with new additions highlighted. The highlighting does help with spatial orientation.

I did notice a couple typos in the book. None of these affected the meaning, but it gives you the impression it wasn't proofread as carefully as other books. And (at least my copy) had a printing error where one page was missing a few lines.

For most part the book pointed out best practices. There were a few exceptions such as one chapter mentioning which jsp page should establish a database connection. Different chapters had different opinions on whether there should be scriptlets in a JSP as well.

Overall the book was fine although I would prefer to invest in a different title - either fully on Struts or fully on servlets/JSPs.

Courtesy of Robert Lange from Szczecin JUG:

Core Servlets and Java Server Pages Volume 2: Advanced Technologies is a sequel of Volume 1 : Core Technologies. Beside the authors many times emphasize that it will be better to know information covered in volume 1and that in this book there are mainly information about advanced technologies, they are recalling basic technologies too (configuration of deployment environment - Tomcat and other servers, deployment strategies, building WAR files, creating simple web applications, etc). It is very smart endeavors because it present great introduction to more advanced technologies. The only one demand for studying of both volumes of this book is that reader is familiar with java programming.
Very interesting division describes [...] file as a tool which controls web application. It contains step by step information how to build proper [...] file which could change and control behavior of already working web application. Additionally there are divisions deserving of attention about security and applications event framework. Core Servlets ... vol2 is a kind of book you will return to many times, because it contains many hints how to solve problems like for example filters. There is many precise use case of filters to control servlets activity. It is very good knowledge compendium about web applications services (servlets) and way to achieve their accomplishment. One of virtues of this book is that all described technologies are richly illustrated by many examples. Additional asset is free documented source code which is placed on [...], thanks to it is easy way to test all examples covered in book. Authors describing issues many times have referred to informations covered in vol1 of this book. Thanks to both books complements one another. Core Servlets ... vol2 could be recommended to all who are going to develop enterprise web applications. This book is very important item in IT library of every web application developer.

This book is a continuation of the first book. The book covers deployment of web application in great detail. It takes you through the development of a JSP, custom tags and does not leave you hanging like other books. It takes you through the steps of compiling, building and installing your web app. It covers security filtering and much more.

Another interesting technique this book uses, is it take the web developer through the different types of web development. It starts with development of custom tags and takes the reader through JSTL libraries and then discusses the Struts framework.

Finally, I used this book to help me through deployment of my web application. It was an invaluable tool.

I highly recommend this book. I have not had it for very long but I already find it very useful. It has helped my team introduce new technology and features into our applications. The Application Events Framework in chapter 6 helped me debug my application and discover that Struts creates a new session, if one doesn't exist, on every request In fact, JSP Tag files technology discussed in chapter 7 was the basis for a new reusable common component that we have created.

I like the style of the book very much. One thing in particular that I like is when a new technology or feature is introduced the steps needed to use it are numbered and laid out clearly without going into too much detail. Then as the feature is developed and each step is examined in detail the steps as a whole are repeated. This helps keep things in perspective - you can see more clearly where each thing fits into the big picture.

The authors also do a good job of trying to give small but useful and instructional examples of the different technologies - not always an easy task.

Whenever I look into this book I find new and interesting ideas. Even the concepts that I am familiar with I still learn new things about them. I wish I had more time to read through the entire book.

2nd edition has all the details for environment setup so it makes it easy and clear how to start your first web application. I always refer to this book when I need some reference or to review basic web application development.