Customer Reviews

Head First Servlets and JSP: Passing the Sun Certified Web Component Developer Exam (SCWCD)

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Looking for either an enjoyable intro into JSP and Servlets or material on passing the Sun Certified Web Component Developer exam? Grab a copy of Head First Servlets & JSP by Bryan Basham, Kathy Sierra, and Bert Bates. It rocks...

Chapter list: Intro; Why use Servlets & JSPs; Web app architecture; Mini MVC tutorial; Being a servlet; Being a web app; Conversational state; Being a JSP; Script-free pages; Custom tags are powerful; When JSTL is not enough; Deploying your web app; Keep it secret, keep it safe; The power of filters; Enterprise design patterns; Final mock exam; Index

I've stated my preference in the past to learning subjects with a bit of humor thrown in. OK... a *lot* of humor. If I have a chance to pick up a new tech skill with a study guide that makes me laugh and stay interested, I'm in heaven. Is it any wonder then that I absolutely love the Head First series? Bates and Sierra have created a concept that is unlike anything else on the market. Through the use of cartoons, hand-drawn examples, off-beat questions, and other various types of learning material, they engage your brain on a number of levels. And as a result, you're sucked in and learning stuff in spite of yourself.

In this installment, they tackle the subject of servlets and JSPs. Rather than try and explain things "technically", they have a common cast of characters throughout the book making observations and points about the material. Using the hand-drawn notes around illustrations and code, you quickly understand the underlying concepts of what happens with servlet requests and responses, and how JSPs interact with the web server. And given that there are exercises and questions at the end of each chapter (along with the answers), you have a chance to reinforce your learning immediately.

There are two uses for this book. The primary goal is to help you pass the Sun Certified Web Component Developer exam. If you already know about servlets and JSPs, get the book for the mock exam and the questions at the end of each chapter. The authors helped write the actual Sun test, so you'll get a good feel for the types of questions you'll face. The other use of this book would be to learn and understand the subject matter, like a tutorial. Once again, an excellent choice for that purpose. You'll still need to get some sort of "official" reference book of some sort if you get deeper into the material, but this is a perfect way to get started.

Once again, another winner from the warped minds that created the Head First concept. May they continue to thrive for a long time!

Written in the now familiar light and funny style of the Head First Series, this text is also extremely precise, clear, correct and informative. Be warned though, tit has the wrong title. (that's why I give it 4 star instead of 5). It should be called
Head First SCWCD and not Head First Servlets & JSP, since the scope of this text is to prepare you for the SCWCD exam, and it succeeds in that brilliantly. As a first book to learn Servlets & JSP programming though, I think it is a terrible, if funny, book.
In fact it is very good on conceptual matters and especially on the tricky casees and questions that you might encounter in the exam, but it lacks the hands on and by example approach necessary to learn how to actually DO things.
[...] This said, it is still a great book if you intend to refresh or improve your Servlet and JSP knowledge, or to actually take the exam and get certified.
Only , please, enough with this style, let's find another funny one, if I read another Java book with martial arts characters in it I will feel sick ! ;)

I have read the book and pass the SCWCD exam. Overall speaking, this is an excellent book for prepare the exam.

However, there are two issues with the book
1. The layout of the book content is very uncommon. It is good, but you need time to get used with it.

2. There are too many error in the first edition. You can find the errata on Oreilly website, which is about 16 pages!

I bought Head First Servlets and JSP after enjoying Head First Java and learning a lot very quickly from it. I liked the authors' style in Head First Java and I appreciated the way they summarized the information for me and focused on the important things in order to get productive quickly.

This book is very sub-par in comparison to Head First Java. Where was their editor in this book? The authors seems to be relying on their snappy style and illustrations in order to make up for fact that the organization and consistency in the book is poor. For example, in Head First Java, every chapter has "Bullet Point" sections that summarize and point out the most important things in the chapter. They're helpful for reviewing content or reviewing the main points of the chapter and give enough details to be useful reminders for coding or other activities. Many chapters are completely lacking any "bullet points" sections at all while other chapters have them. The exam quizzes questions at the end of some chapters are NOT adequate substitutes for bullet point summaries (they appear sporadically in some chapters and not in others, also).

The book has the feel of something that was conglomerated from various authors with different writing styles and abilities. Some chapters are short and manageable while some are monsterous and not well thought out.

If I were to guess, I'd bet that Head First Servlets and JSP was quickly conglomerated from multiple authors. It seems rushed to print with little time for revision and without editors that bothered enforcing attention to consistency, detail and technical accuracy. O'Reilly and the editors of this book, hang your head in shame for such mediocre work.

Aside from the editorial and multiple-authors problems, this book might be useful if you're looking for something long, entertaining, sometimes unfocused and inconsistent, but with some good information.

Just don't expect it to live up to the high standards of Head First Java. It doesn't meet these high standards.

I generally agree with most of the positive reviews. I always disliked the verbose style of old Orielly books - no white space, few diagrams, summaries, tables, etc. However buyers should consider some downsides to the style of this book.

You'll need to get through 700+ pages to complete this book compared to about half that for "Professional SCWCD Certification" Granted the scope of the exam has grown, but this is also due to it's style, and making it an introductory book as well as a study guide. On one hand, you'll find you will read these pages faster. So it's nearly a wash. On the other, there were many times I wanted the shorter version of the test topic.

Some may find the style makes them a bit dyslexic. For some, too many pictures can be distracting.

It doesn't seem it will be a great reference. However, its good writing may trump the fact that it's not organized like a reference.

Overall, it's hard to beat, especially if this is the one book you get on JSP/Servlets - well written, large scope, goes from introduction to SCWCD. But it may not be the best for someone who's just looking for a study guide or reference.

Bottom line: I would buy it despite these stylistic downsides.

Ordinarily, I'd regard myself as having a healthy cynicism for the style and approach of the Head First series; all those pictures and diagrams, and characters with thought bubbles appearing throughout the book, are, well, a bit frivolous and dizzy. Just give me the facts, in a straightforward manner, and I'll learn the material, thank you very much.
However, I've been converted. This book, while appearing wacky and perhaps ludicrous, does what it claims to do, with aplomb. All those funky graphics do actually help to break up what is a rather large amount of information that you need to absorb in order to pass the Sun Certified Web Component Developer exam; they are beneficial to your learning, and indeed almost become endearing.
I quickly realised my aloof attitude was unfounded, and that this was a quality learning tool. I threw myself into the book and surprised myself with the wealth of knowledge that I gained.
Many of the facets of web applications, of which I had a cursory understanding prior to reading this book, began to slot into place, and their relevance to one another became apparent as I progressed through the book. The big picture was revealed bit by bit.
Either to learn more about how web applications work, or to pass your SCWCD exam, this book has plenty to offer those with little hands-on experience of coding web applications, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

I bought this book to prepare for SCWCD. I read every page of the book and didn't miss any of the exercises. Within 10days I could crack SCWCD with 85% score. Thanks to the authors. Even if you are not planning to take the certifications, it's still a good book if you want to master the J2EE fundamentals.

The Head First series style is a excellent vehicle for entry into a very difficult and obscure subject. In that, this book is great. Unlike the previous book in the series I've read, for the programmer/developer exams, which is seriously great, this one is rather weakly held together and perhaps a bit rushed. The test questions are occasionally (mostly in the case of chapter 10) not covered in the chapters, or even sometimes just wrong. The chapters have inconsistancies and gaps in explanations (is it <servlet-class> or <servlet-class-file>?). And this is very important, the indexing is poor at best. You need the indexing so when you miss questions, you can look back and try to figure out what went wrong. So, think of it as a readable primer for a difficult subject -- there to get you started -- but you will need some external references to get through it. And let's all pull for a second edition and hope that this crew's next effort is a little more thorough (by the way -- I did pass the test).

I actually like this book, perhaps a lot. Its physical quality (cover, paper, print, etc.) is good enough. Its approach to teaching is good (lots of charts, tables, diagrams, graphics). And, although I don't know for sure, I have no reason to expect that this book's technical information is other than correct. The problem: 1) typos, 2) grammatical errors, 3) mislabeling and inconsistencies between the text and the code. It's all pretty horrendous, completely unacceptable, not professional at all. Sorry authors, if you want a good review, you must complete the job with a thorough edit of this book. As it stands now, it has potential, but it is not finished.

Steve Whitlatch

There it is on page 94: "Important note: while the first three chapters covered background information, from this page forward in the book, virtually everything you're going to see is directly related to or explicitly part of the exam."

I would expect this sort of thing from most of the certification industry, but not from O'Reilly. Essentially, this book covers the certification exam; that it also provides an introduction to Servlets and JSP is largely incidental. O'Reilly is certainly one of the most consistent, best publishers of technical material, and this book is very good. However, it is a surprise that they would publish a certification exam study guide rather than a serious tutorial about the material. Even though I have learned a good bit about Servlets, I am left wondering what they have left out, simply because it is not on the exam.

If you are looking for a SCWCDE study guide, this is it. If you are looking for a fast, good introduction to Servlets, this may also be it. But in the future, I'll probably give the Head First series a pass, and I'll be a little more careful about reflexively picking up O'Reilly books.