Customer Reviews

J2EE: The complete Reference

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Based on the title of this book, you would think it would have some real content. After reading the first part of this book, I was deeply disappointed. I think this book is great for project managers who want to learn the development side of the J2EE technology. But for developers/engineers, it is a complete waste of time. Although the author does touch on every subject associated with J2EE he fails to connect all the dots. Explaining Java servlets and JSP, as one example, was a good start but there is nothing about how they work with each other. There arent very many examples either, but the ones that do exist, get right to the point and explain the subject matter appropriately. Too bad that isnt enough to make it more than a 2 star book. Glad I didnt pay full price for it (bought a used copy for $6 - barely makes it worth it).

I have read hundreds of technical computer books and I own many of them, so I can judge very well if a book is worthwhile. "J2EE: The Complete Reference" by Jim Keogh is the "WORST" book I have ever read. There are errors in almost every illustration and example. I expect one or two typos, but this is beyond belief. It was a total waste of my time to read and money to buy. Avoid this book and do not waste your time and money.

After reading all the reviews about this book i decided to buy it from amazon. Next time i will read more about bad comments than good ones.

The most i hate about books is "quick reference guides".
I'd like to have back 30% of money back since 30% of this book is just cut&paste from javaDoc.

The book is too approximately on most the subjects, expecting reading 7 pages of introducion to a subject and than 4-7 pages of java API!!

IMOH,
this is not the "complete" reference.

This book is by far the best J2EE/Web services book I have had the pleasure of reading. Keogh covers both J2EE and Web services in perfect detail, while at the same time managing to keep the tone of the book light without any sacrifice to the depth of coverage. As an web services programmer myself, I was looking for a book that would help me and my project team get up to speed quickly with J2EE Web services programming. Among all the books I reviewed, I liked this one the best!

This book is not for the complete Java novice. You need a good grounding in Java before undertaking J2EE to write Web Services applications. This is by far the best book I have seen on J2EE and Web Services. The book is well written; the examples are explained line by line. This book taught me everything I needed to about how to write a J2EE Web Services based application. It also shown me how to write a J2EE distributive application that is not web services based.

This is a solid introduction to J2EE, and to some aspects of Java, for that matter. I assumed that a "complete J2EE reference" would dispense with the typical introductory concepts, and move directly to advanced topics, but that is not the case.

The author writes well, and clearly, but wrote for the wrong audience. It also appears as if some deadline pressures dramatically influenced the construction of this book. For example, several chapters are devoted to explaing JDBC in painstaking detail, right down to constructing SQL statements. These are topics that I would expect anyone picking up this book to already know. Later in the book, topics like EJB, RMI, or JMS received very few pages.

I should also point out that the book is roughly 550 to 600 pages -- pp. 700+ are appendices, and 100 to 150 pages of the text are "quick reference guides," which fall far short of API documentation. As mentioned elsewhere, the accuracy of the code samples is laughable. Errors are so frequent that I passed the irritated and disturbed stages early on, and quickly moved to amused. C'mon, when 50% of the already limited code samples have errors, you have to chuckle!

The good point about this book is that it provides an accurate birds-eye view of J2EE, and can be used by anyone to learn how the various puzzle pieces fit together. J2EE is vast, and the book can help you navigate to the specific subjects that you want to drill down into.

Borrowed this from a colleague more out of interest to see if it measures up at all, but I am afraid the 1 star reviews are on the spot. No need to explain why, the previous reviewers explain why. Shame on the author and publisher for the fake 5 star reviews.

I have purchased this book after reading the excelent Java 2: The Complete Reference, by Herbert Schildt.

This book has lots of chapters covering many subjects but none of them goes deep enough to let you really learn what that thing means.

There are chapters about HTML, XML and SQL that I really think that are not needed in that kind of book and the chapters about JSP and EJB are so small and poor in content that I had to go through the J2EE 1.4 tutorial provided by Sun to get the point on these techs.

The most part of the book is waste on tables listing methods of classes, but it's just that: The author gives a table with a list of methods and a small sentence stating what it does. No code sample, no usage... If I was searching for list of classes and methods, the Sun documentation available online is more than good.

I have not yet seen a really good J2EE book, even because I haven't read so many, but the Sun's tutorial looks very good.

Mostly of the pages of the book are API Reference. The first half of the book didn't teach you any J2EE core thing, it just provide basic material such as SQL and HTML etc. I think most of the people already know that when buying book for enterpise system. The other half of the book is just an overview of J2EE. You must not be able to write J2EE applicaton or even understand J2EE after reading the book.

The author has a very lucid, to-the-point style of writing that is refreshing in these days. It's also written extremely well. It's both modern and thorough, something the other books can't claim. This book is tight and you definitely get your money's worth every time you sit down with it. I think that this was one of the best books that I have ever read on J2EE and web services.