Customer Reviews

JSP, Servlets, and MySQL

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

 

 

I bought this book because it was about JSP, Servlets and MySQL, and that was exactly what I was going to be working with. I was very disappointed.

The arrangement of text and examples makes it confusing to read, and I often found myself flipping pages back and forth to try and grasp what the author was talking about. Often there was first a result, and then examples of all the files used to get that result. In my experience, most computer books show you the pieces and then the finished product. This backwards organization made many of the explanations more difficult than they needed to be. While the introduction section had lots of decent content, the way it flowed made it a more difficult read than it needed to be.

I browsed the part on MySQL. Most of it dealt with database design and normalization as opposed to the MySQL server and it's configuration. All of the information in this book regarding MySQL is in the "getting started" section of the MySQL documentation. The explanations regarding database design were terrible, and the suggestions regarding how to design the database were obviously made by someone with very little programming (and especially maintenance) experience.

When I finally got to the meat (part three and four) I found that the same poor organization of part one was still present, and beyond a URL for the MySQL JDBC driver, none of the content is worth reading. The design patterns are poorly explained, to the point where they suggest obscene programming techniques. When the author suggested to name files ".htm" instead of ".html" to avoid infinite loops when using the MVC design pattern, I finally put the book down, went to the bookstore, and bought something else. You do not correct an infinite loop by implementing a naming convention -- you correct it by not creating the scenario in the first place.

David Harms does not demonstrate a strong understanding of the content, nor does he demonstrate a strong understanding of programming. The book I bought on my second trip to the bookstore was "Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages" by Marty Hall (Sun), and I've learned more from chapters one and two than I did reading the first 300 pages of this book. This book is a waste of time and money, and I pity those that use it as a guide.

While I have gained a lot of knowledge and insight from reading this book, I have to say that I am more than disappointed at many of the errors in this book. As a person that enjoys typing in the examples, bringing things up and running and trying it out, I was disappointed to find that I needed to correct so much.

A major example in the errors found in the examples is on pages 106 and 107 where you type in a very basic class demonstrating on how to create a "Tag Handler Class that Gets Request Parameters." Two things are wrong here as the example never handles the NullPointerException that you get from the compiler when you first start the .jsp page (because the parameter is null at that point) and uses the equality operator for verifying two strings (should have made use of the String.equals() method.)

I am on page 107 (out of 500 or so) and have spent more time troubleshooting the examples than learning. I guess the publisher's deadlines were more important than teaching a good lesson!

This book was useful for getting an idea of how to get your JSPs and Servlets (using Tomcat) to talk to MySql. If you already know how to use JSP and Servlets, and are specifically trying to get some ideas on this configuration, it's probably worth it's one-time useage. (Better yet, see if you know anybody with the book, i'm sure they'll be willing to part with it)

Some of the examples were useful. But, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone trying to learn about Java or JSP.

As someone already wrote, the link to the Java drivers for MySQL was probably the most valuable thing in this book.

Wasn't there a technical editor for this book? All of the examples are riddled with errors. If it's possible for a book to leave you with less knowledge than you had before you read it, this book does that. It's really a shame. It was such a promising idea for a book.

I would recommend that potential readers invest in "JavaServer Pages" by Hans Bergman and "MySQL" by Paul DuBois instead. I found everything I needed in one or the other of those two books.

I was very very disappointed in this book, to the point of being angry at the author! It was okay for reveiw of basic MySql commands but its content had so many errors that all my time was spent trying to fix errors.

The content left out crucial information about the web site design. I regressed and finally decided to go get the code mentioned on the cover. Guess what? It doesn't exist. This author decided to enhance the code after the book and added packages and code so now it does not match the book. Nothing is the same. I tried to awork with the new code, and there is errors in the new code and the database create file.

All the code I typed in can't be checked to see if the errors are mine or his. I am pretty sure its his. The code just doesn't work.

I highly suggest looking into another book if your looking to learn JSP, servlets, or MySql.

I picked up this book because I had already decided that I was going to use JSP and MySQL together to create my web site. Quite frankly, I haven't learned anything from this book that wasn't done better in other books, which is a shame because this is an area that really deserves a more thorough treatment. In several areas he just fills several pages with code and hardly explains it at all, other than a few lines--so why bother showing the entire example? This is a clear case where better editorial review would have helped to focus the book on material that would have been more helpful to the reader.

I found this book very helpful. I knew nothing about JSP, servlets and mysql. My previous experience came from a standard university course in Java. The book took me through setting up tomcat, mysql,etc. It started me off using the technologies. The book is built around a core example. I didn't reproduce and test the code supplied but dipped in to take what I needed. Downloading the code from the website was confusing. Overall this book has been very helpful. I found the content concise and to the point. Thanks to the author.

The TOC sounded great, so I bought the book. I hate to reiterate what other reviewers have already said, but it's true: there are so many errors it's rediculous. It was painful to figure out why I wasn't understanding some of the material (for example, the SAME SQL statement produces two DIFFERENT result sets on page 208/209)when in fact it was just a very poorly edited book. The book's topics are perfect - now someone needs to go through it with a pitchfork to weed out all the errors. Not to mention that the example code you can download has been refactored (to put it nicely). It's an expensive lesson in wasted money and time and frustration, but from now on, I'll always check the reviews here before ordering any book.

This is the worst technical book I have ever had the misfortune to read. I was originally excited to purchase the book as the Table of Contents outlined topics I am interested in studying. However, the book is riddled with text and code errors. In fact, the author had the audacity to change the downloadable source code after the book was published. Therefore, you can't even get the code source for the examples in the book, and the new code comes with no instructions! In addition, the author does a poor job of explaining the concepts he is trying to teach. M&T Books should be ashamed for publishing this poorly edited text. I truly feel that I have been swindled by this company/author and would like a full refund. The book is so bad that I will avoid all M&T Books in the future.

David Harms' book is certainly easy to read and is written to a technology level that is, for the most part, easy to understand. Some of his examples, however, assume retained knowledge that was acquired previously. As a result, it is frequently necessary to thumb back through pages that have already been read to ascertain what he is discussing at the moment. As reference material, however, the information contained within the pages is without peers. If you are willing to dig and thoroughly evaluate what you have read, this book has a wealth of positive data.