Pro Jakarta Struts, Second Edition [Paperback]

John Carnell (Author), Rob Harrop (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 2004

Building web applications that are maintainable and extensible requires a significant amount of design and planning before even a single line of code can be written. However, by leveraging development frameworks, many of the challenges of web-based development can be overcome. This book acts as a roadmap to demonstrate how to use the Jakarta Struts framework to solve everyday web application development challenges.

Jakarta Struts is a web development framework that provides a set of code libraries that provide the infrastructure of a web application based on a well established and accepted design pattern. Version 1.1 of Struts provides new and additional functionality in areas such as presentation and error handling.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Carnell is a principal architect for NetChange LLC, an IT management consulting firm specializing in enterprise application design and implementation. John is also an adjunct facility member of the Waukesha County Technical College's School of Business in Wisconsin. In addition, John is a prolific speaker and writer. He has spoken at national conferences such as Internet Expo, the Data Warehousing Institute, and the Complete Programmer's Network Software Symposiums. John has authored, co-authored, and been a technical reviewer for a number of technical books and industry publications.

Rob Harrop is a software consultant specializing in delivering high-performance, highly-scalable enterprise applications. He is an experienced architect with a particular flair for understanding and solving complex design issues. With a thorough knowledge of both Java and .NET, Harrop has successfully deployed projects across both platforms. He also has extensive experience across a variety of sectors, retail and government in particular.

Harrop is the author of five books, including Pro Spring, a widely-acclaimed, comprehensive resource on the Spring Framework.

Harrop has been a core developer of the Spring Framework since June 2004 and leads the JMX and AOP efforts. He co-founded U.K.-based software company, Cake Solutions, in May 2001, having spent the previous two years working as lead developer for a successful dotcom start-up. Rob is a member of the JCP and is involved in the JSR-255 Expert Group for JMX 2.0.

Product Details

• Paperback: 578 pages
• Publisher: A-Press; 2nd edition (September 24, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159059228X
• ISBN-13: 978-1590592281
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,465,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not focused enough, August 16, 2004

By 

critical_g "!" (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Pro Jakarta Struts, Second Edition (Paperback)

This book offers too much discussion of general software engineering. I suppose an enty-level developer might find that useful. I just wanted a book that teaches Struts, from "Hello, world" to the dirty details. If you already know the benefits of n-tier applications, much of the text is a waste. If you already know the value of design patterns, and how to apply some, then much of the text is a waste.

I found the Wrox book, Professional Jakarta Struts, to be much more focused and useful. That book sticks to the topic, and provides very good reference information on the configuration file and tag libraries.

Having said that, I did find the chapter on XDoclet to be useful.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't stop where Struts 1.1 leaves off, July 25, 2004

By 

Dirk Schreckmann (St. Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pro Jakarta Struts, Second Edition (Paperback)

Pro Jakarta Struts, Second Edition by John Carnell with Rob Harrop is the best book on developing Struts-based web applications I've read. (I've read at least five or six others.)

The title of the book is a bit of a misnomer, as it covers much more than just Struts 1.1 fundamentals. This book aims higher, including chapters on web application Patterns and Antipatterns, XDoclet, Velocity and ObjectRelationalBridge, along with the good explanations of various Struts-specific topics.

Pro Jakarta Struts, Second Edition is a pretty thick book at 578 pages. I didn't notice a single page wasted to printing some API. It isn't really a technical cookbook to be placed on a nearby shelf for quick reference during development to look up the basics of using some technology. Instead, the authors focused on good practices used when developing web applications, including explanations of why a technology should be used and how to use it, recurring problems that others have experienced (Antipatterns) and what to do instead (Patterns), and other pieces of advice designed to get the reader's brain thinking in web applications.

If you're in the market for a book on Struts-based web applications, get this one. It covers Struts 1.1 well, but it doesn't stop where Struts leaves off.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good explanations with relavent code examples, July 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Pro Jakarta Struts, Second Edition (Paperback)

If you are the kind of person who needs all the basics and details before reading how to use them this book may not be for you. I like a book that has a quick intro on the basics and then gets to the real meat of things and this is that kind of book.

This is one of the best programming type books I have read in quite some time. Many books show you so many light weight examples and never develop anything but the basics. This book uses the same web app throughout the book, adapting it as you go. The app has many pieces and you can get a good feel for all of the pieces of the Struts framework.

Not only does he give good examples of how and why on implementing an app using Struts but he provides you with why not to do it other ways. He also provides a lot of advice on how not to integrate your app too tightly within the Struts framework making it flexable to use your code outside of a web app.

I work maintenance on several web apps and know how hard it is to integrate new funcationality into an existing application that is poorly written. The anti-patterns describe the systems I work on all too well so to have explanations of how to remedy these situations is helpful.