Java Frameworks and Components: Accelerate Your Web Application Development [Paperback]

Michael Nash (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521520592 | ISBN-13: 978-0521520591 | Publication Date: June 16, 2003

This book is a practical tool for Java^TM® programmers. It provides the necessary information for finding, evaluating and selecting an application framework for programming needs. It explains in plain language the benefits of frameworks and component technologies, specifically in relation to web application development. The book is unique: it does not focus on any specific technology, and uses examples from several different frameworks to explain the underlying principles. As the market for web applications begins its second wave, this volume provides the critical information for developers to make the transition into componentized framework-based development, keeping them ahead in an increasingly competitive market.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A tour de force!...this is the definitive work on Web Application Frameworks...This book is a superb exploration of the current state of the web application development framework market...The aspect that most impressed me was the depth of research that has obviously gone into this book." Slashdot

Book Description

The book is a guide for programmers creating applications for use on the internet. It gives them what they need to evaluate and choose the appropriate framework and component tools. It provides the knowledge required to understand these technologies and to assist them in choosing the right tools for their job. It is written in plain English in a practical, hands-on approach as opposed to a highly technical, theoretical treatise on the subject. These technologies are new and very valuable but not widely adopted yet due to being perceived as very complex. This book dispels the mystery.

Product Details

• Paperback: 490 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (June 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521520592
• ISBN-13: 978-0521520591
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,944,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dreary and heavy-handed, January 16, 2004

By 

Ernest Friedman-Hill "JavaRanch Sheriff" (Gaithersburg, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Java Frameworks and Components: Accelerate Your Web Application Development (Paperback)

Inside this 470-page book is a collection of decent short essays
struggling to get out. Unfortunately, in its present state, it contains
a wealth of redundant material. Nash begins by spending 55 pages
defining frameworks and touting their benefits, and then moves on to
another 50 page chapter entitled "Application Frameworks: What do they
provide and what are the benefits?" Similarly, two 30-page chapters
on the process of choosing between frameworks are separated by an 80
page catalog of synopses of more or less randomly chosen frameworks,
libraries, and development tools. This book is badly in need of
editing.

Curiously, the chapters in the middle of the book are entirely
unrelated to choosing application frameworks. There are long treatises
about open source (including over thirty pages of annotated
software licenses,) about development methodologies, about design
patterns, and even about IDEs. Why all this material appears in this
book is a mystery to me; again, an editor could have helped.

The last two chapters of the book, which concern best practices and
case studies, are a bit better and certainly more on topic. Readers
interested in the Struts, Cocoon, Expresso, or Turbine application
frameworks will benefit from the comparative study in the final
chapter.

"This book is a practical tool for Java programmers," Nash claims in
the frontispiece. I find it hard to imagine a typical Java programmer
having much use for this dreary, heavy-handed tome. A manager new to
software development might find it of more value.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read, but superficial, December 10, 2005

By 

Alexander Kolesnikov (Glasgow, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Java Frameworks and Components: Accelerate Your Web Application Development (Paperback)

This might be a good book for IT managers, it is quite convincing when it comes to deciding whether to use components and frameworks or not. However, for a developer it is not very helpful. Although it contains sound ideas on how to compare different frameworks.

Still, plenty of people nowadays are using servlets to output HTML or JSP to request a database, and this book helps to understand that there are much more powerful and efficient tools available in Java Web world.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guide for Technical Managers, July 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Java Frameworks and Components: Accelerate Your Web Application Development (Paperback)

When I managed a software engineering group (over 5 years ago) I used to have time to do Java(tm) programming on my own. Now that I no longer program, it is a huge challenge to maintain the knowledge needed to make critical decisions.

For example, my company needed to decide which Java framework to use, and as expected, there were different recommendations from different parts of the organization.

As I was responsible for facilitating a decision, I had to find a way to define criteria for the comparison of Java Frameworks. I needed to learn why and when one framework is better for my application than another.

Java Frameworks and Components was very useful in providing the information I needed to bring my organization to a decision. Finally, I was able to understand the issues being discussed between our technical experts. I found Java Frameworks and Components to be a very timely and useful book and I would recommended it to anyone looking to learn about Java Frameworks or tasked with deciding which Framework to use for their project.