Customer Reviews

Murach's Java Servlets and JSP

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are looking for a book that is going to teach you Servlets and JSP in a very easy way with a lot of hand holding then you are looking for this book. The authors make the assumption that the reader knows the basics of Java but has absolutely no knowledge of internet programming.

The book starts by guiding the reader through the process of installing Tomcat (all the samples use Tomcat as the servlet engine) and creating a simple HTML page before they introduce you to Servlets and JSP. Servlets and JSP are covered separately and then working together in the Model 2 architecture. The one thing missing from this section is any mention of Struts or other MVC frameworks. Advanced topics such as using SSL and restricting access to a web site are covered very well and in a way that makes it easy to follow and understand. The authors even show how to write your own tag libraries. Unfortunately, no mention is made of JSTL. The authors show how to install and use MySQL and how to code SQL before moving on to explain using JDBC in a web application. The book ends with a complete sample application of an online store including secure credit card handling.

This is an excellent tutorial that will painlessly teach you how to write complex web applications. I doubt that there is another book available that makes the subject this easy to understand.

I've been developing software for 28 years and using Java for 10 years. However, I've never developed a web application. I needed a crash course on all things web and Java. On my shelf I have about two feet of new books on a variety of Java topics including three books on Java servlets and JSPs. Almost without exception all of these books make these mistakes:

- Assume the reader knows too much and in some cases assumes the reader is already familiar with the topic

- Takes a complex subject and makes it more complex by taking many digressions, explaining something without explaining why and referring to technologies not explained in the book.

- Is loaded with undefined acronyms

- Has a "smirky" attitude as though there is some private joke

- Only shows code snippets without providing the complete context allowing for your own testing

- Doesn't take a building block approach so that you learn the topic step by step

Murach's book makes none of these mistakes. I think all technical "how to" or tutorial books should follow Murach's format. There is one concept for each two pages. The left page explains the concept with clearly written text and the right page shows the example that demonstrates the concept. Each concept is built on concepts already learned in previous pages so that if you have understood all the previous concepts you easily understand the next concept. In this book the only assumption is that you're familiar with Java but not necessarily an expert. Along the way unimportant details are identified or there is an indication that the detail will be explained in a later section. If you read the book from start to finish you will not be confused at any point.

Because there is an assumption that the reader only knows Java some basic topics such as HTML and the web paradigm are explained. The good news is that these topics are clearly identified and if the reader is already familiar with the topic they can be skipped without fear of missing something important and required for future sections.

Aside from the format and process of this book there is the spirit of the book. It is clear the authors care very much about whether their book will help the reader become conversant on the topic. They act as a technical sherpa and are never condescending.

I believe this is the only book a beginning Java servlet and JSP programmer will need. I'm not a servlet and JSP expert but I'm guessing this may be the only Java servlet and JSP book you'll ever need.

My only disappointment in Murach books is that they don't have more of their books on more recent technologies such as Jakarta Struts or Enterprise Java Beans. It seems that most of their books are on legacy technologies (has Java servlets and JSPs become legacy?).

This is a GREAT book. It's methodical, easy to follow, and in the process, it shows you that Java really isn't as difficult as those junky Sun tutorials lead one to believe. I actually used this book along with Sun's Java Web Services Developer Pack and it really made things easy to set up servlets and JSP.

If you already know servlets and JSP, buy this book anyway just to see where other tutorials left out the fundamentals.

In my opinion as a trainer and developer, it is a major feat of skill and patience to bring somebody from zero knowledge to a productive level of skill in technologies like this. These authors make it look easy. Sun should hire them to redo all of their tutorials. That way, Java would be more widely adopted and could eventually overtake security-hole-riddled Microsoft products.

This book on Servlets and JSP is truly a self explanatory tutorial for those who wish to get some hands on by themselves.
Murach's two page trick works very good. This book is comprehensive in getting you know the basics of JSP and Servlets. I was a guy with just core Java knowledge and when I wanted to get myself in learning the advanced concepts like JSP and servlets, this book proved one.
This book caters for those who want to get a flying start into JSP and Servlets but for an indepth knowledge on the subject you'd better look for other options.

The one quality that makes "Murach's Java Servlets and JSP" (buy from Amazon) a clear winner is the quality of the content and clarity of author Andrea Steelman and Joel Murach's writing. They use a friendly, humorous voice that eases the normal tension accompanying such a complex topic as programming Java servlets and designing JavaServer Pages. I'm a C# developer, so this was most appreciated by someone like me. You'll also be thankful for this tone as the book takes you through some very challenging scenarios in developing winning browser-based apps.

The book is the rare breed of tech manual that stays relevant to the neophyte reader and the experienced developer alike. It's outstanding as a college-level classroom reference, with oversized dimensions (it's a large book, height- and width-wise) are loaded with rich illustrations and healthy amounts of code with thorough explanations of the concepts behind then. Physically the book is ready to sustain the harsh conditions of the learning programmer. Its rigid design will survive a reader's rampant paging through chapters to find that one code sample and stretching the book's spine, in the classroom as well as the web shop.

The book presents the reader with the holistic JSP experience, and the organization of the chapters is very logical. I particularly enjoyed the chapters dealing with JavaMail programming, working in SSL environments, database access with JDBC and MySQL, working in the HTTP pipeline, custom JSP tags and use of XML. Also featured are basic discussions of incorporating componentization in your projects through JavaBeans. I also liked wrapping up my reading with the capstone project: designing, coding and deploying a very practical Music Store web app.

The accompanying CD-ROM is outstanding, including the Java 2 SDK for Windows, Tomcat 4.0, MySQL, and trial versions of HomeSite and TextPad.

In criticism, I felt the book to be ironically a little light on servlets themselves. I would have liked to see more on servlets and beans programming discussed, and perhaps highlight a bit more some of the key classes in the Java 2 API. The book also I feel neglects the object-oriented programming concepts that are so critical to modern-day development. Maybe such topics are out of this book's range, but simple class design would have been nice. However, the best-practices approach to development - use of patterns, proper system organization and implementing MVC architecture greatly offset the book's very minor shortcomings.

I fully recommend this book to anyone looking to get into beginning to intermediate JavaServer Pages programming. It's essential to becoming a well-versed Java programmer.

In my 20 years as a computer professional, I have never seen a book so well written as this one. Murach has a gift. Immediately, I began to develop high powered servlet and JSP applications. I came across this book after being very frustrated by books from other publishers. Now I have a deep understanding of the subject.

Love the format, go Murach!

If you are a novice, this is a good book.

Without enough due diligence I bought this book based on it's recent publish date, and it's 5 star review. Big mistake. First red flag after receiving the book, no mention of what version of JSP is being documented!? If you are looking for an in depth technical discussion/reference of JSP 2.0, do not go here. This book is basic.

I am a newbie in java programming and wanted a beginner's book on JSP/Servlet.
I am more than half way through this book and
I think this book is the best book on this subject atleast for the beginners.

I bought this because Amazons pairing system linked this book to a JDK6 book with a publication date of 2007. This book was published in 2003! That'll teach me to check the publication date of the links.

This book is fine if you are still using Tomcat 4.1 as a release enviroment for your web apps. If you are like the rest of the world and have moved on to Tomcat 5 or 6, then forget it. This means the 2.1/1.2 Servlet/JSP specs rather than the 2.5/2.1 spec. From 1.2->2.1 there have been some powerful additions to the tagging which you obviously won't find any info on in here.

I'll give the book 2 stars as it is well laid out, thought there are a few niggles where the content is wrong, but nothing major.

This is an excellent book on Java web applications. Easy to read and understand. Has all the required tools on the CD. The examples are easy to follow. Almost every page in the book has the example code listing on the right and the explanation on the left so you can view the code while reading the explanations. I loved it.