Practical DWR 2 Projects (Expert's Voice in Java) [Paperback]

W. Frank Zammetti (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1590599411 | ISBN-13: 978-1590599419 | Publication Date: January 24, 2008 | Edition: 1

The Ajax craze is sweeping the world, and there is no shortage of libraries from which to choose to make it all easier to develop. One of those libraries has risen near the top in the Java space, and that library is DWR. DWR, or Direct Web Remoting, is an Ajax library and Web framework that is very popular, and getting backing and support from Spring Framework developers and users.

Practical DWR Web 2.0 Projects addresses the needs of most developers who would rather learn by example and by doing. This book contains several projects that developers can sink their teeth into doing.

Written by accomplished Ajax and Java Web developer and author, Frank Zammetti, this book looks to be first and only book on this popular Ajax and Web development technology to market.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Frank W. Zammetti is a web architect specialist for a leading worldwide financial company by day and a PocketPC and open-source developer by night. He is the founder and chief software architect of Omnytex Technologies, a PocketPC development house.

He has over 12 years of "professional" experience in the IT field, and over 12 more of "amateur" experience. He began his nearly life-long love of computers at age 7 when he became one of four students chosen to take part in the school district’s pilot computer program. A year later, he was the only participant left! The first computer Frank owned was a Timex Sinclair 1000 in 1982, on which he wrote a program to look up movie times for all of Long Island (and without the 16k expansion module!). After that, he moved on to a Commodore 64 and spent about 4 years doing nothing but assembly programming (games mostly). He finally got his first IBM-compatible PC in 1987, and began learning the finer points of programming (as they existed at that time!).

Frank has primarily developed web-based applications for about 8 years. Before that, he developed Windows-based client/server applications in a variety of languages. Frank holds numerous certifications including SCJP, MCSD, CNA, i-Net+, A+, CIW, MCP, and numerous BrainBench certifications. He is a contributor to a number of open source projects, including DataVision, Struts, PocketFrog, and Jakarta Commons. In addition, Frank has started two projects: Java Web Parts and The Struts Web Services Enablement Project. He also was one of the founding members of a project that created the first fully functioning Commodore 64 emulator for PocketPC devices (PocketHobbit).

Frank has authored various articles on topics that range from integrating DataVision into web apps, to using Ajax in Struts-based applications. He is currently working on a new application framework specifically geared to creating next-generation web applications.

Product Details

• Paperback: 568 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (January 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590599411
• ISBN-13: 978-1590599419
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,046,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars So few pages on DWR, April 15, 2008

By 

J. Hughes "Java Explorer" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical DWR 2 Projects (Expert's Voice in Java) (Paperback)

DWR has a highly specific function and at 521 pages the reader could expect a thorough book on the subject, but I think you will be disappointed. This is really a 1-star book, however I gave it 2 stars because the author has gone to the trouble of putting this book together for what is a narrow readership segment within the software developer community.

Pages 129 through to the end of the book are a compendium of projects that illustrate the use of DWR. I don't like having to read through illustrated projects to discover general techniques. For example the first coverage of DWR configuration via annotations is buried in one such project near the end. You might strike lucky and find one of these projects gives your in-house project a head start but as a structured introduction to DWR this main bulk of the book fails.

So that leaves 128 pages for detailed DWR coverage? Unfortunately there is further disappointing news, pages 1 to 38 are just an elementary introduction to AJAX augmented with plenty of cartoons. DWR gets it first mention on page 39!

The final and only 80 pages of true DWR tutorial disappointed me further. The first 5 star book review here compliments the jocular style of the prose, unfortunately when you are looking for the few pieces of substance in this book these jokes only serve to annoy.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good intro to DWR and to some extent the surrounding glue logic, November 21, 2009

By 

T. Hollins (Columbia Station, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Practical DWR 2 Projects (Expert's Voice in Java) (Paperback)

I humbly disagree with J.Hughes who gave it two stars but stated it should only receive one star. The book had a rudimentary intro to AJAX because the author believes (as do I) that the term "AJAX" has been applied to many things. One must define the domain within which one works. The author did this, framing each technology well. The author gives you a good introduction into the AJAX frameworks that the reader could explore.
The reason for the second half of the book is to introduce the reader to how DWR would fit in various scenarios. The author explored several other AJAX technologies to accomplish this. This will demonstrate to the average reader how to incorporate whatever framework they are using, into the DWR way of doing things.
The book was far from comic relief and I'm not sure why that is a bad thing in our dry subject matter industry (i.e. programming).
I believe this is not for the J. Hughes of this world who hate the presentation of subject matter within actual working programs. Yes you can drop the WAR file into the Tomcat webapps directory and poof you're see the application running.
I liked the format, it help me learn many things. I am a tinkerer, and the best way to use ALL of the code that came from the author is to take bits and pieces from a program and get it working for yourself. Like the Dwiki example, I took the Login form and wanted to just make that work. The author also gives you additional project ideas to take the DWiki (or any of the other projects) further. I think this is a good format for the learner.
Being an avid reader, I believe the J.Hughes type of person wants a dry terse reference. Nothing wrong with that, I have several books like that, and when I'm pressed for time, and "just have to solve the problem" then this book would drive me nuts. However, I wanted to learn the WHY of DWR as well as the HOW. So this book more than satisfied that requirement.
Good luck to you all. The book was well worth the money.
-T-

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great content, March 1, 2008

By 

Michael Szumowski (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical DWR 2 Projects (Expert's Voice in Java) (Paperback)

Very informative book and helped me with many of my general questions/interests about Direct Web Remoting. Great examples as well as great comic relief from Frank. You did well buddy.