Professional JSP : Using JavaServer Pages, Servlets, EJB, JNDI, JDBC, XML, XSLT, and WML [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Karl Avedal (Author), Danny Ayers (Author), Timothy Briggs (Author), George Gonchar (Author), Naufal Khan (Author), Peter Henderson (Author), Mac Holden (Author), Andre Lei (Author), Dan Malks (Author), Sameer Tyagi (Author), Stephan Osmont (Author), Paul Siegmann (Author), Gert Van Damme (Author), Steve Wilkinson (Author), Stefan Zeiger (Author), John Zukowski (Author), Ari Halberstadt (Author), Carl Burnham (Author), John Timney (Author), Tom Myers (Author), Alexander Nakhimovsky (Author)

Book Description

Series: Programmer to Programmer | Publication Date: January 15, 2000

Professional JavaServer Pages covers a wide variety of areas including design and architecture, JSPs and their relation to J2EE (Servlets, EJBs, JDBC etc) as well as extensive coverage of the tag extension mechanism that allows you to customize the tags you use in your pages to the data you're presenting.

Readers are given an introduction to JSP, explaining how they relate to servlets, showing the tags, and creating beans to encapsulate business logic, to keep web page design simple. Further chapters cover database access with JDBC and connection pooling, JSP debugging, and web application architecture using JSP and servlets.

After considering security issues in JSP web applications, the book concludes with seven real-world case studies including using JSP, XML and XSLT to target content at WAP and HTML browsers, e-commerce, streaming using JMF, and porting an existing ASP-based application to JSP. Appendices give programming refreshers on installing the Tomcat JSP/Servlet engine, detailed references to JSP, the Servlet API, and HTTP, and finally JSP for ASP programmers.

This book is for both professional Java developers, who want to use JSP as the front-end of their J2EE web applications, and web designers, who want to see how JSP separates presentation from dynamic content generation. Although no knowledge of Java is assumed, reference will be made to a quick start Java tutorial at wrox.com and to other materials for some topics. Knowledge of HTML and some programming experience is required.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For readers with some previous Java experience, Professional JSP is a comprehensive guide to today's JavaServer Pages (JSPs). Besides a solid tutorial on JSPs and servlets, this book gives you lots of useful examples of how JSPs can work with other Java APIs (like EJBs and XML) to deliver highly functional Web sites.

Professional JSP shows the underlying servlet code for many JSP samples. As explained by the authors, JSPs are a simpler way to write servlet code because Java statements are embedded within HTML. This fact makes the book especially useful to programmers who know about servlets and want to progress to JSP development. The introductory tutorial to JSP is as good as any you'll ever see. Short examples illustrate basic JSP features like directives, scripting elements, implicit objects, and JavaBeans. The book also reveals a variety of ways to track session information (including cookies), which is particularly helpful.

Several case studies show key concepts in action, including how to use custom tag libraries. Nicely functional samples include a Web site for an online investment company, a photography database, and a membership-based online grocery store. (This last example shows how to use LDAP and JNDI to store user information.) In addition to a thorough tutorial for learning JSPs, chapters in this text look at combining EJBs, XML, and other Java 2 Enterprise features that you'll need for successful real-world development. Handy appendices detail how to install and configure the free Apache Web Server and Tomcat JSP engine. There's also a reference to all JSP and servlet objects and APIs.

Overall, you'll mine plenty from Professional JSP, including several extremely useful coding examples that'll get you going on serious development for real-world e-commerce Web sites. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

Introduction to Java 2 Enterprise Edition and JavaServer Pages (JSP) JSP, CGI, and ASP compared The JSP life cycle JSP directives, scripting elements, standard actions, and implicit objects Servlet architecture and APIs Using JavaBeans with JSPs JDBC database programming basics Using the PoolMan database connection pool manager Storing session state with hidden fields, cookies, and URL rewriting Error handling and debugging with JSPs

Tag extensions and tag libraries Personalizing look-and-feel and content with JSPs Global settings JSP architecture Security and personalization with JNDI and LDAP Introduction to Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) HTTP streaming with JSPs Basics of the Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) Wireless Markup Language (WML) XML and XSLT Case studies on e-commerce and Web-site personalization

From the Publisher

JSP is a dynamic web presentation. It is one of the most exciting server-side technologies in the Java 2 Enterprise Edition, currently in version 1.1. There are other template-based web page generation tools, so what makes JSP special? Three things:

1. JSPs are tightly integrated with J2EE, which provides support for all functionality you'd expect from an enterprise application.

2. JSPs are built on top of the Java Servlet framework, which enables very scalable and portable dynamic web sites. Servlets have wide support in the industry, and can run on all major web servers.

3. JSP 1.1 supports tag extensions that allow you to wrap an action as a simple-tag, reducing the coding necessary in the web page.

Product Details

• Paperback: 897 pages
• Publisher: Wrox Press (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861003625
• ISBN-13: 978-1861003621
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,473,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best intermediate level JSP books on the market, June 8, 2000

By 

Eric L. Ma - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional JSP : Using JavaServer Pages, Servlets, EJB, JNDI, JDBC, XML, XSLT, and WML (Paperback)

This books lives up to its title in that it provides both real-world JSP techniques (through 7 very informative case studies chapters), as well as JSP background information that serves as a quick start guide. I rank it as one of the top 2 JSP books currently available (the other one is Web Development With JavaServer Pages by Messrs. Fields and Kolb).

After the JSP fundamentals are out of the way (which I am sure any JSP newcomer will appreciate and can benefit from), the book picks up pace with discussion on JDBC connection pooling, and the best practice for data access from JSP. Then comes the chapter on custom tags. My favorite chapters are the ones on debugging JSP's and implementing the MVC design pattern in JSP/servlets.

The case studies are very comprehensive and closely correlated to the earlier chapters. In one case study the design methodology is clearly explained with UML diagrams, which are very helpful to someone who is currently architecting an enterprise Java Web application. Other case studies cover such a wide area of topics such as JSP in combination with LDAP, EJB, XSL, and WAP.

For ASP developers, this books has two enormously useful chapters to get them started on JSP right away. One is a case study showing how to port an ASP app to JSP, and the other compares and contrasts the object model and syntax between ASP and JSP.

Having said all the above, this book does suffer from certain weaknesses. One is typical of any multi-author book, i.e., repeat of the same topic in different chapters. This is the case with JDBC, which shows up in both chapters 4 and 7. Another problem is the lack of the use of a standard servlet/JSP container, which will help new users to run all samples under the same software setting (although there is an appendix on setting up Tomcat server). Finally, a few chapters seem to be out of place in term of the logic flow of concept, such as the ones on dynamic GUI's and JNDI.

Finally, this book is still thin on heavy-duty J2EE topics, such as EJB, distributed transactions, message service, and interoperability with CORBA. This is why I consider it as an intermediate level book, not an advanced one. Hopefully we will see another Wrox book in the near future that addresses some of these issues.

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good guide to JSP, overlaps with other Wrox titles though, July 24, 2000

By 

David Reilly (Gold Coast, Queensland Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Professional JSP : Using JavaServer Pages, Servlets, EJB, JNDI, JDBC, XML, XSLT, and WML (Paperback)

For developers involved with web-based projects, whether it be an online store for electronic commerce or an Intranet site for accessing and modifying company data, the powerful blend of JavaServer Pages (JSP) and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) technologies can really make life simple. Once you've mastered them, creating new components that encapsulate business logic, or new web interfaces to existing systems, is easy. The trick, for developers, is mastering the technologies.

Professional JSP is one way to get up to speed. Like many of the books published by Wrox Press, Professional JSP covers a specific technology in-depth, as well as the various ancillary topics relating to it such as databases, servlets, and XML. While not every developer will need every web technology covered by the book (and there are many), the book works both as a tutorial to cover the basics and a reference for technologies that you may encounter later.

Professional JSP starts by covering the basics of Java Server Pages, and how they relate to other web technologies. Embedded in HTML pages, JSP provides an easy mechanism for creating interactive web interfaces that draws on server-side components, known as Enterprise JavaBeans. While the presentation logic is written in JSP, the processing occurs within these JavaBean components. The book takes a balanced approach, covering both JSP and its syntax, as well as how to write and interact with JavaBeans to perform useful tasks, like accessing databases through JDBC and using other Java technologies. However, if you've read other Wrox titles, you may find there is some overlap in the topics covered.

One of the nice things about Professional JSP is that, in addition to covering theory, it goes further and examines practical applications of JSP, and issues for programmers like security and debugging. Like other titles in the Professional series, there are case studies of real projects using JSP and related technologies. My favorite would have to be the case study on porting Active Server Pages to JSP -- something that is extremely important for developers with "legacy" web systems. On the whole, Professional JSP is an excellent book for web developers wanting to get up to speed with Java Server Pages, web development, and Enterprise JavaBeans. However, developers with less of a web presentation focus and more of back-end server view may also want to consider the excellent Professional Java Server Programming title, which also covers JSP. -- David Reilly, reviewed for the Java Coffee Break

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for professionals!, September 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Professional JSP : Using JavaServer Pages, Servlets, EJB, JNDI, JDBC, XML, XSLT, and WML (Paperback)

This is a book for programmers who have a solid background in servlets programming and some experience in JSP. For beginners and for people who wish to learn those techniques on a standalone machine, they will be better off with Hall's "core servlets & JSP" or Fields&Kolb's "web development & JSP".

The book consists of 20 chapters. The first 12 chapters discuss the various salient aspects of JSP and the rest ( about two third of the whole book) is devoted to case studies.

A. THE BOOK'S STRENGTH:

By adopting Tomcat as its main testing software, the editors of "Professional JSP" have assured that most of the code examples will work. This is a big improvement over the past wrox books.

There are some excellent chapters in the first part. The discussion on session tracking is a real gem although the author failed to make a showcase of the code examples. The chapter on JSP Architecture contains some of the clearest explaination on the techniques of redirecting, forwarding and requestdispatcher. The chapter on customtags is equally very well done. But my favorite is the chapter on Global Settings, the idea is so practical. I also like the idea of emphasizing the importance of authentication which showed in many chapters of the book.

The case studies will serve as an excellent reference. Its coverage ranges from (1) the front end of an insurance company (2) a good pictures website which use JSP to publish its data (3) Security with JNDI (4) a online store using LDAP and JSP (5) J@EE, EIBs and Customtags (6) Multimedia and JSP (7) Weather website with JSP, XSLT and WAP (8) Porting ASP to JSP.

2. BOOK'S WEAKNESS:

The book is a combined effort of many authours and its unevenness showed. The first three chapters to introduce to JSP are out of place and a real waste. The chapter on Dynamic GUIs is a great idea which turned into a joke: after showing the general diea how to do it, the author sent readers to his website to learn the rest(?). And the chapter on JDBC connectivity and Pooling is a big disappointment: most of the chapter devoted to get connection, create databse,editing it and make query; and the rest the author explained how to use his own pool manager package, PoolMan. This wouldn't be too bad if PoolMan worked, with Tomcat.

The richness of the case studies is also its weakness. Unless you are experienced and have the facilities, you can't test them all. These techniques become obsolete pretty quick.

Probably the strongest objection to the book is its price. Buy it for your company and share with your colleague.