SOAP Programming with Java [Paperback]

Bill Brogden (Author), William B. Brogden (Author)

Book Description

Series: Transcend Technique | Publication Date: January 18, 2002

SOAP (Simple Object Access protocol) is an XML-based messaging protocol for creating distributed Web applications. In plain English: it solves a basic business problem, which is creating Web applications that have to talk with servers that are running on different platforms (Windows, Unix, Linux and so on). SOAP offers an XML-based method to pass business data for e-commerce applications through corporate firewalls. Java is an effective language to use for SOAP programming because it works so well with XML. This text provides a guide to SOAP for Java developer's. The accompanying CD-ROM includes all the sample code from the book, sample applications, a collection of SOAP-related code and tools, the IBM/Apache and DevelopMentor implementations of SOAP for Java, and the Sun Tomcat Java 2 Enterprise Edition server.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Since its emergence in 1998, the Simple Access Object Protocol (SOAP) has come to occupy a central place in today's breed of modular applications known as Web Services. Thanks to SOAP, all you need is a basic knowledge of XML to write programs that interact seamlessly with a growing number of online services providing currency conversion, user authentication, and more.

But for every service that has been implemented, there are many more that remain mere ideas. SOAP Programming with Java provides the foundation and skills for realizing those ideas as fully functional solutions. Building on your knowledge of XML and XML tools, you'll create your own SOAP-based services that use not only HTTP but also the services media of the future: Java Message Service (JMS), JavaSpaces, and JavaMail. You'll also graduate from wired to wireless development, learning how Web-enabled devices fit into the world of SOAP-based distributed computing.

All this detailed, practical coverage is presented within the framework of Java programming, allowing you to capitalize on the advantages Java offers. Whether you use this book as an introduction to Web Services development or as a tool for mastering particular techniques, it will equip you with a sound understanding and hard-to-find skills.

About the Author

Bill Brogden is a longtime computer programmer and wrote the best-selling Java 2 Exam Cram from Coriolis. He is currently converting materials from LANWrights training company to use Java servlets and XML. He has also written for Sun's Advanced Technology Guides and the XML.com Web site.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Sybex Inc (January 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0782129285
• ISBN-13: 978-0782129281
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,519,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Trivial coverage of actual SOAP topics, February 2, 2002

By 

corporateprogrammer (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SOAP Programming with Java (Paperback)

This book started good with a description of the SOAP protocol and entry-level programming discussion with examples for the Apache SOAP API. However by page 100 (out of 377), the book quickly loses its technical value.

After introducing extremely basic uses of SOAP (passing only primitives to methods/functions that take only primitives as arguments), instead of jumping into more complex SOAP issues (different kinds of API's available like GLUE or IdooXoap with different call paradigms) or more complex examples (I would've liked a more concrete examples of using Apache SOAP with complex, nested datatypes or paradigms for programmatic security using UDDI as an case study) it instead jumps into a myriad of Java technologies which can be trivially adapted to utilize SOAP as an RPC transport protocol.

Basically any Java technology that does RPC or can transfer a chunk of text can be "adapted" to use SOAP. The author gives considerable coverage of orthogonal Java technologies like JavaSpaces, JMS, and JavaMail which are interesting, but don't actually demonstrate any additional complex uses of SOAP. If the book taught details of using complex SOAP API's in a transport independent way, I could pick up a separate book on JMS, JavaMail, etc... and quickly get started writing real-world apps.

Instead, I get coverage of the same trivial SOAP topics over and over again. While they are supposed to be in "different environments," the actual core code is still the same, as are the SOAP-based issues and pitfalls that are left unspoken.

This book would only be suitable to someone was a total beginner in both the Java AND SOAP worlds. If you have any significant knowledge of one of these two topics, you'd likely find more than 60% of the book to be of little value.

I still might considering keeping the book as a lightweight summary of various Java technologies, since the author does write in a clear and understandable way. He has a good presentation style and his prose is very readable. However, I cannot justify keeping a book of this cost that has only 100 pages of hardcore content in it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hmmm, I rather liked it, April 3, 2002

By 

Mr. D. S. Stadler (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SOAP Programming with Java (Paperback)

While I believe the review by corporateprogrammer below was right on, my criteria for judging a useful book is rather different than his in that if I find a single chapter of unique use in a book I will often buy it and find it useful. My time is worth more than the price of this book and it definately saved me several hours of working some things out for myself.

While I would never recommend this as a first book about SOAP, I found Chapter 8 very useful and also enjoyed Chapters 4, 5, 12, and 13. In my judgement Chapter 8 (SOAP over JMS and SOAP over Javaspaces) alone justified the purchase.

My judgement is that this book belongs on the bookshelf of every programmer who aspires to become a Web Services expert.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not many insights. Dry and tedious to read., March 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: SOAP Programming with Java (Paperback)

It's a struggle to penetrate this book. I got halfway through a few times and forgot what SOAP was, or forgot why I wanted to know; that's dull stuff. The book suffers from poor editorial direction, uninspired technical writing and a catch-all approach to content.

For starters, the title is misleading. There's enough coverage of supporting, overlapping, and competing technologies -- including a whole chapter on .NET's "position" in the market -- that the book primarily feels like a technology overview. I counted about 40 XML/SOAP listings ("snooped sessions") in the main text. Some of them are 1-2 pages long; I'm supposed to want to read them? No line numbers, no boldface: what am I supposed to learn? How does this relate to programming SOAP? The author often doesn't say.

I also counted 80 or so hyperlinks in the main text. Some are duplicates, but most send you off to the site for some spec or a tool or a SOAP-crazy vendor. It feels pointless to read the book without a browser open and waiting. In particular, the section on deploying a SOAP-ready server gives links to instructions when it should explain; if you aren't sure how to set up a server, these instructions won't help, because each only tells you how to set up one piece of the puzzle.

The author doesn't seem engaged with the subject, which makes some chapters tough reading. He's going through the motions, even diligently, but why? Sme of his client-server protocol transcripts aren't inherently meaningful but he leaves them that way. Then there are pages of term definitions for XML and SOAP; did he try to digest anything for the reader's benefit? The Java stuff doesn't even start until p. 81.

SOAP is formative and there's too much going on to track it all; ok. It's the author's to maintain interest and focus, and avoid regurgitating information. The author probably shouldn't say that SOAP isn't likely to replace anything else. Why, then, would we buy this book? For the XML anatomy lesson?

There's a CD-ROM in the back, but I couldn't get myself to bother playing with it.