Customer Reviews

Scwcd Exam Study Kit: Java Web Component Developer Certification

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

 

 

The first edition of this book was for the 310-080 exam. It was quite good. The updates for the second edition are not written by the original authors. So, you should automatically be suspicious. If you are, your suspicions are warranted. The second edition does not thoroughly cover the details of the updated JSP spec (2.0) as you would expect. For example, this new edition does not cover the details of how a 2.0 compliant JSP engine (test 310-081) locates a TLD as opposed to how previous JSP engines located a TLD (test 310-080), and you are expected to know both. I found this deficiency just glancing through the new book (chapter 15 in both editions). In contrast, the OReilly book (Basham, Sierra, Bates) covers this specific subject very well. I expect to find more of the same deficiencies in the second edition of Manning's SCWCD Exam Study Kit. If you are studing to pass the 310-081 exam, get both books (the Manning book and the O'Reilly book), but rely on the OReilly book as the final authority for everything. If you do that, the Manning book can be useful as it takes a traditional teaching approach and is mostly well written.

The only reference I've read for the exam was this book and although I've passed the SCWCD exam I must say: it is not a complete reference.

Particularly weak are the Servlet Container Model and EL sessions. It does not cover the servlet container objects life cycle (filter, listeners and servlets).

The questions in the 310-081 exam are much more difficult than the questions presented in the book.

Having bought both O'Reilly's SCWCD exam study guide and this one (SCWCD study kit 2nd. ed) I can tell you this: There is not a single reason to buy this one!!

Think about this:

a) Deployment descriptors were not updated to reflect the new XML Schema document definition instead of Servlet 2.3's DTD reference. Although this is not crucial for successful web application deployment, it makes me think Manning didn't invest enough time/resources to release this 2nd. edition

b) As of the 9 chapters I have read, the authors do no more than describe (in a quite arid manner) Servlet API classes and methods, leaving out the rationale behind the API design and proper usage.

c) At the end of chapter 9, namely in the "Summary" section, you can read a reference to the following chapter dealing with the "development of thread-safe servlets". It is not possible as the following chapter is about JSPs and no threading issues are treated in chapter 10. This makes me think they did not revise nor update the whole of the book, as the back cover states.

d) Do you really need any more comments?

Go straight ahead and get O'Reilly's!!!

Its a good basic reference book but not sufficient for the certification exam.
It lacks deep in EL, The Servlet Container Model, Secure Web Applications objetives, it do not describe the initialization process for filters, listeners and servlets. The exam contains detailed question for this concepts.

His authors forget include the Thread Safe servlets objetive. The web.xml example is not updated for all elements for the latest specification.

Don't buy if you want only one study guide.

I used this book as a review guide for the certification exam. However, over half of the questions on the exam covered material that received little or no mention in the book. Very disappointing.

This book is HORRIBLE. And this has nothing to do with taste or style or whatever... This is more of a fact than an opinion, as the errata list illustrates.

Apart from the numerous typos and errors (Search on `scwcd errata' on http://www.manning-sandbox.com/ - Literally every page has a typo or error), there are other reasons why I wouldn't recommend anyone buying this book. I'm even in great doubt if I'll ever buy a book from Manning (fortunately I didn't buy this one; it's my company's).

The web site (http://www.manning.com/deshmukh2/) claims that the book was completely updated and newly revised to be Servlet 2.4 / JSP 2.0 compliant. If a revised book contains 100+ (often serious and obvious) errors, please define `revised', Manning... Also the process of `upgrading' to Servlet 2.4 / JSP 2.0 has completely failed (old deployment descriptor DTDs and TLD DTDs are used, but there are many more examples).

The examples in the book are confusing because they do not merely illustrate what was explained in the text. Often they make assumptions that are based on facts that were nowhere mentioned in the text, or they illustrate a set of rules that can only be found in the Servlet / JSP specifications, but not in the book (especially in the chapter on EL (Expression Language)).

The only positive thing about this book (ehmmm... no, not about this book, but about trying to read this book) is that every so many minutes you're either completely confused, or you completely loose your confidence in the book, so that you're forced to read the official Servlet/JSP specification - which is of course the most reliable document you can use to prepare for the exam.

I passed the exam, but I only did because I spent more time reading the JSP specs than this book.

Where do I begin? To put it simple, this book doesn't cover everything there is on the exam. Pay attention that in the exam there are a lot of questions about EL (Expression Language), this book just lacks the depth. On top of that it is boring and tedious as hell. Just don't buy it!

THIS BOOK DOES NOT HAVE CD SO YOU HAVE TO BUY THE FIRST EDITION FOR IT.

El libro se podría decir que es bueno, aunque le faltan algunos temas importantes del examen.
Al igual que la falta de CD es un punto en su contra, trae una dirección WEB a la que se puede acceder y registrase para supuestamente recibir un usuario/clave para accesar, pero ésta nunca te llega aunque te registres 1000 veces.

This book not only prepares you for the exam but also can be used as a reference for your daily works.