47 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
useless, February 8, 2003
This review is from: The Struts Framework: Practical Guide for Java Programmers (The Practical Guides) (Paperback)
I hate to be a party pooper, but I have to completely disagree with the other rave reviews this book has gotten. I bought the book precisely because of those reviews, and I am badly let down.
This book is poorly written and poorly edited. It has only a tiny bit of information in it, and even this is made difficult to find by the authors repeatedly very shallow coverage of all the concepts that she doesn't have space to actually explain. "...outside the scope of this book"
The 126 pages are broken into 11 chapters, each of which has an introduction and a summary. Not a whole lot of space is left for actual meaningful contents. The sample application is trivially simple and avoids any of the interesting challenges that would come up in any real application. Even this oversimplified sample is presented in incoherent chunks, where one code snippet has little or nothing to do with the one that follows it.
The "Struts Development Cycle" that one reviewer praises is all of a half page long; it is a list that goes from "gather requirements" to "develop application business logic" to "build, test, deploy." Duh. This list is followed up with a few pages of explanation, but each item is given at most a half-page explanation. The list is repeated again in the chapter summary.
The "Excellent ready-reference" reviewer gives himself away when he writes "Let one of the other books take the role of reference and tutorial and allow this one to help you out in the pinches." Ah, I see. It's not a reference or a tutorial, it's for... keeping warm when you need extra firewood.
The one UML sequence diagram in the book portrays an Error as an Actor. It 'calls' ActionError when 'some error occurred in model.' ActionError calls ActionErrors to 'Add to ActionErrors collection.' This is typical of the book's ability to muddle rather than clarify.
Two stars for having chapter 8, which although not great is the one section of the book that has real information.
Unfortunately, after reading this book, I still don't know why I should use Struts. The question that the book should have answered first never got answered at all.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Practical at its best!, December 15, 2002
This review is from: The Struts Framework: Practical Guide for Java Programmers (The Practical Guides) (Paperback)
Those of us in the high tech industry have become used to buying technical books that can take down a forest. How refreshing to finally have an author who doesn't feel the need to drone on about every ancillary topic there is. This book covered everything I needed to know to get up, running, and productive with Struts 1.1. It is clearly and concisely written and speaks directly to Java developers. No bones about it. My boss had come into my cube on Friday morning and told me that we'd be looking at Struts on Monday for a new project. I purchased this book on overnight delivery, and was able to get through it in its entirety in a single day. This included downloading the sample application and using it. I walked in Monday not only knowing
what I needed to know to thoroughly impress my boss, but also able to make suggestions and comments on how we should go about building our project thanks to this book. With a sub- price tag, it's hard to justify spending 2 and 3 times the amount on another book. If you need a true practical guide, this is it. I've already recommended it to the rest of our development team, cause I don't want to give up my copy!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fast track to Struts, February 21, 2004
This review is from: The Struts Framework: Practical Guide for Java Programmers (The Practical Guides) (Paperback)
This is a good book for someone who has never used Struts before. It is fast-paced and uses an example to convey the message. The author sticks to Struts and does not clutter the book with any other technologies. This book is perfect if you want to get up and running with Struts quickly. In the authors own words, the book strives to explain the most common 80% of features of Struts. A basic knowledge of Servlets and JSP is useful, though not required. This is not a good reference book though. Once you have gone through it cover-to-cover, there is no further use for it. Well, I guess that's why it costs less than $20.
Who should buy:
If you have never used Struts before and want to learn Struts quickly, then this is the book for you.
If you have worked on Struts earlier and are looking for advanced features, then this is not the book for you. If you want to learn JSP/Servlets, then this is not the book for you. If you are looking for best practises, pattern and J2EE architecture, then this is not the book for you.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
