Jakarta Struts Pocket Reference (Paperback)

by Chuck Cavaness (Author), Brian Keeton (Author)
Key Phrases: event handlers, using struts, logic tags, Attribute Description, Tag Reference, Name Description (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The Jakarta Struts Pocket Reference is a quick reference to all the core features of the Jakarta Struts framework. An excellent companion to Programming Jakarta Struts, the pocket reference contains detailed information on the extensive Struts tag libraries, which were described in less detail in the larger work as they were still in development at that time. This little book also provides convenient coverage of the following:

• Configuration
• Built-in Action classes
• Action forms
• Complete Tag Reference (struts 1.1)

and much more.

About the Author
Chuck Cavaness is a graduate from Georgia Tech with degrees in computer engineering and computer science, has built Java-based enterprise systems in the healthcare, banking, and B2B sectors. Working at an Internet company to design and develop software architecture, Chuck has spent many frustrating hours figuring out the dos and the don'ts of web applications. With each enterprise system he's developed, Chuck has learned several valuable lessons about building "real-world" web applications, information that he's made available to developers who haven't had the opportunity to work on large systems. Chuck is the co-author of Special Edition Using Java 1.3 and Special Edition Using EJB 2.0, both available from QUE.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 1st edition (May 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596005199
• ISBN-13: 978-0596005191
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #734,105 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The O'Reilly Pocket Guides Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good reference once you know the basics..., January 17, 2004

By	Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Review
I recently worked my way through a Struts tutorial and really liked the approach for building web applications. However, the Struts architecture has a lot of configuration files and standard components that are interrelated when building an application. It's difficult to keep all the pieces in the right place in your mind as you're first coding with Struts. This is where the Jakarta Struts Pocket Guide comes into play.

The authors use a straightforward, documentation style of writing to give you just the core information on all the pieces that make up the Struts architecture. There's no conversational instruction on how to use or how to learn Struts. It is assumed you have the basic knowledge and need to understand the details of each piece. The format usually shows a piece of Java or XML code, explains what that piece does, and then documents each parameter that comes into play. So instead of wading through 50 pages of a book to figure out the web.xml file, you can find the core information here in six pages. You may need additional resources if you want to learn more about a particular feature, but this book will quickly show you that the feature exists and what it is meant to do.

If you're looking to learn Struts for the first time, hold off on this book until you've gone through a learning guide of some sort (like Programming Jakarta Struts by Chuck Cavaness). You'll need that level of instruction to get up to speed on the architecture. Once you have that down, you'll be able to use the pocket guide to find answers to your day-to-day questions on how the different parts work.

Conclusion
If you have already worked your way through a Struts book or if you use Struts on a daily basis, you'll find this a valuable little guide to give you focused answers on a timely basis.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical, time-saving, January 19, 2005

By	Szilágyi Donát (Dunakeszi, Hungary) - See all my reviews

If the reader is not completely new to Struts, this book with the examples zipped with the Struts framework might be enough to develop a Struts based application.

The book has two main parts:

Intro to the usage of Struts and its most important components. (35 pages)
This part is quite good in relation to its size. The Validator framework could get more space.

Tag Reference. (85 pages)
Includes many short examples. Tiles are also included.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent value 4.5 stars, June 7, 2004

By	Jol (Melb, Australia) - See all my reviews

Covers all of the bare bones and some of the guts of the topic in 125 pages. Not for complete beginners, but if youve read the limited docs on the web then this is the next step. Covers web and config xml in just enough detail, explains, form beans, beans in general, actions validation. The tag reference is 70/125 pages which makes sense as this so important to a struts app. Does justice to the html and logic tags. Great size for the desk or train. More books should be in this cut down format - it stops the authors rambling and gets to the point. for USD-10 you cant go wrong. Well edited - no mistakes. I got this with another (not as good but bigger) struts book and the two complement quite well. Go for it.