Professional Java SOAP [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

~ Henry Bequet (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Web services are currently the main area of growth in the computing industry as a whole, but also more specifically in java. While there are many associated technologies with web services, SOAP has had the most progress and is now adopted as a W3C standard, known as SOAP 1.2 or XML Protocol (XP).

SOAP is exciting not because it is a new concept but because the whole IT industry is agreeing to use it. It can be compared with CORBA, Microsoft's COM+ or DCOM, and Sun's RMI, but unlike those technologies, it is language and Operating System agnostic. You can build your application in any language you wish and, as long as it is connected to the Internet, it will talk to any other SOAP application out there.

The underpinning of the web services explosion is therefore, SOAP. It is used as the underlying protocol in ebXML and every major player in this area (including Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, IBM, BEA, Jakarta) have tools for developing SOAP applications. In addition there are numerous web and application servers with added SOAP functionality.

The book is organized in three parts: Distributed Application Protocols, Sample Application, and Web Services.

In Chapter 1, Distributed Application Protocols, we look at the major distributed application protocols and compare their pros and cons.

In Chapter 2, The Lingua Franca of the Web is SOAP, we review the SOAP specification in details and we take a closer look at the SOAP implementation that we will use in this book: Apache SOAP. In Chapter 3, Setting Up your SOAP Server, we get down to the details of downloading and configuring the necessary software to get your SOAP server up and running.

In Chapter 4, LeSavon.com, we move into the second part of the book with a discussion of the requirements for the sample application. Chapter 5, SOAP Server, is where we design and implement SOAP services. In Chapter 6, we write a client framework that will come handy when we wrap up the development of the sample application with its user interface. Chapter 7, Security and Personalization, discusses a possible integration strategy to an LDAP-based enterprise security system. Chapter 8, Caching, discusses how the addition of a rule-based cache system can tremendously improve the performance of our application. In Chapter 9, Performance, we analyze the performance of the sample application and validate the design and implementation choices that we made in the previous chapters. Chapter 10, Web Application, concludes the second part of the book with the addition of a Web-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) to our sample application.

In the third part of the book, we formally define Web services and discover that the sample application is indeed a Web service. Chapter 11, WSDL, introduces the reader to the Web Service Description Language (WSDL), a key technology that promotes the interoperability of software components over the Web. In Chapter 12, Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI), we publish the sample application as a Web service and discuss how potential users can query the UDDI registry to discover our services.

From the Publisher

This book is for all Java developers and system archictects who:

Knowledge of object-oriented concepts such a object, class, overriding, overloading, and interfaces

A working knowledge of Java in general and Java server-side development (servlets and JSP)

An understanding of the Internet and its use will be helpful to put things in perspective, but is not required

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Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: Peer Information Inc.; 1st edition (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861006101
• ISBN-13: 978-1861006103
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,171,701 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fair at best, March 22, 2002

By A Customer

Sorry Bequet but this book is lacking. These books are to expensive to not provide the necessary content to teach a topic.
There are many things that make this book not worth the money. The sample source code used throughout the book is hardly readable. Taking a little time to write readable code goes a long way when trying to teach a topic. There is at least a couple of chapters dedicated to the example application used in the book. These chapters do not address Soap as much as they address the sample application. There was obviously not enough real content to address the topic so there is tons of fluff. There are much better ways of teaching a topic like using Soap with Java without letting all of the other stuff get in the way.

With Amazon there is no ability to sit in a book store and read a book. These reviews from other readers are all we have to go by. In my honest opinion the book is not worth the price. If you are looking to learn Java and Soap I would recommend waiting for a better book.

2.0 out of 5 stars One complete project makes this book., January 5, 2003

By A Customer

The author tries to explain various key concepts of SOAP through one project that spans the whole book. Apache SOAP is used as the software of choice to build the project. Both of which did not appeal to me because:
a. Apache is shifting focus to Axis from Apache SOAP.
b. Concepts are better explained through short examples than through a project that would sometimes make the users feel lost.

5.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed this book, August 8, 2002

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

This was my first SOAP book, and I thought it was an excellent piece of work by Monsieur Bequet.

I think it was written rapidly, and by the time I found it the software versions had changed. This can be a big problem in cutting-edge topics, but it is not fair to judge either author or publisher as harshly as many seem to be doing here.

I would like to see a second edition and am looking forward to his next book.