Java Network Programming, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

~ (Author), Michael Shoffner (Author), Derek Hamner (Author), Maria Winslow (Contributor), (Contributor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A complete guide to networking, streams and distributed computing.

This is the best and most up-to-date book to focus specifically on the Java 2 Platform's networking abilities, in all their various forms. Providing a thorough grounding in, and complete reference to, the Java technologies that are fundamental to network programming, with a specific focus on streams, the book then proceeds to detail how to implement robust, real-world Java-based network applications.

The book begins with a complete discussion of Java streams, covering not only the concept behind and API of streams but also, more importantly, how to customize and extend the streams for your own purposes. All the standard Java streams are covered, including byte streams, character streams and the object streams. The importance of streams is stressed throughout the book, with later customized streams for parsing DNS records, HTTP requests, sending HTTP responses, etc.

In the subsequent networking chapters, the book proceeds to cover the TCP/IP and UDP/IP networking protocols in depth, with many examples of network clients and servers including a DNS client, finger client, Web server and various chat systems, among others. It then details how to use multicast for efficient multiparty communications, and provides extensive details of the Java URL API including example URL handlers for accessing various Internet protocols.

Following this is a thorough description if the RMI, CORBA and Servlet networking APIs, and how these can be used to develop distributed and Web-based network systems. As a yardstick for comparing the different technologies, an example of a distributed list datastructure is implemented thrice, with sockets, RMI and servlets.

Finally, the book wraps up by combining custom streams and networking into a complex, comprehensive example: message streams that allow multiple network applications to be seamlessly and transparently multiplexed down a single network connection, while automatically hiding problems such as network delays or even failures.

What is perhaps most impressive about this book is the wealth of up-to-date, real-world applications provided, showing how to properly develop extensible network systems using the Java 2 platform. These applications go far beyond the simple examples of other texts available, demonstrating how to effectively harness Java's different APIs into coherent, complex systems. Source for the examples is available online at the author's Website.

From the Back Cover

The first edition of this book was acclaimed by readers as an outstanding networking reference (see last page inside). It provided complete details of the Java platform's support for networking and I/O with extensive API coverage and sophisticated examples.

With over 300 new pages, this second edition is further strengthened with complete coverage of Java 2 and new material on custom URL-related factories, Java I/O, RMI, Servlets and CORBA. To make room for this new material, first-edition sections on Java cryptography have been omitted. Java Network Programming goes will beyond simple examples to show how to develop robust, efficient real-world applications.

What's Inside

* Introduction to networking and Internet protocols

* Complete coverage of the Java networking and I/O APIs

* Details of multithreading and exception handling

* Byte, character, object and message streams

* IP, TCP, UDP, Multicast, HTTP, DNS, RMI, CORBA and Servlets

* Finger, DNS, HTTP and Ping clients and servers

* Multiprotocol chat systems and whiteboards

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Product Details

• Paperback: 830 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications; 2nd edition (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188477749X
• ISBN-13: 978-1884777493
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #730,217 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book and great Java coverage with your money, February 19, 2000

By	Benny Cheung (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

I have surveyed a number of Java Networking, distributed computing books. I decided to buy and read this book because it get a great coverage of topics, such as Java Threads, I/O, Socket, HTTP, RMI, CORBA, Messages. If you are developer from C++ or OO background, the topics can be understood in lightspeed. The source code of the book can be easily downloaded and run. The code is clear and reusable in your next Java networking project immediately. In particular, I like the chapter describing how to write a full-feature HTTP server, including serving web pages, executing CGI programs with multi-threading backend. After reading this chapter, all the mystery about web server is dissolved because you can write one by yourselves. This improved the learning curve for great variety of web server. In summary, the book encourage reader to learn and play with the sample codes. You can become a Java networking expert in a week with this book. No one can scare you with another Java networking jargon.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but missing crypto chapters from first edition, January 21, 2000

By	David Reilly (Gold Coast, Queensland Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Java Network Programming, Second Edition aims is the sequel to the highly popular Java Network Programming title, and picks up where the original left off. It offers considerably expanded coverage of the Java networking API, for the Java 2 platform. The authors build on chapters from the previous book, adding Java 2 specific methods and classes, and covering newer topics such as servlets, and CORBA (support for which was introduced in the Java 2 platform).

Readers unfamiliar with network programming, and the intricacies of sockets, are guided fairly gently through the process, with a thorough coverage of I/O streams (including files), UDP and TCP sockets, from both client and server perspective. This gives a good grounding for later development, with plenty of example clients and servers. There's also coverage of Java HTTP support, which is quite simple to work through.

That said, readers familiar with the original title may be in for some disappointment. The strong cryptography coverage of the first book has vanished, mentioned only in the preface as the subject of a future book. Not being very cryptographically minded myself, I really enjoyed reading about this topic in the first title.

Nonetheless, with the number of pages in this thick reference, something probably had to go, to save room for other topics.

Newer topics covered in the second edition (or greatly enhanced from coverage in the first edition) include servlets, CORBA, and remote method invocation (RMI). There's even more examples than in the first edition, but there are a few gaps where coverage could have been improved (for example, the new RMI activation features are barely mentioned, and the reader is referred instead to the RMI documentation of Sun). Servlet coverage could really be improved as well - there's some great books out on the market though that can be used in companion with this book Perhaps these, and other topics will be covered in a future addition.

As networking books go, Java Network Programming 2Ed is close to the top, but has room for improvement. Currently, however, you won't find a book that can beat it, but for advanced topics you'll probably need a second title for topics like servlets or distributed computing. -- David Reilly, for the Java Coffee Break

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wait... and look for a better book in the market, May 19, 2000

By	JM (Sunnyvale , CA, USA) - See all my reviews

Please dont get carried away by the wonderful reviews for this book by some readers. This is an expensive book but definitely not worth the money. The book should be named Java I/O programming rather than a network related title.

Most of the book deals with Java streams and the network concepts are very few. At some point the book looks like an API reference than a full fledged text. This info is available in Java Docs for free . The font selected for printing the book is a real turn off. Another disaster from Manning .

I will suggest reading Java Network programming title form O'Reilly which is due for release in July 2000 ( do not buy the 1997 edition ).