Customer Reviews

iBatis in Action

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am now using iBatis on my fifth project (as of Sept 2007). In the first project I was content to use plain iBatis with Spring, but on the second project and all subsequent projects I would not even think of using iBatis without Abator (and Spring).

I think this book needs a second edition. In the second edition an entire chapter should be devoted to Abator. (The current edition has nothing about Abator). Also, the section on Spring in the second edition should be lengthened as well as simplified. I found the explanation in the book of using iBatis with Spring too complicated to be useful and ended up using the simple, easy to understand examples of iBatis usage in Spring provided by section 4.6 of the book "Spring in Action" by Craig Walls and Ryan Breidenbach.

Another weakness of this book is that it does not give enough real world examples and explanations on using iBatis with binary files (BLOBS). There should be more examples of writing a custom type handlers. Similarly, the book's coverage of record insertions would benefit tremendously from more examples. As well, stored procedures are such a tremendously important part of using a database professionally that it would have been much better if the authors had given an example of using a stored procedure to return multiple rows of data. It's really a shame that the book only devotes 5 pages to stored procedures. Twice that many pages are merited.


That having been said, I still like the first edition of this book, primarily because I had found the online iBatis documentation so confusing that I had given up on iBatis until this book came along and provided enough breadcrumbs to actually use iBatis in a real project.

Hopefully a second edition will also have a better index with improved cross-referencing and cross-indexing.

iBatis and Abator (I cannot imagine using iBatis without also using Abator) are so incredibly good that it is a wonder why Hibernate is more popular. People in the know, for examples the people who wrote the Spring framework, recommend iBatis over Hibernate. Let's hope more books on iBatis come along and that this particular iBatis book evolves and improves with future editions.

As Authors mentioned and I totally agree, IBATIS is relatively small framework that does what it says it does very well, I have used it before and the only reason I bought this book was to have a reference guide. and it does exactly that very very well, IBATIS is not complicated concept it does not need 800 pages, this book is something One can look over and over again for techniques and ways to use for example dynamic SQL appenders etc
no more digging through Google or through, not so clear, official IBATIS reference guide.

I now have a much better insight into iBatis because the authors provided both background design and detailed information about the product. It was much better than the documentation I found via the web (there's lots to be said for technical and editorial review of a book).

The setup and code examples are excellent. I also like the writing style and structure of the book. Clear and logical.

However, I would like an expanded section on using the Spring DAO with iBatis, as this is now the recommended approach over the iBatis DAO.

Although I was already using iBatis, this book is a welcome addition to my library.

I really like iBatis, and am grateful to Begin for writing it. I've used it for several years, and recommend it. But I hate this book.

The author quotes himself as having said that iBatis would be a failure if there had to be a book written about it. The problem is, although he changed his mind about writing the book, he never changed his mind about there being no need for a book.

The implicit narrative thread running throughout this book is, "iBatis is so simple, so self-evident, you don't need a book", and so, instead of writing a tutorial/reference book, he has written a pastiche of anecdotes about how to implement his sample project.

Here's the problem: instead of breaking out a section, for example, on how to handle stored procedures that would start with an overview, then go through get object, get list, update, insert, execute, how to deal with custom data types, how to get your result as a return from the procedure call as opposed to putting it into an OUT or INOUT parameter; instead of doing that, along the way to other things, he shows an embedded example of how to use a stored proc in a particular case.

I can see that the major problem he had to solve in writing this book was how he was going to manage to fill enough pages for it to be a book rather than an article. He rambles on, talking *about* topics rather than *in* topics, skimming along, rather than digging in.

I recommend the book simply because it's the only one out there, but I think you'll find that it's fine if all you want to do is learn *about* iBatis, but that if you have specific questions on how to implement certain things, or solve very real problems, you'll wind up frustrated and disappointed.

Since this is the only book available on Ibatis, so i purchased it.
But the latest version of ibatis has a lot of changes and this book is based on the older version.
I got a lot of information on ibatis online.
Download ibatis and go through the docs( there is Ibatis_SqlMap.pdf ) and same some money ;)

The book is concise, good structured and it's enough expresivo. This is the first book that I read in English and I understand in its entirety.

Congratulations Clinton

I found it easier to make things running using free manuals available from same authors. Something is wrong with the way information presented. Didn't feel bad about buying the book just because I paid $5 for new book at amazon

Very well written and introduces reader to the concept of sql mapping and iBatis DAO. Clear explanations and simple to the point language makes it a enjoyable learning resource.

Highly recommended. Also see developer-guide and tutorial from Ibatis site directly for additional references.

A second edition covering Ibator and new features would be nice.

Having suffered through Hibernate and also done pure JDBC projects before, I became ecstatic upon reading the iBATIS Developer's Guide (pdf) freely available on the iBATIS web site. From there, I decided to read the iBATIS book to get more in depth knowledge.

PROS
====
+ Gives you the philosophy and background about the technology about how iBATIS came about. If you are trying to pitch this technology to your team you'll find nearly every positive/negative angle has been covered. There can be much pain caused by choosing the wrong approach at this layer, and sometimes people may not be aware of the pain they cause. Some may even be unaware that there are better alternatives such as iBATIS.

+ Broad in its coverage. Touches on how to use iBATIS in several common environments. Gives background on transactions and isolation choices. Introduces the DAO pattern to those unfamiliar with it. So this book is much more than about iBATIS thankfully.

+ Covers advance topics such as how to write your own cache or transactional manager. Ideally you shouldn't but the information is there if need be.

CONS
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=> Organization problems. For example, when you are first learning about the 'select' tag, you are just shown the basics (and I mean really basic) along with the basics for delete, update, and insert. A few chapters later you get to learn the advanced stuff. I'd prefer a chapter just on 'select' and Result Maps including some examples of a object graph (complex objects). Then another chapter on inserts and parameterMaps... You get the idea. This would greatly help in learning process in my opinion.

=> The book does need a second edition to cover some of the changes done to iBATIS 2. But don't look for that anytime soon as iBATIS 3 is in beta and I think all their energy will go to that en devour.

=> Not enough coverage on iBATIS with Spring. I think the popularity of Spring warrants a full example of integrating iBATIS with Spring.

FINAL THOUGHTS
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iBATIS reminds me of technology crafted by those who learned from all the wrong ways of doing things to come together with a well-though out technology that puts the pleasure back into the persistence/DOA layer. Rarely are books written by the authors of the technology written in a clear manner -- but this book is an exception as I enjoy these author's clarity. Yes, and I agree with other reviewers that there should be more examples in this book. However despite my minor complaints, this book (and iBATIS) has been very helpful to me. I recommend the book for those using iBATIS 2. If you are going with iBATIS 3, this book may not be of much value other than for the philosophy sections. In that case, you might as well read those first 1-2 chapters in the book store and save yourself some money.

This is very good book with nice examples and I think this is even better book for users who have never used any form of ORM