Professional JSP 2nd Edition

I have been a Java developer for five years now, and have worked with JSP and Servlets for a number of years. As many in the software industry can attest to, you can quickly get tied down working on applications that were initially designed several years ago. This can leave you with little time to explore all the new features that come out with the latest release of the Servlet and JSP specs. Wanting to get a handle on what JSP 2.0 has to offer, I decided to get a book on the subject matter that starts from the ground up. Although a lot of the material would be review for me, I always find it important to read this information over again as it helps to strengthen my overall understanding.`Pro JSP' is probably one of the best books on JSP that I have read in a long time. To me a good technical book needs to do three things. First it needs to explain how the technology works. Second, it needs to explain how best to use this technology in the real world. And finally, it needs to do the first two things in a clear and understandable manner. The reader shouldn't be left scratching their head trying to figure out what the author was trying to say.On the first point, `Pro JSP' does a thorough job of explaining the ins and outs of the JSP 2.0 release. The expression language, JSTL, tags, filtering, security, deployment; all of these important topics are covered. There are an amazing three chapters devoted to tags and another two chapters on filtering! The authors do an excellent job of focusing in on some of the more complex aspects of JSP and spending the time to fully explain all the nuances. Based on just the technical content alone, a person will walk away from this book with a solid understanding of the power available to them with JSP 2.0.But of course `JSP Pro' doesn't just end there. Unlike many books that simply throw a ton of information at you and then leave you to figure out how to use it, this book goes much further. The authors spend a considerable amount of time discussing the best practices to use when including this technology in your applications. From repeatedly hammering home the need to keep scriplets out of JSP pages, to the chapters devoted to web application patterns and performance enhancements, the reader will be left well prepared to use their newly acquired skills on their own projects.The writing itself is also very well done. The examples are short and to the point, and the writing is clear and understandable. I never found myself struggling to understand what the author was trying to convey, or tripping over complicated code to see the examples in action. The only caveat I would have would be with the last chapter dealing with using `Struts, Xdoclet, and Other Tools'. The authors recommend that the reader have an understanding of these tools before reading the chapter. They then dive right in to how to best use these tools without a lot of explanation. This may be just a little too much for someone coming to this book as a

I am not an expert web programmer. I am a competent programmer. I hate big thick books because you never read them all. But I have to break my no-thick-books rule for this book. It is a great reference work. You can read the first few chapters and then jump to the advanced chapter you need. I had a working JSP program written in 3 days. I never read the whole book but I did read a good 30% of it. One warning. This book is not for beginers. It is not JSP for dummies.

i am considering buying the second edition. Have never seen a computer book change so much in the 2nd edition, new stuff. This would not be your first JSP book, as that guy from Bern wanted. His clue should have been the word "Professional". I found Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages by Marty Hall to be an excellent starter if that is your level. Then buy this book.frank

When I needed to learn JSP (I got a job to build some serious custom tag libraries) my first stop was the Core series. I liked the Core Java 2 books. At first I liked the Core JSP books too, they are quick to read and easy to understand.But then after some weeks working on real projects I noticed that they lacked very much essential information. I found myself searching through the office copy of Professional JSP 1st edition again and again to get the job done.This 2nd edition is even better. If you are a decent programmer (not a complete beginner who's better of with some dummies books) and want to get the job done - this is the choice. The book relies heavily on examples. Several case studies with all the code implemented.

Well, i bought this book with one aim: Be able to learn and actually write JSP in limited terms. Since I found a job where they wanted me to do JSP, and I was doing ASP for last 2 years. This book has even section for ASP developers on how to move to JSP. So, with this book, I was able to write jsp in a week or so. ok, Now, actually about the book: a) Great code explanation provided, as usual in any WROX booksb) Great code examples (especially voting application and database explorer one)c) Tomcat and MySQL tutorial make my life easier, so i don't have to browse their sites for help - I have everything in one place (well, not everything -- but still, better then nothing)d) Yes, price is kind of high, but, they got so much in one book, so i'm pretty sure that you will be glad once you buy itI'd recommend this book for people who have to move from ASP (or any other programming language) to JSP. I would not recommend it to someone who is new to programming.Thanks for all authors. Great Job.