Rating: 
Summary: A workhorse, albeit flawed
Review: Many other reviewers have said it, but I'll say it too: This book is not as polished as it could be. My biggest gripe is that the contents are not organized in a way that makes for easy reference. The lack of a substantive index is a SERIOUS problem. Ted's insitance on cutesy catchphrases instead of meaningful section headings means that one has to decipher the headings. That in turn makes finding stuff harder. The section on Validator was a huge disappointment, because it is just as terse as the official dox: Plenty on how to do the fancy stuff, but next to nothing on how to do the basics! And most of David's earlier Validator stuff is now in the Jakarta-Commons project, where it's virtually completely undocumented. I was hoping for something beyond what's on the Struts web site. That said, the info is (almost) all there and mostly correct (allowing for the fact that software evolves faster than books ;->) There is very little fluff. I started using Struts 'round about the same time Ted did but was called away to other things and recently needed to catch up with 1.1. I have not read any of the other Struts books around, so I don't have a very good basis for comparison. Bottom line: I recommend the book as a good tutorial, but look elsewhere for a reference work. As for Validator, read the source. :-(
Rating: 
Summary: Complete waste of money
Review: If I have to rate this book, I would rate it below 1 star. This is complte waste of money and I would suggest DON'T waste your money on this. If you really want to buy book on Struts, go for the one which O'Reilley has. Apart from numberous errors, this book doesn't cover anything new other then just basic and that too is not worth reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Used, Used, sometimes Abused... but still the one that gets
Review: Still the best! Yeah sure there are errors. (not too many) Yep and it not as well organized as the Orielly book (or as well copy edited). Oh yeah, it is not as readable as the Mastering Struts book from Wiley. But... it has the most information about Struts 1.1 features, and it is still the book I take down from the book shelf the most. It's the one that gets used. As of Aug 29th 2003, this is the best all around book on Struts on the market. The Tiles framework coverage is not so good, but neither is anyone other Struts book. If you are new to Struts, get Mastering Struts.
If you are a Struts veteran, get this book (and the Orielly book). Used, Used, sometimes Abused... but still the one that gets used. Oh yeah, Ted Husted is a committer on the project (he has a lot of good insight).
Rating:
Summary: Not for those new to Java; maybe of little use to anyone.
Review: Besides having numerous errors in the examples, the book has three nasty characteristics: it consists almost solely of small code fragments and commentary; it routinely makes forward references to topics later in the book; and, it uses Struts 1.0 examples to start and makes an annoying (yet incomplete) transition to Struts 1.1. For one just starting to work with Java technologies I found use of the book detrimental to learning Struts. (I had been told it was not a bad reference.) I would have given it a lower rating had the review interface allowed it.
Rating:
Summary: TOTAL LET DOWN - FULL OF ERRORS
Review: Book is incomplete and full of errors, even simple errors where toString is in the code and not used properly and throws an error - he left off the "()". And we are supposed to learn from someone who can not use toString? The code from web site does not compile per book instructions. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY on this, no matter what the paid-reviewers say. This is one of the worst written book, code fragments and no full listing of code. The site provides code that does not compile correctly with vague insrtuctions as if it were going to actual work. Stick with O'Reilly series. Please Ted Husted, find another profession..... ( I picked 1 star because zero was not an otpion)
Rating: 
Summary: Imcomplete and poorly written
Review: I have purchased and read alot of programming books, and by far this is one of the worst prepared books I have seen. The author drags out the developement of a simple login system over 4-5 chapters. Thank God he provided the code on the web server, as he only give complete code listings on certain classes, and leaves the reader to piece together other classes. After chapter 5 I put it down and went back to the ORielly series were I actual learned something. The book has the information in it if you can put up with the repetive approach and fragmented code. Please re-think and re-write. Not a book for the first time strut user.
Rating:
Summary: Struts Good. Book full of Errors.
Review: Struts is a great framework, but there is a shortage of good documentation. This book is written in a nice style, but there are far too many errors to give it a good rating.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, well-organised book
Review: I've looked over the other reviews and all they find to do is to complain about the lack of examples. They are correct. If you learn only by example, don't buy this book - you'll find it pretty tough. Fortunately for some of us, there are other methods to learn things than by seeing them done by someone. This book is excellent if you need to quickly get a big picture view of what Struts is and how/when to use it. Unlike so many other IT books which get bogged down in details from the first few meaty pages, this book follows the simple and mature but oft-bypassed "pyramid principle" of laying out first the big picture, then the first layer of details, then the next, etc. It's refreshing for a change, to have an IT book written by someone who knows who to explain things clearly. Other reviewers referred to the encyclopedic nature of most of the book. What they miss here is that Struts (as shown by the first few chapters) is not very complicated at all (at least after reading this book). What else could the author write once Struts is explained, except for an in-depth description of the parts? Once you know how Actions and ActionForms and Forwards and all those fit together, you gotta get to the nitty gritty details of how they work internally, and that's what the author does. Overall, this book was one of my best buys (in the IT books category anyway).
Rating:
Summary: Car Parts (struts) for [] Java []...
Review: This book is a complete waste of time. I had been very skeptical of the technology being only a short-cut for Java web hacks and script-kittys, and I was unfortunately right. Those that can explain how JSP cannot TRUELY conform to the MVC methodology, should really read this book. It would serve them right reading this boring drivel instead of actually learning the core J2EE web framework. Ted Husted should be beaten with this book or an actual car strut. I love most of tools that come out of the Jakarta project but here is a suggestion, learn and know each of the tools suggested for MVC impletementations and skip the gimmic tools, like STRUTS, TURBINE, and VELOCITY. In the event you do buy this book, please consider it's many other uses. I know for me, it has been instrumental for leveling my air conditioner.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book for Java Architects
Review: This book is extremely useful for Java Architects that need to design scalable web applications. The author did a very good job describing all the proper design patterns that should be used in the presentation tier. This book appears to focus on the most important architectural issues in web development such as integrating the presentation tier with the business tier. I was also impressed with the author's ability to clearly defined how the new generation of struts design patterns should be used when building scalable web applications.
| 
