Struts Kick Start

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Quick Intro To Web Application Design
Review: Background Info: I started my web app development with PHP/MySQL and I quickly realized how messy PHP can get by dropping logic in with presentation code. I have some background in Java, but not using it in Web Apps. I soon learned about MVC and Struts. I scoured the web for Struts tutorials and if you're like me, found them VERY lacking, very incomplete and very unhelpful. I've struggled with configuring ant, compiling java files by hand all to no avail. There had to be a better way. I finally broke down and got this book.

I was soooo excited to get this book and start my web app development projects using Struts. The book starts off pretty good by disecting a very simple struts application, but it didn't tell you how to run/deploy the application. I figured I could just deploy the app with Ant, (since i've struggled with it before) but I decided to be patient and told myself, perhaps I should finish reading the entire book first before I start writing web apps.

Then the book transitioned to what I believed to be a somewhat complex struts app for beginners. The authors do a good job in dissecting the code and explaining how it works, but again, no help in how to run and deploy the application. I felt like I was being rushed.

Later on, I started to get bored and began skimming the book. The stuff near the end was getting complex and I still was shaky on the easy stuff. I read the first couple of pages of EJBs with Struts and Web Services with Struts. They were interesting, but I wasn't ready to get into that yet, I still felt like I was missing something.

I still recommend that you get this book. If you're new to web application development, this book really breaks down best practices and demistifies web app buzzword terms such was MVC, EJBs, J2EE web services, SOAP and other things a web app developer should know, but you will get it shoved down your throat. Be warned, this book isn't for beginners. It's for those who have been struggling really really hard trying to learn struts on your own through tutorials on the web. You should be somewhat already familiar with Ant, (or you can get that shoved down your throat too), setting up environment variables, Tomcat, Databases and some database terms (primary key, auto increment, things like that). I had to tweek the build.xml and build.properties files to work in my environment. That didn't bother me too much because I learned something in the process.

I'm not dissapointed in the book because I learned so much from it. Had I not already struggled with Struts and learning how to write java based web apps, I'd be lost. If you're someone like me, it's worth it. Get it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Quick Intro To Web Application Design
Review: Background Info: I started my web app development with PHP/MySQL and I quickly realized how messy PHP can get by dropping logic in with presentation code. I have some background in Java, but not using it in Web Apps. I soon learned about MVC and Struts. I scoured the web for Struts tutorials and if you're like me, found them VERY lacking, very incomplete and very unhelpful. I've struggled with configuring ant, compiling java files by hand all to no avail. There had to be a better way. I finally broke down and got this book.

I was soooo excited to get this book and start my web app development projects using Struts. The book starts off pretty good by disecting a very simple struts application, but it didn't tell you how to run/deploy the application. I figured I could just deploy the app with Ant, (since i've struggled with it before) but I decided to be patient and told myself, perhaps I should finish reading the entire book first before I start writing web apps.

Then the book transitioned to what I believed to be a somewhat complex struts app for beginners. The authors do a good job in dissecting the code and explaining how it works, but again, no help in how to run and deploy the application. I felt like I was being rushed.

Later on, I started to get bored and began skimming the book. The stuff near the end was getting complex and I still was shaky on the easy stuff. I read the first couple of pages of EJBs with Struts and Web Services with Struts. They were interesting, but I wasn't ready to get into that yet, I still felt like I was missing something.

I still recommend that you get this book. If you're new to web application development, this book really breaks down best practices and demistifies web app buzzword terms such was MVC, EJBs, J2EE web services, SOAP and other things a web app developer should know, but you will get it shoved down your throat. Be warned, this book isn't for beginners. It's for those who have been struggling really really hard trying to learn struts on your own through tutorials on the web. You should be somewhat already familiar with Ant, (or you can get that shoved down your throat too), setting up environment variables, Tomcat, Databases and some database terms (primary key, auto increment, things like that). I had to tweek the build.xml and build.properties files to work in my environment. That didn't bother me too much because I learned something in the process.

I'm not dissapointed in the book because I learned so much from it. Had I not already struggled with Struts and learning how to write java based web apps, I'd be lost. If you're someone like me, it's worth it. Get it.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly organized. Thumbs down.
Review: First, this book was published in 2002, which means it was written in 2001. Rather out of date.

I have three very major complaints.
1. The author, like almost all Struts book authors, starts right off the bat giving examples of JSP files that include Struts tags...a topic that is not covered until many chapters later! So the beginner (me) is left scratching his head wondering what all this gibberish is about. How much easier it would have been to provide the early examples in HTML and then later show them using tags AFTER tags have been introduced and discussed.

2. There are l-o-n-g sections of nothing but HTML/JSP code with almost no commenting. Do ANY publishers get it that they don't need to print EXACT code listings? The printed page could have arrows and circles and bold print highlighting codes snipets and discussing what they do. This book leaves it up to the reader to find the important nuggets in hundreds of lines of code.

3. Certain sections are so terse as to be meaningless, and even go so far as to tell the reader to look at the Struts documentation and then you'll understand it all. HELLO?? That's why I bought the &%$#!! book.

On the plus side, the font is nice, there is plenty of white space and it is easy on the eyes.

Skip this one. This is my 5th Struts book and I'm STILL looking for a good one. I think a good rule is that if a book is written by an open-source code author, avoid it like the plague. Coders are NOT writers. Unfortunately, the editors don't seem to be writers either. Maybe that job was outsourced...

Rating:
Summary: Poorly organized. Thumbs down.
Review: First, this book was published in 2002, which means it was written in 2001. Rather out of date.

I have three very major complaints.
1. The author, like almost all Struts book authors, starts right off the bat giving examples of JSP files that include Struts tags...a topic that is not covered until many chapters later! So the beginner (me) is left scratching his head wondering what all this gibberish is about. How much easier it would have been to provide the early examples in HTML and then later show them using tags AFTER tags have been introduced and discussed.

2. There are l-o-n-g sections of nothing but HTML/JSP code with almost no commenting. Do ANY publishers get it that they don't need to print EXACT code listings? The printed page could have arrows and circles and bold print highlighting codes snipets and discussing what they do. This book leaves it up to the reader to find the important nuggets in hundreds of lines of code.

3. Certain sections are so terse as to be meaningless, and even go so far as to tell the reader to look at the Struts documentation and then you'll understand it all. HELLO?? That's why I bought the &%$#!! book.

On the plus side, the font is nice, there is plenty of white space and it is easy on the eyes.

Skip this one. This is my 5th Struts book and I'm STILL looking for a good one. I think a good rule is that if a book is written by an open-source code author, avoid it like the plague. Coders are NOT writers. Unfortunately, the editors don't seem to be writers either. Maybe that job was outsourced...

Rating:
Summary: Looks hopeful, but really isn't
Review: I bought this book to learn Struts: not to learn ABOUT struts. The authors clearly have a firm grasp on the topic, but unfortunately, this book is more of a 481 page example of them showing the reader what they know than it is instructing the reader in how to learn what they know. I have had this book for several weeks, and have read through many of the chapters before finally coming to the conclusion that this book is really quite worthless.

For example, one of the main selling points for me was that Torque was covered - and even included on the CD. But when I got to Chapter 6, where Torque is discussed (all three paragraphs of it), it's such a "high-level" overview, that I'm no better off than when I started. Here's a quote from the book: "After you've set up the XML file [the code preceeds this quote] and a property file [no code, no explination - what property file?] that tells Torque which database and connection pooling scheme to use, you use Ant [how?] to have Torque automatically use both the SQL files [which SQL files?] to create the database and the Java files to map classes to tables." p102. Do you see how vague and unhelpful this is?

Rating:
Summary: "A great resource - my favorite book on Struts"
Review: I disagree with the other reviewers that are complaining about the example applications or lack of advanced features. I think books that have examples that are too complex or advanced get away from helping you learn the basics because the examples are too complicated to read quikcly when you are in a hurry. With Struts Kick Start, I can go right to the place in the book that explains the specific thing I'm looking for quickly.

I've looked at all the available books on Struts and I own three of them. Struts Kick Start is the one I have found the most useful in helping me learn because it provides the best coverage of the basics of Struts and has many more coding samples for the struts tags than any of the others. The others refer you to the site for struts tags or just seem to replicate what is already on-line. Struts Kick Start explains each one in detail and gives sample code that you can cut and paste to use on your own. It also provides some great examples of unit testing and build scripts that I've been able to put to use without too much pain.

This is a great, useful book.

Rating:
Summary: Confusing for a novice, maybe OK as a reference
Review: I find this book to be full of inconsistancies and unexplained references, and generally disorganized. The authors often present the code samples with a minimum of explanation, or just discuss a small part without the surrounding context. They consistantly use parts of the technology that are explained much later in the book, leaving the user to try and sort it out. They don't even bother to warn you or cross-reference. This is a tightly interwoven framework, and I had hoped for a better "map" to what ties in with what other parts (and why).

The chapter on the struts-config.xml, arguably the pivotal file of the entire framework, is shown by inserting the DTD and a few confusing notes about some of the attributes. The chapter ends by telling the reader to go out and get a GUI editor.

Many pages are wasted listing out code for a concept better shown in a few well-chosen lines. The code that is included is poorly documented.

Now, I need to go find another book to give me some cohesive idea of using Struts -- maybe this one will serve better as areference once I'm familiar with it.

Rating:
Summary: A great Struts 'how-to' book.
Review: I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking to get a practical, working knowledge of Struts in a short amount of time. It also gives clear advise and recommendations on design issues and technology choices not only for using Struts and JSPs, but also on integrating with back-end databases, Enterprise Java Beans systems, and Web Services systems.

The book develops a practical Struts application, including database integration, that walks through all the real world development stages from design to deployment, highlighting best practices and key issues at each step. While doing all this, the book is brief and to the point. This keeps it fast moving and interesting while providing a useful working knowledge of Struts. The authors provide clear recommendations on many
issues. Design or technology options that exist at various points are highlighted and the trade-offs identified, but the authors do not get bogged down in technical digressions at these points, but rather state their recommendation with their reasons and then refers to other resources for the reader who wishes to delve into the issues further.

In addition to the basic Struts application, the conceptual background is clearly laid out and chapters on the details for all the Struts tags are provided. Another highlight of the book are the chapters on advanced topics of integrating Struts with Enterprise Java Beans and with Web Services. In a brief amount of space, these chapters walk through all the steps to set up and run an example application that can serve as a model for real world development. Again, all the key design and technology decisions are highlighted and explained.

A big plus with this book is that all the example applications and the technology products needed to set them up and run them are included on the CD that comes with the book, so you can be sure you are working with the exact same software and setup that is documented in the book.

Rating:
Summary: Might be good for beginners...
Review: I'm a fairly experienced developer who's fairly new to Struts. I've been learning on my own, but felt a great desire for something to give me a boost. I heard a few good things about this book, so I bought it rather excitedly -- after all, it's the newest book, so it ought to be the most complete, right?

I found this book *seriously* lacking. Its example applications are trivial and its explanation of anything Struts is almost completely superficial. As an example, the book claims to cover Struts 1.1 but didn't mention Map-backed ActionForms at all -- and hardly mentioned DynaForms, other than showing one simple example.

In summary, the writing style is quite good, the introductory material fair, but the detailed coverage is abysmal.

Rating:
Summary: What's not filler is confusing
Review: I'm surprised this book has been so well received. As an experienced java guy and web developer, I feel I should have been able to read a book like this through and end up with a good working knowledge of Struts, but this isn't the case. For a start, there is a lot of filler in this book just taking up space (a lot of it, double-spaced with wide margins). For example, not only are there plenty of source listings in the body of the text (including some from the struts source, to give you a "look inside") but there are chapters such as number 4 on the HTTP protocol and 5 on JSP and servlets. Not only is this sort of information widely available elsewhere, it is pretty unnecessary in a book obviously targeted at people with a working knowledge of web applications and java in particular.

The other chapters did not do a good job in my view of explaining the struts framework. There was ample description of the example classes (such as beans, with all their getters and setters printed in the book) which was very easy to follow, but the coverage on bringing it all together was poor. For example, from the chapter on struts-config.xml there's only one sentence on what the "input" attribute to the action tag means: "The input attribute allows the action to redirect back to the form that was used to enter the form values by specifying its path." I feel this could have been explained a little better! Why devote 4 or 5 pages of the book to listing the source of a trivial javabean and then shortchange the reader on the descriptions of the actual subject?

I'm going to buy another book, I suggest you also might want to think about starting elsewhere.