Rating: 
Summary: High Information Density
Review: I've been trying to learn Struts/JSP/Servlets/Tomcat all at once over the last 4 days by reading 1500+ pages from books and web-resources. (my head really hurts!) Nothing really brought it all together until I picked up this book. At only 128 pages, it quickly got to the heart of Struts and by page 20, half of my questions were cleared up. If you want to learn Struts, this is the quickest most informative read. Then buy Jakarta Struts-Pocket Reference and you'll have 98% of your needs covered. Plus together they cost me under $35 - a great bargain!
Rating:
Summary: short but up to the point
Review: iF YOU HAVE EVER WORKED ON j2ee. reading this book helps you learn struts in one week at max( may be less). its worth every penny you spent on this book, the author explains the subject very well and never deviates you from the main topic. every topic is explained so clearly and never beats around the bush.
i strongly recommand this book, who really want to learn jakarta struts
Rating:
Summary: Straight to the Point
Review: Let's face it: there's not a single new Java technology out there whose tutorial and best practices, combined, can't be covered in under 200 pages. Why do 600 page books on Struts, 300 page books on Java Collections, etc. even exist? Why spend so much time, money, and trees on stuff that is not nearly rocket science? It couldn't have anything to do with publishers deliberately padding their books so they can charge more money for them, could it? Or developers wanting to look smarter with fat, well-known books gracing their cubes? Fact is, we should just be blowing through these books in no time and getting down to work, which is what we are allegedly paid to do. That's why Spielman rocks. She simply teaches you Struts in 126 pages. She's clear, concise, and entertaining. Don't believe any of the negative reviews saying there isn't enough depth. There is. This really is all there is to Struts. Proof? I'm doing it right now. I'm doing it well. All I read was this book. I'm definitely looking forward to her upcoming JSTL text. Amazon.com says it's only 200 pages long. Amen to that. Thank you Ms. Spielman for teaching us Struts, and for setting an example of brevity and effectiveness.
Rating: 
Summary: Collection of random essays
Review: Like title says, she did not organized book at all. all she did was to put collection of random information in 1 book
Rating: 
Summary: Where is the editor?
Review: Ms. Spielman has done her part covering the essence of Struts; I wish the editor has done his/hers because the book's writing gets a bit sloppy at times: P. 37: "After we've determined that no errors occurred with the form properties, we can determine what necessary business logic must take place." Now, I understand what Ms. Spielman is trying to say here but it's not what this sentence means. I think Struts is a very elegant framework and it deserves an equally neat coverage. P.43: "Remember not use instance variables in your Actions. If you get the impression that I'm trying to bang this phrase into your head, you are correct." P.57: "It is a bit beyond the scope of this book to go into the DynaBean internals in the Apache Commons project, but if you have a burning desire to peek at the internals, you can go right ahead." I do know some cheeky developers out there, but, again, it is the editor's job to smooth out the rough patches.
Rating:
Summary: Better than I realized
Review: OK, I'm biased because I had reviewed the book earlier and received a free copy of it which I use at home. In re-reading it however, I realized that it was so useful that I also needed a copy for work, so I bought an extra copy as well. Anyone who follows the Struts mailing list might also know that I recently transgressed from Struts on a project involving the writing of a fairly complex spreadsheet involving variable columns of data. I am embarrassed to say that I had taken over a month to complete the alternative approach in a way that would pass code review, and I seemed to be digging myself deeper each day when I finally turned to Sue's book and was up and running on a complete Struts rewrite solution in less than a day! My only regret at this point is that I didn't have the book sooner as I might have seen the light sooner on my recent project as well. At 14.95 a copy, this book is so completely worth it that i can't stand it! p.s. I just wish that my name was spelled correctly on the back of the book, but I think most readers will overlook this minor flaw. :-}
Rating:
Summary: Borderline Fraud
Review: On the back of this book you will find a claim that there is downloadable sample software code at a "companion web site".
However there is no such downloadable code at the website given in the book.
After a fruitless search I called their customer support number and explained the problem. After a few minutes on hold the agent said that she could not find the download site either.
So this book goes back.
Rating:
Summary: A concise introduction to Struts
Review: So, after working as a BE (back-end) developer for many years, I was forcibly thrust into a role where I had to learn Struts, and I mean fast. Fortunately, I found this book and it gave me everything I needed to know to get traction quickly. Basically, it was the catalyst that brought all of my little chunks of Struts knowledge together into 1 single cohesive unit. In my opinion, this book serves as an excellent overview as well as semi-reference.
Rating:
Summary: A concise introduction to Struts
Review: So, after working as a BE (back-end) developer for many years, I was forcibly thrust into a role where I had to learn Struts, and I mean fast. Fortunately, I found this book and it gave me everything I needed to know to get traction quickly. Basically, it was the catalyst that brought all of my little chunks of Struts knowledge together into 1 single cohesive unit. In my opinion, this book serves as an excellent overview as well as semi-reference.
Rating:
Summary: 2 buy or not 2 buy
Review: Sue spoke at a local symposium in September and I was impressed with her presentation on JSTL, a topic that at the time I had little interest in. Having been disappointed with a previous Struts book, that starts with "Mastering", I was looking at this one critically. BTW, as Madame President of Switchback Software, Sue actually uses/knows Struts....nifty, huh? OK, what this book is: A practical guide for programmers.
What this book isn't: Struts-o-pedia. That's fine, "practical guide" isn't supposed to be exhaustive, by its nature. Bottom line: Great value, buy it! Definitely can't beat the price.
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