Rating: 
Summary: Great Overview, but needs an editor
Review: The content of the book is a great way for Java programmers to get an overview of the J2EE APIs and Java-based Web applications with reasonable hands-on depth. I can't say enough in that regard. More depth requires more specific books, but that's just due to the size of J2EE. However, the editing on this book is just short of awful. There are numerous typos and non-grammatical sentences. Part of this is obviously insufficient attention given to the writing of non-native speakers. The approach differs radically from chapter to chapter, ranging from elaborated regurgitation of the documentation (useful due to its experienced commentary) to teaching almost solely by example. In one chapter, the author's coding style is full of distracting peculiarities. If he were consistent in their use, it may not be so distracting, and his at time really strange departures from common control structure idioms leaves you guessing. If the chapter weren't so strong from an architecture and design perspective, you would wonder about his command of Java. All in all, I recommend this book as in introductory cram course on J2EE, but the Wrox multi-team approach broke down somewhat here.
Rating:
Summary: Packed with good information, great to have!
Review: The umbrella of topics covered in this book encompasses everything that remotely touches this field. Fiarly well-written, this book presented a great reference for pieces of information that one can gather sifting through millions of help documents and webpages on these topics.I recently finished a large-scale project involving server-side Java programming using Tomcat & Apache with back-end programming in CORBA. This book was an instant source of information and helped throughout the project. Few points are annoying and can easily be fixed - 1. The chapters sometimes repeated information presented elsewhere in a slightly different format. This is probably a side-effect of having so many authors. 2. Some topics are starved, while others got too much attention - this is subjective depending on what information you are seeking to find. 3. This book is not laid out for a gradual learning. Chapter 2 probably is as dense in information as Chapter 22. This can be frustrating at times as you jump around the pages. 4. Index entries are not exhaustive and cannot be trusted. Lots of times, I had to flip through the text and not rely on 3 entries in the Index for guidance! It is money well spent. HOWEVER, wait for the next revision which is due out in September!
Rating:
Summary: Great if you don't know a lot - OK otherwise
Review: This book is hughe. It covers the basic and many intermediate issues of pretty much every technology you're bound to encounter during J2EE application development. It's a great book to get you started and going, and even as a reference. Great value! However, don't expect too much handholding. There're many silly mistakes, especially in all the examples. I'd say there's been zero editing of those, so unless you have a good grasp of the basics it may take you too much time to get over one of the many oversights (e.g. the downloaded examples are very rough, sometimes they don't match the text). Once you're done with it, plan to complement many subjects with other books on an as-needed basis for more advanced treatment. I especially liked the casual, nonacademic, pragmatic tone in which things are explained. It's very clear, and filled with many interesting discussions. Finally, people who have trouble with very small fonts should try before they buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book
Review: This book is one the most comprehensive ones that I've bought. It provides you with most of the possible technologies that you could use in a basic J2EE application. I love the section on the J2EE architecture. For newbies I typcially request that they read that section first. It does justice to basic topics like JDBC & Servlets & tag libraries, and the concepts about them. As well as introduces EJBs and other technologies. I am a long time java developer and I use it as a constant reference. Great job WROX!
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: This book is one the most comprehensive ones that I've bought. It provides you with most of the possible technologies that you could use in a basic J2EE application. I love the section on the J2EE architecture. For newbies I typcially request that they read that section first. It does justice to basic topics like JDBC & Servlets & tag libraries, and the concepts about them. As well as introduces EJBs and other technologies. I am a long time java developer and I use it as a constant reference. Great job WROX!
Rating:
Summary: This is an into book
Review: This is a "intro" book from several authors. If you don't know the j2ee technology at all or you intend to know any part of the j2ee then this is a good start point. But if you liked to dig into a specific area or to develop an j2ee application then this book is not sufficient.
Moreover this j2ee book is a bit obsolate, the 1.3 edition is a better choice though the j2ee tech goes to the 1.4 edition.
Rating:
Summary: Most complete J2EE book I've seen
Review: This is a great book for people wanting to learn more about the many features, services, packages and nuances of Enterprise Java. I have yet to see another book that as much breadth of information on J2EE. It explains what each part is, how it works, and how it integrates with other parts. While you would have to buy some additional books if you needed more in-depth information on a particular topic, this book will help you know which questions to ask. Granted, with so many authors there isn't much continuity, and being a Wrox book there will be errors in the examples. But as a reference book, especially for newbies, this one is hard to top.
Rating:
Summary: Most complete J2EE book I've seen
Review: This is a great book for people wanting to learn more about the many features, services, packages and nuances of Enterprise Java. I have yet to see another book that as much breadth of information on J2EE. It explains what each part is, how it works, and how it integrates with other parts. While you would have to buy some additional books if you needed more in-depth information on a particular topic, this book will help you know which questions to ask. Granted, with so many authors there isn't much continuity, and being a Wrox book there will be errors in the examples. But as a reference book, especially for newbies, this one is hard to top.
Rating: 
Summary: Very complete, but copies from other titles
Review: This is a great book to keep as a reference. It covers all of J2EE, and has some interesting ideas on application design. However, if you already have a lot of Wrox "professional" titles, such as "Professional JSP" or "Professional XML", stay away. This book just repeats excerpts from those, and is more confusing because it doesn't contain all the information. For example, the section on XML namespaces was a hodgepodge editing job on the section from the XML book, and confused me even though I already had a basic understanding of the topic. But, its worth a look if you don't have any of the other contained content.
Rating:
Summary: Very complete, but copies from other titles
Review: This is a great book to keep as a reference. It covers all of J2EE, and has some interesting ideas on application design. However, if you already have a lot of Wrox "professional" titles, such as "Professional JSP" or "Professional XML", stay away. This book just repeats excerpts from those, and is more confusing because it doesn't contain all the information. For example, the section on XML namespaces was a hodgepodge editing job on the section from the XML book, and confused me even though I already had a basic understanding of the topic. But, its worth a look if you don't have any of the other contained content.
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