Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding Book
Review: This book is outstanding! It covers the new features of JSDK2.1 wonderfully. It introduces JSP and other J2EE features. I recommend this book to all current Java Server programmers and to all who want to learn about Java Server Programming. The depth is wonderful and the examples are very good. The only knock is that it is expensive and you don't get a CD. However, there is a web site to download the source code, nice touch Wrox Press! Even though the book is expensive it is well worth the money! Knowing what I know now, I still would buy it again. But this time I would by it through Amazon so I get a discount. :-) Note, I paid full price and still think I got a great deal.
Rating: 
Summary: Pro's and Con's
Review: Pro:*) Covers a lot of ground on up to date (01/2000) server side tech, Servlets, JSP, RMI, XML, EJB, JINI, CORBA, JNDI, LDAP, JDBC, Mime, cookies, Internationalization. *) Lots of hands-on details with many examples. *) Very fluent and usually clear. Con: *) Very little on theory, concepts, server architecture using these technologies or trends, goes straight to the details. *) Many exercises don't work without some hacking (they could still fix it, the code is on their site). *) So much is about Java Servlets you would think Sun published it. *) Not all the chapters are in the same level, you can feel many people wrote the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for serious developers.
Review: I would reccomend this book only to people who are new to Java Programming and want an overall treatise with something on everything possible server side. But for those who are already in this field for a while and want to build on their knowledge this book would be a big disappointment. The other main drawback of this book is its bulkiness. This book does cover some of the topics like servlets in detail good enough for a serious programmer but most of the other topics introduced are not exhaustive enough for a serious developer. To sum it up, rather buy books on individual topics and build a solid base than adorn your bookself with fancy Wrox books.
Rating:
Summary: A definite buy for server-side web programmers.
Review: This book is one of the must-have books for anyone serious about writing server-side Java programs. Sure you can find a lot of the information on the net, but I don't think that most professionals want to rely just on the net as their only resource now do they? I've had this book for many months now and it's the most popular book at work. It's jam-packed full of good server-side programming ideas and techniques. And it covers a lot of the bases with enough depth to get you more than started. There are over ten chapters dealing with Servlets. There is only one chapter on JSP (29 pages), but anything you need to know about JSP you can get out of that one chapter. Servlets are what you should be concerned about anyway as you are looking for a hardcore Java Server Programming book right? The chapter on Smart Servlets is a better approach than JSP anyway. The book isn't just about Servlets, however. There's also good coverage of XML, Distributed Computing with Servlets (using RMI), and Enterprise Javabeans. And more! Want a big bonus this year? Get this book! Want to eventually lose your job and end up at McDonalds? Don't get this book. It's nice to know you have choices. :)
Rating:
Summary: Not For Professionals
Review: I bought this book a few months ago and I found out that it covers the basics of J2EE. Imagine 10+ authors. Each talks about their own thing and then they slap it together and call it a Wrox Published book. My gripes with this book are:
1. Unfocused. Topics jump from rather quickly and do not ease you into one another.
2. Code is filled with example codes that do not work.
3. Did not stay with one topic and cover it enough.
4. Price Good things about the book:
1. Has a pretty nice red cover so I know Wrox made it.
2. It's pretty big so if a rat manages to get in the house, I can squash it with the book, not that I would do such a thing.
3. Makes people go "WOW" when they say, "you actually read that whole thing??" given the number of pages. Unfortunately, this is not one book that I've been hitting on for help at all. It's usually the last resort to look up information since I usually find the answers I need elsewhere. The material provided in this book is too spread out and not covered enough in detail to be of much use. However, for those who just want to get a feel for the J2EE technologies, I say you would enjoy this book. But it would outlive its usefullness after some time.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: Over all this is a great book. It give you the overall idea on Java Server Programming. If you really serious on specific topic, you have to buy another one. It is good for the beginner to grap the general idea on Java Server Programming.
Rating:
Summary: Ok as an overview but too bulky
Review: I guess I shouldn't expect a book written by 12 different people to be too cohesive but this book was very disjointed. They tried to cover too many topics with varying levels of depth so while this may have been a good book were it intended to be an overview of the technologies, it ends up uneven with topic coverage quality ranging from average to poor. The case studies and plethora of appendixes mostly bulked up the book rather than adding value.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book on Java Serverside technologies
Review: This is an excellent book covering all aspects of java server side programming. I would recommend it to any one who is interested about java server side programming. It is highly informative but definitely not for novice java programmers.
Rating: 
Summary: Unfortunately Outdated
Review: Although, this book was a great reference about a year ago, I am shocked it's still selling and that it has retained its selling price of ~ $50. Do yourself and WROX a favor, get an updated J2EE book which will greatly improve your ability to successfully navigate the server-side world of Java, and send WROX a message to start selling books which are no older than 6 -9 mos old.
Rating: 
Summary: No focus.
Review: This book cover many important topics of java server developments. However, it is so much difficult to understand these topics clearly through this book!
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