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Summary: Overall a great book.
Review: If you're the kind of person that can look at code samples and a few paragraphs of explanation, and say "oh yeah" (and you don't need to be handheld through the process of writing code) this book is for you. Granted, it doesn't go into deep deep detail for all topics, but that information is in the java specification documents for free if you need it. The book has a kind of buffet style of information, you can jump around to each chapter to find out what you need. Overall its a great book for a developer who's at an intermediate to senior level, and doesn't need to write "hello world" examples for everything they learn.
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Summary: Great Book!
Review: This is a wonderful book covering many topics of interest to the Java community. It is detailed and comprehensive. It is an indispensible desktop guide to anyone writing Enterprise Java applications.
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Summary: JSP, like Java, to remain a mystery
Review: I think you cannot go wrong buying the book IF you know exactly why. Two reasons I buy computer books: 1 - learning and 2 - Reference. If you are looking for learning FORGET IT! This book will hit you square in the forehead with a sledgehammer after 5 pages. One of the MOST difficult things with all Java is that somehow the authors usually assume you are a genius. WRONG! I am an idiot, if I wasn't I wouldn't buy the book. If you are looking for a reference, it's okay. You will find the appendices useful. Once you have mastered basic Java, you may then master servlets and THEN you can read this book.
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Summary: Does Amazon give refunds for awful books?
Review: I have struggled through 150 pages of this book and can't wait to write this review and take my revenge on the authors. 1 The example code is miserably written. Typical code (page 143) is: return (r == null) ? null : r; When you see something strange (like the above or the unnecessary call to super() on page 143), you can't tell if you're missing something, or if the authors just wrote carelessly. 2 The example code is so misformatted that it's torture to read. If you're looking at hardcopy, see page 152. The formatting is: bbbbbbFirst-line,-which-is-continued-but-followed-by-a-blank-line bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb Continuation-of-first-line, which-is-undented-to-left-margin; bbbbbbSecond-line, immediately-under-the-continuation; Try reading 1106 pages of that! And if that doesn't bother you, check out the indentation of the {}s in if's and try's! 3 The text reads as if it's written by non-native English speakers, and no one bothered to edit it. 4 As icing on the cake, the font is small. I will probably take the advice of another reviewer, who recommended checking out Sun's servlet book. The only thing good I can say is that there is informative background information here and there.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: Everything you need to get started with server-side Java programming is in this book. It starts off with several chapters covering Servlets, then a solid chapter on JSP, followed by coverage of JDBC, and a chapter on database connection pools. This would have been enough for a complete book, but it doesn't stop there. There is also good coverage of XML, RMI, JNDI, EJB, and more. To me, this book is an essential reference for anyone doing server-side Java programming. It has been an invaluable resource on my current programming project. I continually recommend it to my co-workers. The book has a good balance of example code and explanations, and the authors generally have very good writing styles which make the technical material relatively easy to understand. However, at times you can tell that the book has many authors because not all of the chapters are of the same quality. In particular, I though chapters 5 and 6 were not as well written as most of the others. One minor criticism of the book is that even though it is over 1,000 pages it is printed in a rather small font which made it a little hard to read. I would have preferred that one or two of the less important chapters be excluded so that a normal font size could have been used. This book is also a great value for the price. Many technical books don't cover half as much material for the same price. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: The best book on the market for Java server programming
Review: Probably the best book on the market. Everything is explained clear and in detail. However, I wished that they would spend more time on servlets and less time on JavaSpaces and Jini. Those two technologies are not being implemented widely and will take some time to take off. Meanwhile things will change greatly and this book will be outdated. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn how to program server-side Java.
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Summary: Everything you need
Review: I really enjoyed this book, it covers everything you need to master server side and enterprise development. It is lacking in a few areas like EJB which only get a theoretical treatment, there are no real code examples. The chapters only cover 786 of the 1121 pages, the rest covers http, cryptography, jser configuration, and some API referances which are a bit obsolete. Where this book really shines is in the use cases, you go through the design process to development which makes it all become clear. Overall this is a must have!
Rating: 
Summary: Heavy on Examples
Review: This book is heavy on examples and light generic explanations of Java Server Programming. It is obvious that it was written by a group of authors because the writing styles and whole focus changed from one chapter to the next.
Rating:
Summary: Invaluble Reference
Review: I've had this book several months now and it is proving to be an invaluble reference. Naturally in any book with 15 authors (and 9 editors) some parts are going to be better than others. In this case the standard was particularly high. Especially useful are the chapters on handling errors in servelets and handling and tracking user sessions. On one site we've implemented the 'shopping cart' application almost straight from the book (though it does need more work). As well as piles of stuff on servelets there is also a very good introduction to XML; more than enough to get to going and to enable you to to ask intelligent questions about it. The EJB chapter is also useful but is no substitute for either Roman's or Monson-Haefel's book on the subject. That being said it is still worth reading. Overall? You won't use every chapter (nobody will) but you only need to use two or three of the chapters for the book to earn its place on the shelf. There is a bredth of information on servlets here you won't find anywhere else.
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Summary: A big puddle: shallow, broad, and will only wet your feet.
Review: The major downfall of this book is its attempt to cover every aspect of server-side Java, from Servlets to JNDI on. I recommened this book to those familiar with basic Java but totally unfamiliar with any aspects of server programming. For an in-depth servlet explanation, search elsewhere. The book strives to encompass every aspect of servlets in two examples.
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