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Rating: 
Summary: A very good for moderately experienced web developer
Review: I have been developing Struts 1.0 based application for almost 2 years and now I started working on applications using Struts 1.1. Consequently, I have fairly acquianted with web application development problems and common pitfalls. I started reading this book for learning new features and immediately started appreciating the author's domain and technical knowledge.
The book does not only explains Struts 1.1 at great detail, but also suggests how and when to apply a particular technique to solve a specific problem. IMHO, unless one has faced such real world problem or can imagine such scenario, it is difficult to appreciate the book's coverage. For e.g., in the Chapter 5, the author explained how to use Prebuilt Struts Action and when to use them. Such real world tips are scattered throughout the book.
Any book which covers such framework, assumes the developers knowledge of the domain, which the framework is built to address. If the person reading the book is not well familiar with the domain, then it may be difficult for him to appreciate the books coverage or author's writing skill. I think the same is true for this book too. Overall I found it very useful.
Rating: 
Summary: O'Reilly's Quality is Sinking
Review: I've been using O'Reilly books since I started programming 15 years ago. They used to be by far the best unix books in the industry. In the last few years I've seen the quality sink to the same level as the other mainstream tech books. If they get any worse, they'll be down there with MSFT Press. Yikes!
This book is horrible. Full of vague generalizations instead of concrete statements and examples. A 2nd edition is out but I wouldn't touch it.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Expect To Learn Struts From Scratch From This Book
Review: The author is knowledgeable but does not present the material in a clear, coherent manner, especially for those new to Struts development (which you probably are if you're reading this book). I never really "got" Struts after reading this book cover-to-cover. That is to say, there's no way I could create even a simple working Struts application from scratch. Here's my two main complaints:1. The book is organized very poorly. For example, although throughout the book we've been seing ActionForms used in code, it's not until page 175 that we get "What Are ActionForms?" The IStorefrontService interface is finally described on page 158, even though it's been seen multiple times previously without any explanation as to what it is. On page 230, the author writes "I've mentioned the UserContainer and ApplicationContainer classes in previous chapters without defining exactly what they are." So the pattern is that things are just foisted upon the reader inside code listings with no explanation and no reference. Sometimes they are finally described hundreds of pages later, sometimes not. In-between are many pages of useful information, but that would have better been left for future chapters. We learn lots about how to extend Struts before we even know how the basics of it work. That makes no sense if you are looking for a tutorial. Needless to say, it's pretty confusing to look at stuff that isn't explained. Terrible. 2. There is no step-by-step creation of a working application here. I made the mistake of thinking there was by skimming the book, but the code is largely given in unconnected fragments, often without a reference to even what file it is supposed to go in (some code relates to no actual project at all). There are two applications presented (a bank account manager, and a shopping cart tool), but again it's almost impossible to create and configure what's in the book into working applications. Sure, you can download completed applications from a web site and try to decipher them on your own, but the fact that only bits and pieces of the code are in the book, with little or no methodology, is lazy. To be fair, there are some pretty good chapters on ancillary topics, such as Business Objects and Object Persistence, Struts Tag Libraries, Tiles, and Logging. This information will be useful, but not before you can build a working Struts app to apply it to. I think it's a shame because with a little more thought from the user's perspective towards organization/editing, this could have been a really good book. If you already kind of know Struts, I would pick it up to augment your knowledge (perhaps in that instance I'd give it four stars), but I cannot recommend it for the Struts beginner. Sadly, I have not found a single Struts book or online tutorial yet that succinctly and sufficiently explains it to someone with no previous experience. I'm almost tempted to try the Tapestry framework instead...even though the documentation is horrible, the product looks easier to use.
Rating:
Summary: Good coverage but could be better
Review: The target for the book is any experienced Java developer who is interested in Struts but has little or no experience with Struts. The book starts with an explanation of why Struts is a "good thing" and shows how Struts fits into a web architecture. The author then gives an explanation of each of the pieces of the Struts architecture and demonstrates a simple application. Although the explanations were clear, I felt that the author was making the architecture overly complicated by explaining things out of order. A diagram showing the interrelationships of the different Struts classes and config files would have been helpful. The author covers all the expected topics such as internationalization, exception handling, logging, and the Struts tag libraries. The chapter on the Struts tag libraries could have used more examples to make the explanations clearer. The book concentrates on Struts 1.1 and the author does a nice job of explaining the changes from the 1.0 version and the features available in the new version. The chapter on the new Validator framework is clear and the examples are on target. The chapter on Tiles is short but the author does a great job of explaining how it fits into the Struts architecture. The chapter on performance seemed completely unnecessary since there was nothing in it specific to Struts. Overall this book is a good addition to the Struts library. The book has some shortcomings but it provides a good deal of value.
Rating: 
Summary: Agreed... not as good for beginners
Review: This book does an excellent job of laying out the Struts framework at a high level and then explaining each individual component of the framework in detail. It provides clear examples of good design patterns separating the business model from the view/controller of the application, and decent documentation of the use of each parameter in the configuration files. What it does not do is provide easy, step by step, "this is what we just did and this is the result"-style tutorials on building your first Struts application. I read most of the book without attempting to sit down and write any code. When I finished reading, I had a clear understanding of how the framework operated and a good idea about how I wanted to build my first Struts application. However, when I sat down to actually code the application using the book as a reference, I was completely lost. I must say that I am disappointed because the book does seem to market itself to all levels of Struts developers, but I think it's really only useful to somebody who has already gone through a few tutorials. I learned more about building my first Struts application by following tutorials in the MyEclipse IDE, and reading the code and configuration files from existing Struts applications. I give this book 1 star for beginners and 5 for experienced developers - so let's call it a 3.
Rating:
Summary: horrible book
Review: This book gets lost in the details of its example application which is not very good. They should have picked a different example. I think there are much better books out there than this one which cover struts in a much better fashion. I don't know why this one is so popular. I would recommend you browse some of the other struts books out there and not buy this one.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the Best Book About Struts
Review: This book shouldn't be your first Strut's book, at least if you are learning by yourself. I think it lacks a full example, step by step.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but could have been better
Review: This is my second Struts book, Wiley's book is was the first. And this is by far much better in explaining Struts than the first. My only disappointment of the book is the lack of one more chapter that could have went through the process of building the Store front app. Thats what next for me to do, I dont think it will take much to set it up, but doubt it if some one not done any struts before. So there is the reason for 3 stars. But I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn Struts, although I doubt they would be able to write anything without a mentor.
Rating:
Summary: Solid overview at the right level of depth
Review: What I appreciated about this book is the breadth of the coverage is at a consistent well thought out level throughout. The authors never rat hole, and they cover all of the topics for a Struts installation from installation and setup in the first chapters, through the view and model structures in the stand out fifth and sixth chapters, to topics such as validation, internationalization and EJB access in the later chapters.
Definitely a useful resource for anyone using, or evaluating, the Struts framework.
Rating:
Summary: Move to Struts 1.1
Review: [A review of the Second Edition] The first version of Struts was enthusiastically received by the Java community. Its easy factorisation of GUI coding and back end business logic, in a fashion that built upon existing Model-View-Controller approaches, proved compelling. So too, of course, was its free, open source nature. As experience was gained, Struts was upgraded to version 1.1, which this book fully discusses, in the typical competent O'Reilly tradition that readers will be familiar with. If you are still using Struts 1.0, and have no inclination to migrate, then you probably don't need this book. But Cavaness suggests that you should give 1.1 a consideration, and this book is persuasive argument. Some chapters are useful, but mundane, like those on internationalisation, exception handling and logging. Definitely important capabilities. So much so that you can reasonably expect any major application to have these. The only question is, how exactly does it enable them? Struts handles these quite capably. I have not read the first edition of this book. But this edition indeed seems very comprehensive and useful.
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