Advanced JavaServer Pages

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Summary: Superb, real-world JSP Application Architecture
Review: Advanced JSP is an incredibly useful book; it provides the essential design framework for implementing real-world JSP applications. Geary outlines three critical JSP architecture patterns: (1) a template-driven approach for structuring web page layouts; (2) a Model-View- Controller (MVC) framework to separate presentation and business logic; and (3) a custom-tag based pattern for controlling database access. The text and the examples are clearly written and illustrated; in explaining each concept, Geary starts with a straightforward example, and then effectively builds additional sophistication upon it.

As a project manager with my first JSP assignment, this book provided the key design principles. When I shared the book with my Java development team, they were even more enthusiastic; they shared the book with two other development teams who are going to incorporate his ideas. One senior Java developer indicated that if he had implemented Geary's framework on his previous JSP project, they could have written a much more robust application with 75% less code. Geary's design patterns take care of most of the application infrastructure; it will allow my development team to focus on coding business-specific components -- and not on the underlying "plumbing".

Rating:
Summary: excellent introduction. examples have lots of code errors.
Review: Enjoyed the book and appreciated the approach. i did not however enjoy debugging the code or attempting to figure out which examples were which. could use a good section on integration, i.e. applciation server, database and related topics.

definitley got me thinking about MVC so i'll be looking forward to the Struts book by Goodwill.

Rating:
Summary: Concise and to the point
Review: For those who want to advance their knowledge of JSP/Servlet technology and to apply a framework approach in developing web-based applications, this is a great buy. It is concise and to the point with relatively good examples. The only downside is that it's a bit out of date and definitely in need of a revision.

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Summary: Must Read for Java Developers building Web applications
Review: Geary's book makes three key contributions: 1) explaining how application specific JSP tags enable a division of responsibilities between page designers and programmers; 2) demonstrating how to modularize page design and separate layout from content with his templates tag library; and 3) (most importantly) showing how to implement the Model-View-Controller architecture in a servlet environment. A must read if you plan on using Struts, the Apache MVC framework. Very well written and packed with great examples.

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Summary: Excellent, so why isn't it selling?
Review: I needed to write a JSP and found a good DB example in Geary. After reading the first two custom tag and the DB chapter and doing the DB example, I am reading the whole book. It is excellent, I find it solid in every way. I am into absorbing every bit and playing with it's code.

I am perplexed why according to the best selling JSP or Java Server Pages sort order here it isn't even on the list. I guess people think it's too advanced. It's not. I got into Geary after starting Wrox Professional JSP. Wrox was good but uninspiring. I may get back to Wrox next. For now I'm sure I'll be a solid JSP developer after working with this one book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I would recommend this extremely well-written book to anyone who is seriously interested in J2EE architecture. If you have basic familiarity with server-side Java (servlets, JSP), Advanced JavaServer Pages will help you understand design patterns and strategies that are widely popular among experienced J2EE software developers, such as Model 2 Architecture or Composite View. The author provides a great tutorial on custom tags. The first two chapters: "Custom tag fundamentals" and "Custom tag advanced concepts" is all you need to start developing JSP custom tags. Whether you consider using an open source framework like Jakarta Struts, or writing your own, David Geary's book provides a great deal of insight and tons of carefully written source code. I am using his custom tags based implementation of the composite view pattern in my projects. By the way, the downloadable source code is very reliable. The book's case study, and all other examples, work "out of the box". It was very easy to switch the sample code from Cloudscape to MySQL and mmMySQL JDBC driver.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of Time and Money
Review: It's been almost 4 months since I purchased the book and read the first 1/3 of it. I've since tossed it.

I was looking for a book that covered Tag libaries from a technical perspective - and give good reasons for using them.

The book was written as a text book for first year college students to work through the chapters - which start with tediously simple examples - and provide no examples of substance or value. It also assumes "tags are good" - and provides no evidence of it. So - if you're willing to accept what the authorities tell you without challenge or thinking about it - perhaps this book is for you.

From my perspective, the world is full of Java101 books. It doesn't need any more - and certainly not this one.
Anybody looking at the inerworkings of tag libraries should be passed the 101 level. Sorry David - but you missed your audience.

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Summary: Beyond the Basics!
Review: The basics of JSP are easy to learn for anyone familiar with HTML and Java but it is difficult to learn the many advanced features. This book covers the complexities of JSP very well and helps to make them simple and easy to understand.

The book starts with coverage of JSP custom tags, one of the most important features of JSP. HTML forms and JSP templates are covered next. The section on templates is extremely useful for those who wish to use pluggable components to build web sites. The best part of the book for me were the middle chapters which cover designing a Model 2 framework using servlets and JSP. The framework is generic and can be applied to any web site development effort. He then demonstrates how event handling can be used within the framework to provide internationalization, authentication, and form resubmission trapping. (Have your users ever created additional profiles by using the back button?) The next chapter demonstrates using custom tags to access databases. The author then shows different ways to process XML with JSP. The final chapter is a case study demonstrating all the techniques used throughout the book.

Code samples are found throughout the book and I had no trouble getting any of them to run in Tomcat. The tag libraries are provided as open source by the author and will be helpful for most developers. The book is very well written and will be useful for anyone interested in advancing their knowledge of JSP.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: This is the book to get if you're already familiar with servlet and jsp basics, but you want to find out how to develop maintainable, extensible, and reusable web applications with jsp and servlets. This book shows you how to apply design patterns in your web apps, including MVC and the facade pattern for HTML forms. I found this book to be an easy read, and it considerably improved my web development skills. Looking forward to a second edition.