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EJB fundamentals and session beans
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Wizard API updated!
Tim Boudreau has released a new version of the Swing Wizard library (version 0.997) that fixes the WizardException bug reported in JavaWorld's recent Open Source Java Project profile. The article's examples have been reworked to test out the new, improved WizardException. Thanks, Tim, for this helpful fix!
Open Source Java Projects: The Wizard API
The five books with servlet-only content in this review are:
Table 1 below provides a quick review of the main characteristics of these servlet-specific books.
| Table 1. Servlet-specific books overview | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Java Servlet Programming | Developing Java Servlets | Inside Servlets | Java Servlets by Example | Java Servlets | |
| Publisher | O'Reilly | Sams | Addison Wesley | Manning | McGraw Hill |
| Price | 2.95 | 9.99 | 9.95 | 9.95 | 9.99 |
| Total Pages |
510 |
515 |
434 |
548 |
514 |
| CD-ROM/Source from FTP site | No / Yes | No / No | Yes / No | No / No | Yes / Yes |
| Servlets/JSP Versions covered | 2.0 / 0.91 | 2.1* / 0.92 | 2.1 / No | 2.1 / No | 2.1 / No |
| Sessions | Good | Good | Good | Average | Very Good |
| Security | Good | Average | None | None | Average |
| XML | None | None | None | None | None |
| JDBC | Good | Very Good | Poor | Average | Good |
| Internationalization | Very Good | None | None | None | None |
| API Reference | Yes (AD) | Yes (AD) | Yes (D) | Yes (AdE) | Yes (Ad) |
| Web Servers | JWS 1.1 | JWS 1.1, JRun | JWS 1.1, JRun, ServletExec | JWS 1.1, JRun, ServletExec | JWS 1.1 |
The following list explains the meaning of the last several rows in this table. The first group of rows, up to "CD-ROM/Source from FTP site," should be fairly self-explanatory.
javax.servlet API documentation. An (A) indicates the reference is included in the appendix. A (D) indicates the reference includes long
descriptions, and a (d) indicates short descriptions. An (E) indicates the use of examples within the API reference.
The ranking scale for these topics is None, Poor, Average, Good, Very Good. An asterisk (*) in a field means the review of the specific book provides further details of the ranking.
In addition to the five server-specific books, I reviewed four other books that contain strong servlet content:
Table 2 provides a quick review of these books. The table listings are the same as in Table 1 so that the books can be compared. However, you might not want to read these books for the same purpose as those in the previous group.
| Table 2. Non-servlet-specific books overview | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional Java Server Programming | Professional Java XML Programming | Developer's Guide to JWS | Core Java Web Server | ||
| Publisher | Wrox | Wrox | Addison Wesley | Prentice Hall | |
| Price | 9.99 | 9.99 | 4.95 | 9.99 | |
| Total Pages |
1121 |
772 |
577 |
593 |
|
| CD-ROM/Source from FTP site | No / Yes | No / Yes | Yes / No | Yes / No | |
| Servlets/JSP Versions | 2.1 / 1.0 | 2.1 / 1.0 | 2.1 / 1.0 | 2.1 / 1.0 | |
| Sessions | Average | Poor | Average | Good | |
| Security | None* | None | None* | Very Good | |
| XML | Good | Very Good++ | None | Average | |
| JDBC | Very Good | Average | Good | None | |
| Internationalization | Average | None | Average | None | |
| API Reference | Yes (Ad) | Yes (A) | No | No | |
| Web Servers | JRun, JWS 2.0, JServ | JSWDK, JRun | JWS 1.1 | JWS 1.1 | |
In the rest of this article, I'll review each book individually. Beside each book's title is a star rating, which is based on the book's overall coverage of servlets. One star is equivalent to a poor rating, and the highest rating (five stars) translates to exceptional coverage of servlets. Most of the books fall in the middle somewhere, and I'll explain why in this next section. I also gave two of the books -- Professional Java XML Programming with Servlets and JSP and Java Servlets by Example -- an N/A rating because I felt it wasn't fair to compare them to other books that concentrated more on teaching servlets. However, for the subjects they do cover, I would give them both four stars.
O'Reilly's Java Servlet Programming, by Jason Hunter, is probably the most popular programming book on Java servlets. What makes this book so good is its breadth of content. If you already know Java and wish to use it to convert your CGI programs or create new ones, this book will put you well on your way to becoming a sought-after Java servlet developer.

In the first half of the book, Hunter lays a good foundation, explaining what servlets are, why they are better than CGI scripts, and how to get started using them. You'll get a basic Hello World servlet program and an overview of the servlet life cycle. You also learn ways to retrieve information about a server, client, or request. Hunter then covers sending HTML and multimedia content responses, including compressed and multipart responses, using Jef Poskanzer's freely available GIF Encoder. (See the Resources section below for more information on the latter.)
com.oreilly.servlet packageFree Download - 5 Minute Product Review. When slow equals Off: Manage the complexity of Web applications - Symphoniq
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Free Download - 5 Minute Product Review. Realize the benefits of real user monitoring in less than an hour. - Symphoniq