Pro Jakarta Struts

by Rob Harrop and John Carnell

Book Overview

Building web applications that are maintainable and extensible requires a significant amount of design and planning before even a single line of code can be written. However, by leveraging development frameworks, many of the challenges of web-based development can be overcome. This book acts as a roadmap to demonstrate how to use the Jakarta Struts framework to solve everyday web application development challenges.

Jakarta Struts is a web...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 159059228X
• ISBN13: 9781590592281
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 578 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Doesn't stop where Struts 1.1 leaves off

Pro Jakarta Struts, Second Edition by John Carnell with Rob Harrop is the best book on developing Struts-based web applications I've read. (I've read at least five or six others.) The title of the book is a bit of a misnomer, as it covers much more than just Struts 1.1 fundamentals. This book aims higher, including chapters on web application Patterns and Antipatterns, XDoclet, Velocity and ObjectRelationalBridge, along with the good explanations of various Struts-specific topics. Pro Jakarta Struts, Second Edition is a pretty thick book at 578 pages. I didn't notice a single page wasted to printing some API. It isn't really a technical cookbook to be placed on a nearby shelf for quick reference during development to look up the basics of using some technology. Instead, the authors focused on good practices used when developing web applications, including explanations of why a technology should be used and how to use it, recurring problems that others have experienced (Antipatterns) and what to do instead (Patterns), and other pieces of advice designed to get the reader's brain thinking in web applications. If you're in the market for a book on Struts-based web applications, get this one. It covers Struts 1.1 well, but it doesn't stop where Struts leaves off.

Good explanations with relavent code examples

If you are the kind of person who needs all the basics and details before reading how to use them this book may not be for you. I like a book that has a quick intro on the basics and then gets to the real meat of things and this is that kind of book.This is one of the best programming type books I have read in quite some time. Many books show you so many light weight examples and never develop anything but the basics. This book uses the same web app throughout the book, adapting it as you go. The app has many pieces and you can get a good feel for all of the pieces of the Struts framework.Not only does he give good examples of how and why on implementing an app using Struts but he provides you with why not to do it other ways. He also provides a lot of advice on how not to integrate your app too tightly within the Struts framework making it flexable to use your code outside of a web app. I work maintenance on several web apps and know how hard it is to integrate new funcationality into an existing application that is poorly written. The anti-patterns describe the systems I work on all too well so to have explanations of how to remedy these situations is helpful.

Very high-quality content

This book is fantastic because every example and scenario is given from the an excellent context: Each tool or idea is presented as a way to achieve proper OO and system design. There are no stupid examples, which would never be a good base for real development.There are no laundry lists of classes' APIs, whether the method calls are relevant or not.The authors seem to understand that in the real world, knowing what the various methods of a framework do is only half the battle. Knowing how to use it is the other half.Even if you don't need the education in design patterns, they are the context for all the information, and so really tell a working developer what she / he needs to know.

great book if you are looking for best practices

This is my third Struts book and I like it the best. The main reason is that it focuses more on the best way to use Struts and not on the basics of what it is an how to use it. Of course, the fundimentals are covered well in a chapter near the beginning, but what I found much more helpful were the specific best practices outlined in later chapters. The authors go into detail on the best way to validate forms, manage business logic using J2EE patterns and EJBs, data access stategies (with almost a whole chapter devoted to O/R mapping).In addition, there are chapters on more advanced Struts development like Tiles, Dynamic Forms and using the Struts Validator framework, using XDoclet and using Velocity.Overall I found the book well written. There were the usual typos I find in all computer books, but not as many. Overall the code examples in the book were readable and clean. Bottom line, if you are a Struts developer and you are looking for a book that expands the way you think about your archetecture and design, this book is for you. Enjoy