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The experienced developer's guide to JavaServer Pages development!
* Database access, XML support, JavaBean integration, and much more
* Architecting JSP applications for maximum performance and maintainability
* Includes several complete sample JSP applications such as an authentication framework, an email tag library, and a Database-to-XML/XSL conversion tool Sun's JavaServer Pages technology gives developers a powerful cross-platform solution for dynamic Web application development without the drawbacks of previous approaches. In Core JSP, two leading enterprise developers show experienced developers exactly how to make the most of JSP technology?for database integration, XML applications, session tracking, and many other purposes. From coding fundamentals to effective JSP program design, you'll find it here?along with real-world sample code for HTML calendars, JNDI applications, LDAP-based authentication JavaBeansTM, database search forms, and more! * Make the most of scriptlets, expressions, declarations, actions and directives
* Get under the hood with Sun's JSP engine: multithreading, persistence, implicit objects, and more
* Understand JSP requests and responses?in depth
* Track sessions and data: hidden frames and form fields, cookies, URL rewriting, and the HttpSession API
* Integrate databases: JDBCTM, SQL, metadata, connection pooling, and more
* Creating custom JSP actions (custom tags)
* Optimize the performance of your JSP pages Every Core Series book:
* DEMONSTRATES how to write commercial quality code
* FEATURES dozens of nontrivial programs and examples?no toy code!
* FOCUSES on the features and functions most important to real developers
* PROVIDES objective, unbiased coverage of cutting-edge technologies?no hype! Core JSP delivers:
* Practical insights for transforming dynamic web pages into full-fledged web applications
* Hands-on coverage of integrating JSP and XML
* Expert JavaBean Action techniques for integrating JavaBean business logic with JSP presentation logic
* Extensive code examples?including several complete sample applications
User review
Leaves you wondering
The book has a lot of information about a lot of things but never nails down the subjects completely. For example, the book states you can do this, that and the next thing but never actually guides you through it.--> I guess you gotta spend [more money] to get that information. Another example is Chapter 11 on Custom tags. I read that chapter three times and still didn't get the point until I read some other literature on the subject. After that ordeal I felt as though my head had been used as a speed bag!
I also have found errors in the code and that should not be. Don't these authors have someone test the examples before they put out the code?
I wish the authors of computer books would just get to the point when they are trying to explain a subject(much the way Herbert Schildt does). I went through about 70% of the examples and found better ways to accomplish the same tasks on my own with less code. Learning programming is not difficult if the material is presented in an appropriate manner, however, this book will remain on my shelf and probably never be opened again.
My advice -> Try another one!
User review
Code errors!
I only just started this book and I am already frustrated. No instructions on how to get the software you need or how to use it. The versions on the CD-ROM are outdated meanwhile. But what is really bad, the first `useful` JSP script in chapter 2 is already so full of code errors that you cannot run it! It took me hours of debugging before I made it run - how are you supposed to be debugging the stuff you are supposed to learn from? I will try to read a bit further but probably have to get another book.
User review
Excellent book for JSP JDBC-to-Oracle developers
This is a good book under any circumstances, and if you develop with Oracle, it is even better, because there are many examples of JSP and Oracle JDBC, and while JSP/JDBC is intended to be database independant, it is easier to learn when the code is written for the database you use. There is a lot of useful information that will help you speed up your connections, pooled connections (which Oracle supports), and techniques for using synchronized statement to protect them. Synchronization is familiar to thread users, but well explained if you aren't familiar with the concept.
One thing the authors omit is setting autocommit off after making your JDBC connection. The idea of autocommit is to make JDBC `friendly` to certain non-Oracle databases, but if you understand transactions, you want to control when a commit occurs, and undo the entire transaction if you don't like it. To quote Tom Kyte, you never want to commit until you have to (slows database down) and you never want to commit part of a transaction. If your procedure should just update a single row, you can check the result before you commit. Setting all the banks accounts to zero may not be a transaction you will chose to commit. Checking a result is easier than explaining one. This is the kind of database specific information that perhaps authors writing for many platforms should ignore, but you may find it useful if you work with Oracle.
The authors show you how to use bind variables with prepared statements, and callable statements, but don't really go into the downside of not taking their advice; if you don't use bind variables, you will not have a scalable application. A lot of JSP examples (even in Oracle documention) do not bother with bind variables (example code is shorter if you don't) but `Core JSP` shows you code that is proper for scalable applications, and you can follow it (use the examples you find elsewhere as concepts, not as code to put in your applications).
This is a tiny portion of what this book will teach you, and if you are new to JSP and want to get a non-trivial application working, and scalable, this is a good place to start (also this is not an expensive book, which helps). This is all you need to get started, and see the value of JSP.
User review
Essential
The careful reader will observe _Core JSP's_ chapters and examples extend further into areas of in-the-trenches applicability more than any other book on the subject. It's sitting on every one of our programmers' shelves.
User review
Lacks some important information
At first this book seemed great, but now that I have had to work a lot with JSPs, I have seen some serious shortcomings. The TagExtraInfo class get's way too little coverage. The book doesn't even begin to explain how to actually use it in real work. That's a serious shortcoming.
