XML and Java from Scratch
March 22, 2010 by BPELworld.com
Product Description
With the help of XML and Java from scratch, you will build a Web site and application for ChaseWeb Furniture-a fictitious catalog furniture company. All of the information on products, prices, vendors, and so on, is rendered in XML. You’ll learn how to display products on the company Web site, take orders, produce a paper catalog, and communicate with the external databases of vendors using XML. The from scratch format is designed to teach novice programmers the hows and whys of programming in the context of creating a functioning application.
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I haven’t finished the book yet but found it confusing. The examples are not completed, the reader doesn’t have an example of the completed exersize. The author assumes the reader is using apache and tomcat servers. I don’t know anyone using them, most developers I know use windows 2000 or NT, running IIS. JDOM is still beta and there’s a whole chapter dedecated to JDOM, where it could have been spent on explaining SAX and DOM in further detail by applying useful simple examples. Overall I’m not impressed with the book. Better to read it at the book store and look for something better to purchase. Look for a text that uses IIS and not tomcat and apache, unless you are running those servers. This is not a beginners book, also purchase a JAVA/JSP text.
Rating: 2 / 5
This book is an excellent introduction of XML, as well as XSLT, XSLFO, in conjunction working with Java and SOAP. It clearly explains the fundamental concepts one needs to build a strong foundation. In learning a developer can see how XSL could replace JSP. This will definitely be an interesting battle to watch.
Rating: 4 / 5
This book tries to cover so many things at once –XML, Java, DB concepts, tools, Servlets, — that it ends up teaching technically nothing. About half the contents of the book are XML non-related stuff.
The author tries to cover such a programming language like Java in 470 pages of so many things, that he even does some bad practice! For example, he starts teaching a way of reading the contents of a file in Java, and two pages after the example he explain the Exceptions issue. If you’re a Java newbie, you’ll be on a big trouble unless you read the whole chapter before typing anything. The author even tries to explain the relational database concept by ilustrating it with an Excel sheet!
I must confess that this book covers just the basics, since it wastes too much time in things it can’t cover. This book would be better if it talks about XML only, and leaves Java and other subjects to the pros.
If you want to “get serious” (like the author says), then buy a book that goes deep into this matter, a book that doesn’t talk about everything just to mention a bit of each.
Rating: 1 / 5
If you are a “from scratch” reader, then choose another book, because this one tries to teach you too many things in a few words (XML, XSL, Xwhateverelseyouwant, DTDs, Java and OOP basics, JSP, JDBC, even some SQL, Server side programming, etc…). Otherwise, if you already know Java and JSP, this book could be helpful to you in understanding what XML is, but you’ll find it spends lots of words in explaining useless things about Java that you already know, and it doesn’t give any reply to the question: “How XML and XSL can be used to separate content from presentation?”. The author uses XSLT mainly to dynamically build different XHTML pages (with different contents, but the same presentation) starting from a single XML file and a number of XSL files. From the developer point of view, what is needed is just the opposite: the developer writes a program that outputs a number of XML files, the designer builds a single XSL file and the server mixes up the files and produces the XHTML output. The fact that XSL is (nearly) powerful enough to substitute a programming language is not a good reason to use it for that!
Rating: 1 / 5
This book trying to cover everything among three-tier design within 470 pages, which is impossible. In order to understand this book, I need to read other books, like “Javaservlet” and “Beginning XML”. But after I finish those reading, this book is not necessary anymore, so why wast time on this book? Some of the programs in this book are not executable and even worse…..some figures (screen shot) are misplaced.
My opinion of this book is “terrible”!
Rating: 1 / 5