Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages, Vol. 1: Core Technologies, Second Edition
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In the Java universe, the interface layer of the ubiquitous model-view-controller (MVC) software design paradigm is handled by either servlets of JavaServer Pages (JSP). The second edition of Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages, like its predecessor, documents these handy technologies fully and practically. Far more than a straight API reference, this book presents examples--complete with code and a listing or screen shot showing results--wherever possible. It's a fantastic strategy for communicating to programmers what they need to do in order to achieve the effects and behaviors they desire. What's new in the second edition? Lots, in terms of its eponymous software development environments: The book covers servlets 2.4 and JSP 2.0. The examples are more refined, too, and more attention is paid to supporting technologies like Web and database servers.
The didactic approach of authors Marty Hall and Larry Brown is recipe-like. They typically begin with a statement of a problem to be solved, then discuss relevant aspects of the servlet or JSP API. A series of code listings follows, and screen shots showing results bring up the rear. The net effect is that it's easy to spot relevant sections in the table of contents, it's clear how implementation works (thanks to the extensive listings) and there's no doubt about what the results are supposed to be. More elaborate examples show how servlets and JSP work in shopping cart, auction, and other applications. This is a significant and worthwhile update to an important Java book. --David Wall
Topics covered: Java servlets 2.4, JavaServer Pages (JSP) 2.0 (including the new expression language), HTML forms, JDBC database connectivity, and the details of how servlets and JSP are implemented in Apache Tomcat, Caucho Resin, and Macromedia JRun.
Book Description
Suppose your company wants to sell products online. You have a database that gives the price and inventory status of each item. But, your database doesn't speak HTTP, the protocol that Web browsers use. Nor does it output HTML, the format Web browsers need. What can you do? Once users know what they want to buy, how do you gather that information? You want to customize your site for visitors' preferences and interests--how? You want to keep track of user's purchases as they shop at your site--what techniques are required to implement this behavior? When your Web site becomes popular, you might want to compress pages to reduce bandwidth. How can you do this without causing your site to fail for the 30% of visitors whose browsers don't support compression? In all these cases, you need a program to act as the intermediary between the browser and some server-side resource. This book is about using the Java platform for this type of program. "Wait a second," you say. "Didn't you already write a book about that?" Well, yes. In May of 2000, Sun Microsystems Press and Prentice Hall released Marty's second book, Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages. It was successful beyond everyone's wildest expectations, selling approximately 100,000 copies, getting translated into Bulgarian, Chinese simplified script, Chinese traditional script, Czech, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, and Spanish, and being chosen by Amazon.com as one of the top five computer programming books of 2001. Even better, Marty was swamped with requests for what he really likes doing: teaching training courses for developers in industry. Despite having to decline most of the requests, he was still able to teach servlet and JSP short courses in Australia, Canada, Japan, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and at dozens of U.S. venues. What fun! Since then, use of servlets and JSP has continued to grow at a phenomenal rate. The Java 2 Platform has become the technology of choice for developing e-commerce applications, dynamic Web sites, and Web-enabled applications and service. Servlets and JSP continue to be the foundation of this platform--they provide the link between Web clients and server-side applications. Virtually all major Web servers for Windows, Unix (including Linux), MacOS, VMS, and mainframe operating systems now support servlet and JSP technology either natively or by means of a plugin. With only a small amount of configuration, you can run servlets and JSP in Microsoft IIS, the Apache Web Server, IBM WebSphere, BEA WebLogic, Oracle9i AS, and dozens of other servers. Performance of both commercial and open-source servlet and JSP engines has improved significantly. However, the field continues to evolve rapidly. For example: The official servlet and JSP reference implementation is no longer developed by Sun. Instead, it is Apache Tomcat, an open-source product developed by a team from many different organizations. So, we provide great detail on Tomcat configuration and usage. Except for Tomcat, the servers popular when the book was first released are no longer widely used. So, we cover Macromedia JRun and Caucho Resin instead. Version 2.4 of the servlet specification was released in late 2003. Many APIs have been added or have changed. So, we have upgraded the book to be consistent with these APIs. Version 2.0 of the JSP specification was released (also late 2003). This version lets you use a shorthand expression language to access bean properties and collection elements. So, we cover both "classic" scripting and use of the JSP 2.0 expression language. Two new versions of JDBC have been released, providing many useful new features. So, we explain database access in the context of these new features. MySQL has emerged as a popular free database. So, we explain how to download, configure, and use MySQL (we also cover Oracle9i and Microsoft Access, of course). Whew. Lots of action in the server-side Java community. Yup; and to reflect this fact, the book has been completely and totally rewritten from top to bottom. Many new capabilities are now covered. Experienced developer Larry Brown was brought in to add his expertise, especially in database applications. Many hard-learned lessons are explained in detail. Many techniques are now approached differently. The new version provides a thorough and up-to-date introduction to servlet and JSP programming. We hope you find it useful. Who Should Read This Book This book is aimed at two main groups. The primary audience is developers who are familiar with the basics of the Java programming language itself but have little or no experience with server-side applications. For you, virtually the entire book should be valuable; with the possible exception of the JSP 2.0 expression language (which is not applicable if you are using a server that is compliant only with JSP 1.2), you are likely to use capabilities from almost every chapter in almost every real-world application. The second group is composed of people who are familiar with basic servlet and JSP development and want to learn how to make use of the new capabilities we just described. If you are in this category, you can skim many of the chapters, focusing on the capabilities that are new in servlets 2.4, JSP 2.0, or JDBC 3.0. Although this book is well suited for both experienced servlet and JSP programmers and newcomers to the technology, it assumes that you are familiar with basic Java programming. You don't have to be an expert Java developer, but if you know nothing about the Java programming language, this is not the place to start. After all, servlet and JSP technology is an application of the Java programming language. If you don't know the language, you can't apply it. So, if you know nothing about basic Java development, start with a good introductory book like Thinking in Java, Core Java, or Core Web Programming. Come back here after you are comfortable with at least the basics. Volume 2 This first volume of the book focuses on core technologies: the servlet and JSP capabilities that you are likely to use in almost every real-life project. The second volume focuses on advanced capabilities: features that you use less frequently but that are extremely valuable in complex applications. These topics include servlet and JSP filters, declarative and programmatic Web application security, custom tag libraries, the JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL), Apache Struts, JavaServer Faces (JSF), Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB), database connection pooling, advanced JDBC features, and use of Ant for deployment. For information on the release date of Volume 2, please see the book's Web site at http://www.coreservlets.com/ . Distinctive Features This book has five important characteristics that set it apart from many other similar-sounding books: Integrated coverage of servlets and JSP. The two technologies are closely related; you should learn and use them together. Real code. Complete, working, documented programs are essential to learning; we provide lots of them. Step-by-step instructions. Complex tasks are broken down into simple steps that are illustrated with real examples. Server configuration and usage details. We supply lots of concrete examples to get you going quickly. Design strategies. We give lots of experience-based tips on best approaches and practices. Integrated Coverage of Servlets and JSP One of the key philosophies behind Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages is that servlets and JSP should be learned (and used!) together, not separately. After all, they aren't two entirely distinct technologies: JSP is just a different way of writing servlets. If you don't know servlet programming, you can't use servlets when they are a better choice than JSP, you can't use the MVC architecture to integrate servlets and JSP, you can't understand complex JSP constructs, and you can't understand how JSP scripting elements work (since they are really just servlet code). If you don't understand JSP development, you can't use JSP when it is a better option than servlet technology, you can't use the MVC architecture, and you are stuck using print statements even for pages that consist almost entirely of static HTML. Servlets and JSP go together! Learn them together! Real Code Sure, small code snippets are useful for introducing concepts. The book has lots of them. But, for you to really understand how to use various techniques, you also need to see the techniques in the context of complete working programs. Not huge programs: just ones that have no missing pieces and thus really run. We provide plenty of such programs, all of them documented and available for unrestricted use at http://www.coreservlets.com . Step-by-Step Instructions When Marty was a Computer Science graduate student (long before Java existed), he had an Algorithms professor who stated in class that he was a believer in step-by-step instructions. Marty was puzzled: wasn't everyone? Not at all. Sure, most instructors explained simple tasks that way, but this professor took even highly theoretical concepts and said "first you do this, then you do that," and so on. The other instructors didn't explain things this way; neither did his textbooks. But, it helped Marty enormously. If such an approach works even for theoretical subjects, how much more should it work with applied tasks like those described in this book? Server Configuration and Usage Details When Marty first tried to learn server-side programming, he grabbed a couple of books, the official specifications, and some online papers. Almost without fail, they said something like "since this technology is portable, you need to read your server's documentation to know how to execute servlets or JSP pages." Aargh! He couldn't even get started. After hunting around, he downloaded a server. He wrote some code. How did he compile it? Where did he put it after it was compiled? How did he invoke it? How about some help here? Servlet and JSP code is portable. The APIs are standardized. But, server structure and organization are not standardized. ...
Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages, Vol. 1: Core Technologies, Second Edition
Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages, Vol. 1: Core Technologies, Second Edition,Marty Hall,Larry Brown,Prentice Hall PTR,0130092290,Computer Bks - Languages / Programming,Computer Books: General,Computers,Internet - Web Site Design,Internet - World Wide Web,Java (Computer program languag,Java (Computer program language),JavaServer pages,Programming Languages - Java,Servlets,Web servers,Computers / Programming Languages / Java
Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages, Vol. 1: Core Technologies, Second Edition
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