The Open Source Zone

I needed a book on struts as I was beginning a new position. With limited time, I had to rely on the local book store. Not a good idea since this book was the only available book. I should have ordered online and waited.

The lack of detail is truly amazing. Use this tool, but don't describe the steps needed to compile the java created by the tool. Use this tool to create the JSP, but what if you don't have that tool and are limited to the tools you can use?

Since the tool generated code is required before compiling the included source code - that is a glaring omission. While the use of ant may be expected of many java programmers - setting up ant to complete the examples is not, especially given the complexity of the resulting xml file.

Disappointed would be a polite way of describing my reaction

Completely useless as a reference book. Very disorganized. OK as a basic introduction - then you can basically throw it away - or sell for 92c which is the going price for a used copy and it's no wonder.

I've been needing to learn Struts for a project at work and picked this up at the local used bookstore after thumbing through it. I took it home and started working through the demo application in Chapter 3, Hello World.

Of course they don't give you any information on how to install it or set it up for Tomcat. There's a companion CDROM that has all the source on it, but it is also poorly documented. I can't figure it out.

I went to the web site for the book and it's horribly out of date. There's a link to a new version of the HelloWorld application, but the link now points to a squatter's domain.

I'm sorry I spent any money on this book, but I guess I should be glad that I didn't pay full price for a brand new copy.

Problems started from chapter 6, beginning was simple, easy, as beginning of any other JSP book. Author decided to make a nice example of struts application, the "stock tracker" application. I was so happy to see a good example, since other books lack complex examples. This example was realistic every-day type of applications we see on the web (banking or paying bills, rental). It also deals with retrieving XML data from the disk, and I find this also an often case in the real world applications. So the example had all chances to be good, and therefore book seemed to be oriented to people who really want to do some progress in JSP (and struts) development and to do some serious applications, not hello world in 21 ways ("hello from jsp", "hello from DB", "hello from servlet", "hello from preprocessor", "hello form plug-in"). So his example was promising to provide some logic, state machines, db access and synchronization, that "hello in 21 ways" approach lacks.

Also some use cases were mentioned and at that moment the book had all chances to be really serious one. Real life example, use cases, db, xml, regular expressions. In only he touched xalan and xerces it would be state of art idea for the book. Wow!

However, all fails down, since author just mentions these technologies, but never goes down to the details, possible problems, drawbacks and finally leaving you on your own to learn them.

Use cases without UML diagrams. He does not mention any other UML diagram. If the decided to go into use cases, the he should have done it as it is done in real life, use a tool to draw them and go thru activity diagram, state diagram, class diagrams, component and deployment diagram, etc. I got impression like he tells a reader: "Hey, there is something called Use cases, learn them alone".

Again, he needed a db backend, he used MySQL and provides SQL schema which is good enough to copy paste to my SQL command editor and to get tables ready. To access db from servlets he used Torque tool to generate java source code for accessing/updating records for tables he designed. But again same mistake follows - doesn't go any further than saying "It's worth taking a moment to see how Torque works" - and that's all he says about Torque! Ant is needed to run Torque. No even a sentence about how to launch Ant on Torque to generate java code for your own tables of your own application, which I believe, it is to expect from a reader to do. Well, perhaps he thought you will use provided java source on the CD and not build your own code. But what if a reader wants to do his table?

So now I got nothing out of that nice example. After several days trying to rearrange sources and put them into a project for JBuilder, WebSphere, Eclipse, somehow I got that code compiling and working, and then run into various problems regarding exceptions about locating property files, unable to connect Torque classes to MySQL, etc. I think that author should have provided several project files for several tools to help a reader to launch and start any of the provided examples, or at least, to provide Ant build files for some free application server.

Finally, the general problem in the book is that author does not go into the depths of any technology that he uses, leaving a reader in troubleshooting alone. He has no serious attitude nor is willing to take a reader by hand and show him/here nuts and bolts, problems and highlights of Struts. Everything is kept on an introduction and shallow level. Book was meant to impress with its example, which is left in "wireframes", unknown UML term for me. My favourite sentence from the book: "The Action can be very simple or very complicated."

I give 2 stars because I liked the example. For someone of my experience (6 years in java) I would recommend some cookbook rather than this one, my greetings goes to Struts books: Struts Survival Guide, Struts in Action, Professional Jakarta Struts, in exact order. There are nice tutorials by Borland and IBM about struts and JSPs.

When I am writing this review, the price of a used copy starts from 56 cents. You can imagine what quality you can expect from a book whose owner is so eagerly willing to part with it.

I did read this book and here is what I have to say. In short, do not buy this book or even read it. It's a waste of time.

I can't believe Craig McClanahan recommended this book. How much did Sams pay him to say that?