Rating: 
Summary: My Choice After Some Research
Review: I bought this book, after spending two hours comparing this with the other two popular titles, "Core Servlets and JSP" and "More Servlets and JSP". The three are supposed to be the best titles in the category.It was not an easy job. The three are well written and explain the concepts very clearly. I failed "Core Servlets" straight away, because it covers Servlets 2.2 and JSP 1.1 and not the more recent 2.3 and 1.2. "More Servlets" has a better cover than this book and it was published by Prentice Hall, a more prestigious publishing company than New Riders. However, looking into the table of contents more closely, I could point out that this book (Java for the Web), with 200 more pages, has much more meat. It beats "More Servlets" in almost all aspects, except that "More Servlets" covers JSTL beta. However, this book covers many more not found in "More Servlets", such as caching, file upload, document management, JavaScript, EJB, Application Design, etc. There is also some freebie software not found in "More Servlets". After reading half the book, I would say I'm very happy with it. Well done.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional!!!
Review: I can't believe there is one Java Web book that covers all plus more:
Servlets 2.3, JSP 1.2, EJB 2.0, JavaScript, and teaches you how to use
those technologies in real-world projects. There are so many things you
can't find in other servlet/JSP books. Here are my favorite chapters:
Chapter 4 gives you wide coverage of how to use JDBC in a Web application.
Chapter 5 is an excellent chapter on session management. Very thorough.
Chapters 6 and 7 discuss the new features of servlet 2.3: application and
session events and filters.
Chapter 12 is only 5 pages but it offers you the technique you don't find
in other Web programming books: how to send a file to the browser and make
the browser display the "Save As" dialog.
Chapter 13 explains how to upload files in depth. This is definitely not
covered in most servlet/JSP books.
Chapter 15 teaches you how to cache your data to greatly improve
performance.
Chapter 17 teaches you how to design your application.
Chapter 27 is full of tips on how to control applets using JavaScript. Also, the bonus software in the CD is invaluable:
- The file upload bean enables you to upload files effortlessly, you just
need to copy the .jar file into the lib directory under your application's
WEB-INF directory. According to the back cover and the author section,
this bean is licensed by Fortune 500 company Commerce One and the code is
used in the example code of IBM's WebSphere J2EE server documentation!
- The file download makes sending files to the browser error-free. There are 3 ready-to-use projects:
- E-commerce site based on the Model 2 architecture. This is a perfect
example of how to implement the recommended Model 2 architecture.
- XML-based e-book. Very unique, you can use this to create your own
online documentation and more importantly it's browser-independent.
- Document management, this is my favorite. I am impressed by the
navigation tree that really looks like Windows Explorer. I did not know
that it is possible to do so with JavaScript. It enables you to give
permission to certain people to access certain files. The EJB section of this book is not the most complete, but surprisingly it
is easy to understand.
One thing that this book does not have is the discussion of the Jakarta
Struts project. But, overall I am very happy and wish this book had come
out much earlier. O, btw, another thing that makes this book different is one section in the
introduction. It talks about the battle between J2EE vs Microsoft .NET.
Very interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Best servlet/JSP book, I'll buy anything the author writes
Review: I chose this book because it was the No.1 best-selling JSP book at amazon and I was not disappointed. In fact, this is one of the best programming books I've read. This book explains every concept from beginning to end. It tells you everything, and I guess not many books explain how a JSP page is translated into a servlet. The author is really a great teacher. You'll be amazed on how clear he explains things. Examples work straight away and easy to run. When I brought this book to work, the servlet/JSP experts say this book also covers techniques not even mentioned by other books, such as file upload and download, document management.
For me, this is really "THE" book.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Walkthrough - New to J2EE, but need to know Java
Review: I found this book to be a wonderful resource and walked through the book from cover to cover. I had previously been focused on fat-client Swing development and so had very little J2EE experience. This book did a wonderful job of bringing me up to speed on the latest J2EE spec implementations (Servlets 2.3, JSP 1.2 and EJB 2.0). I am following this up with some Struts specific JSP resources and found that this book prepared me well for making that leap. Well done, New Riders! Keep the solid Java development texts coming!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Walkthrough - New to J2EE, but need to know Java
Review: I found this book to be a wonderful resource and walked through the book from cover to cover. I had previously been focused on fat-client Swing development and so had very little J2EE experience. This book did a wonderful job of bringing me up to speed on the latest J2EE spec implementations (Servlets 2.3, JSP 1.2 and EJB 2.0). I am following this up with some Struts specific JSP resources and found that this book prepared me well for making that leap. Well done, New Riders! Keep the solid Java development texts coming!
Rating:
Summary: Good, but lacking
Review: I found this book to be well written and the information contained in it is useful and accurate. However, this is lacking in some critical areas. I did find this to be a good supplement to two other good books. These are J2EE, The Complete Reference and Building Web Services with Java: Making Sense of XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI by Graham. The three of these are probably all you need if you want to develop web services based Java applications.
Rating:
Summary: The Print Edition is Worth Every Cent
Review: I had read this book from cover to cover at the O'Reilly Safari online library before deciding to buy the print edition. It is the most solid servlet/JSP book around with plenty exmples. YOu won't beleive how smoothly the author moves from one topic to another. No wonder this title is among the Top 5 (most subscribed to) book at Safari.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: I hate writing but I have to give this book my appraisal! - Easy reading
- Good recommendations and techniques
- Practical examples and easy to follow. Awesome! can't wait for the next editon.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive and accessible
Review: I received this book in the mail last week...First impressions: very comprehensive and accessible. A huge amount of content here. A success for New Riders.
Rating:
Summary: A technical book unlike all others
Review: I started reading Mr. Kurniawan's book while waiting for my
car at a repair shop.
Wow, I actually "enjoyed" reading it. I can't really remember when was the last time I found reading a technical book fun.
Thanks to his literary style and succinct yet friendly presentation, my wait
at the repair shop was not boring, but rewarding.
I look forward to his next book.
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