Rating: 
Summary: THIS is the JSP/Servlet book you are looking to buy.
Review: I searched at a great many titles including a couple of duds before I finally settled on Marty Hall's book. Perhaps it was the "More" part that made me wonder if I would be missing something....like this was part two. As it turns out, that could not have been further from the truth and IMHO, although the titles is correct, it is a bit of a misnomer due to that misperception. This really is the book you've been looking for if you want to learn JSP/Servlet programming, particularly with Tomcat (or ServletExec). Marty takes you through a full tour of JSP in case you are a beginner as I was, but he also ensures he tells you about many features of the spec/language to a level of completeness that far exceeds many other titles I looked at. He also explains how to get up and running with several servers (but especially with Tomcat) in a way that REALLY gets you up and running...almost every book had a Tomcat section, but this one really does describe usability approaches for your workflow. That, alone, is worth the price of the book, not to mention the many great other things you will learn along the way. Furthermore, Marty is very approachable. I have e-mailed him on several occasions...one turned out to be an issue I misunderstood and another turned out to be an apparent change to the Tomcat default specs. But he typically responded to me within a matter of hours and got me up and running again on those few occasions where I became "stuck" (sure, I could have skipped the spot, but then I wouldn't UNDERSTAND it...he made sure I did understand it and replied with the WHY in each case). You may still be wondering about that "more" part...on his website for the book, he makes the full older book available as a PDF...on occasion, he refers to it in the newer book for areas that can optionally go into further detail. This avoids repeatedness, but also gives you access to yet another excellent resource even if it is only partially out-of-date. More Servlets, by contrast, is up-to-date as of the latest specifications (2.3/1.2) that have officially been released. Furthermore, he takes great care in pointing out items that are specific to the latest specification...he also points out items that are specific to certain browsers in those applicable instances. This is definitely a book that teaches you JSP/Servlets, but it also teaches you approaches, workflow, and much much more. There is a prerequisite that you need to know Java, and I readily agree with that statement...you do need to know Java (and for that, I strongly recommend HeadFirst Java by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates!!), but given even basic Java knowledge, you can be off and running with this book and I can tell you it is very difficult to put down once you've picked it up. Ross Goldberg
Rating: 
Summary: Code doesn't work
Review: I think the first chapter is very good and well written, but starting Chapter 2 the author seemed to relax a bit. There are errors here and there and I couldn't run the first example in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 and 4 are even worse. I tried to contact the author but he didn't reply. It would be wonderful if the author re-checked the code before publication. Overall, this is good reading, it's just that sometimes it's frustating not being able to test the examples.
Rating:
Summary: Very good book
Review: I truly find more servlets very useful, full of illustrative examples and hands on experience, it also includes a lot of core notes about best practices and core web approaches.
Rating: 
Summary: There are better online tutorials
Review: I'll keep this review short and sweet. If your a beginner looking for a book that will explain the fundamental requirements of developing and running Servlets, look elsewhere. The book's examples do not work and Mr. Hall does not go into detail about configuration issues, nor does he give the reader warning that the examples will not work unless the server is configured correctly. My advice is to the beginner is to read server documentation thoroughly, follow a few online tutorials, and then look elsewhere for some example code to learn from.
Rating:
Summary: A good topic, an excellent author
Review: I've been using the Marty Hall's saga (Core Web Programming, Core Servlets, More Servlets), for almost three years now, and I can recommend him as one of the best technical authors. His treatment of Servlets and JSP is great, and I can only wait for his Struts book! His examples are clear, concise and useful. Not the typical "Hello World", but real oriented-to-learning examples.
Rating:
Summary: A pleasant & quick read - easy reference as well
Review: I've just ordered my copy of the book. Although I've not read it yet, I just wanted to provide some comments. I own several of Marty Hall's books - including the first version of coreservlets. All of the books I've read we're real up-to-date and always very easy to read & understand. Every chapter comes with plenty of easy to follow examples that you can get off the book's website and install in your application server in minutes. Have you ever had a question where you went through the JSR and other docs and examples off of javasoft's site, and still didn't get a good explanation of your question? I've found numerous times when Marty's books had the answer to my question - easy to understand and to the point - none of the stuff like refer to RFC #12348 which itself says refer to another RFC, etc.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Servlet & JSP Book
Review: I've read about a dozen servlet & JSP books, and I think this is the best one for readers with some prior experience in servlets & JSP. It is also an excellent book for people who are new to servlets & JSP, but I'll clarify that at the end of my review. The book is definitely worth 5 starts. The first star is for Marty Hall's clear and direct writing style. The second star is for being one of the few books that is currently up to date with the newest servlet & JSP specifications. The third star is for having very practical and useful content such as solid coverage of web application deployment. The fourth star is for being the first book that I've read that has detailed coverage of how to use SSL with servlets. The fifth star is for having source code, sample chapters, and a slew of prequel chapters freely available online.
If you read and enjoyed Mr. Hall's "Core Servlets & JSP", this book is well worth buying also. Be aware, the first 240 pages is an introduction which is essentially a reduced and updated form of the "Core" book. But the other 450 pages is all new and extremely good content. Even without the first 240 pages, the other 450 pages is worth the purchase price alone.
If you are brand new to Servlet & JSPs you may want to first buy "Core Servlets & JSPs" for a slower introduction to these topics. But, make sure you come back and buy this book because you will definitely want some of the updated and advanced topics such as "web applications." Alternatively, you can go ahead and buy this book and read some of the prequel chapters that Mr. Hall has online.
I haven't been fortunate enough to attend one myself, but I've also heard wonderful things about the onsite and public training servlet & JSP training classes that Mr. Hall offers.
In short, it's a great book. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Servlet & JSP Book
Review: I've read about a dozen servlet & JSP books, and I think this is the best one for readers with some prior experience in servlets & JSP. It is also an excellent book for people who are new to servlets & JSP, but I'll clarify that at the end of my review. The book is definitely worth 5 starts. The first star is for Marty Hall's clear and direct writing style. The second star is for being one of the few books that is currently up to date with the newest servlet & JSP specifications. The third star is for having very practical and useful content such as solid coverage of web application deployment. The fourth star is for being the first book that I've read that has detailed coverage of how to use SSL with servlets. The fifth star is for having source code, sample chapters, and a slew of prequel chapters freely available online.
If you read and enjoyed Mr. Hall's "Core Servlets & JSP", this book is well worth buying also. Be aware, the first 240 pages is an introduction which is essentially a reduced and updated form of the "Core" book. But the other 450 pages is all new and extremely good content. Even without the first 240 pages, the other 450 pages is worth the purchase price alone.
If you are brand new to Servlet & JSPs you may want to first buy "Core Servlets & JSPs" for a slower introduction to these topics. But, make sure you come back and buy this book because you will definitely want some of the updated and advanced topics such as "web applications." Alternatively, you can go ahead and buy this book and read some of the prequel chapters that Mr. Hall has online.
I haven't been fortunate enough to attend one myself, but I've also heard wonderful things about the onsite and public training servlet & JSP training classes that Mr. Hall offers.
In short, it's a great book. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: The one stop reference to Servlets/JSP's anything!
Review: I, as a book junkie, read lots of tech books (and I mean LOTS!). At some point you get used to the fact that not everyone should have 'the skills' (not even considering geniality) to basically write one letter/word after the other. Some books bring back to you the love for reading (sorry I can't help not getting emotional) This is one of them! I even liked Marty's sense of humor, even though I hate courtesy jokes in tech books (the greatest one being including the API in printed form (they should be sued not only for abusing nature/the rain forest, but also people's basic understanding)) Also, Marty, count on another believer in Step-by-step instructions! Sometimes we programmers waste more time in configuration issues than actually doing programming work. As I read this book from cover to cover in three days I was looking for perfection. Here is what I found to be lacking. Again, this is a wish list! 1._ No coverage (not even mention) of Jetty the fastest open source Servelts 2.3 JSP's 1.2 compliant...
I have tested a number of Webservers and Jetty is by far the fastest/leanest. 2._ a comparison of using JBDC with/(out) connection pooling, then using the new events framework to handle connections and using EJB's. Also, connecting to legacy systems like CORBA ones (not every thing is Java out there!) 3._ more about J2EE for example Web servers have a good security API as J2EE App. servers do, but how to intelligently combine/hook both security capabilities. Some of the Web servers and Application servers functionalities overlap 4._ importance of using Writer's and byte[] arrays to speed up servlets (HTTP only understand ASCII anyway) as explained in: The Developer's Guide to the Java Web Server 020137949X 5._ whenever possible servlets filters should be used to ALWAYS set the content length of JSP's even though it is a client broswers thing. Browsers bless you when you do so regardless of the protocol, especially while using wireless devices. 6._ He could have at least touch on how to use Apache, the open source poster child, with Tomcat using mod_webapp. Apache guys do a very bad job caring/documenting about connectors. Well maybe I am getting to demanding and I just wish he could write all kinds of Java books. Marty Hall for president!!! ;-) The only thing that I would not agree with Marty...is about his opinion on benchmarks Pg. 477, but I know hwat he means, and I come from a hard sciences back ground. Marty, when is your next book coming?
Rating:
Summary: a must have
Review: If you're new to JSP/servlet and you need to get your project started then you must buy a good book and this one is a good book. This is one of the few books that I have read front to back. An excellent book that will teach you most of what you need to know to become an advanced jsp/servlet developer. Tells you prefered ways of doing things and additional ways. Describes Servlet AND JSP AND the interaction of the two. The sections on deployment are worth the money by themselves (ch 5 and 4). I was able to happily throw away about three inches thick of documents that I printed off the web. A few things I'd have like to have seen: more thorough discussion of integrating Apache and Tomcat using proxies, or whatever technique. I found a couple of references to non-existant sections ("See Section 5.15"). I don't understand why tag libraries were put right in the middle of the "Sharing Beans" section. I would also like to have seen a discussion of how EJB fits into the picture.
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