J2EE: The complete Reference

Rating:
Summary: Waste of money
Review: After reading all the reviews about this book i decided to buy it from amazon. Next time i will read more about bad comments than good ones.

The most i hate about books is "quick reference guides".
I'd like to have back 30% of money back since 30% of this book is just cut&paste from javaDoc.

The book is too approximately on most the subjects, expecting reading 7 pages of introducion to a subject and than 4-7 pages of java API!!

IMOH,
this is not the "complete" reference.

Rating:
Summary: Complete Reference? Sort of...
Review: Based on the title of this book, you would think it would have some real content. After reading the first part of this book, I was deeply disappointed. I think this book is great for project managers who want to learn the development side of the J2EE technology. But for developers/engineers, it is a complete waste of time. Although the author does touch on every subject associated with J2EE he fails to connect all the dots. Explaining Java servlets and JSP, as one example, was a good start but there is nothing about how they work with each other. There arent very many examples either, but the ones that do exist, get right to the point and explain the subject matter appropriately. Too bad that isnt enough to make it more than a 2 star book. Glad I didnt pay full price for it (bought a used copy for $6 - barely makes it worth it).

Rating:
Summary: Shameful
Review: Borrowed this from a colleague more out of interest to see if it measures up at all, but I am afraid the 1 star reviews are on the spot. No need to explain why, the previous reviewers explain why. Shame on the author and publisher for the fake 5 star reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this book / Suspicious customer reviews
Review: Don't even think of buying this book! It is positively one of the worst technical books ever produced. I primarily bought this book because of the seemingly excellent reviews. However, take a closer look at some of these positive reviews - you can see that many of them are similar in style, tone, content, and length. Moreover, many of them were submitted on the same day! This is absolutely despicable behavior by the publisher/author/party - those interested in selling more copies of this book. I've reported these customer reviews to Amazon - hopefully, they will take action against those involved and at least remove those reviews. I've learned my lesson - I'll examine the reviews more closely next time. [...]

In terms of the book, the writing style is actually decent. However, the severe deficiencies of the book come from its lack of depth and inappropriate focus on SQL, XML, and the like. There was only a single chapter on EJBs and very little on servlets/JSPs. There was absolutely no depth on those two topics.

Don't waste your money - if you want to learn about EJBs, buy "Head First EJB." If you want to learn about the rest of J2EE, I would suggest you buy something else...

Rating:
Summary: ABSOUTLEY THE FINEST J2EE WEB SERVICES BOOK EVER!
Review: I am writing this book after reading couple hundred pages and I am impressed. It assumes that you know Java, then teaches from J2EE and Web services from ground up which is highly beneficial to Java programmers who are new to developing J2EE web services based application. If you're a Java developer who wants to get a handle on J2EE Web services then get this book. Don't start a J2EE Web services project without this book!

Rating:
Summary: This is the J2EE Web Services book to own
Review: I got this book because I wanted the ultimate reference on J2EE Web Services. I wasn't disappointed. This is the best book out there. There's no fluff in this book and the author seems intent on delivering the goods as rapidly and as thoroughly as possible. Keogh's relaxed style of writing and his exhaustive coverage of subjects usually absent from other books.

Rating:
Summary: One of the worst tech books I have seen
Review: I have purchased this book after reading the excelent Java 2: The Complete Reference, by Herbert Schildt.

This book has lots of chapters covering many subjects but none of them goes deep enough to let you really learn what that thing means.

There are chapters about HTML, XML and SQL that I really think that are not needed in that kind of book and the chapters about JSP and EJB are so small and poor in content that I had to go through the J2EE 1.4 tutorial provided by Sun to get the point on these techs.

The most part of the book is waste on tables listing methods of classes, but it's just that: The author gives a table with a list of methods and a small sentence stating what it does. No code sample, no usage... If I was searching for list of classes and methods, the Sun documentation available online is more than good.

I have not yet seen a really good J2EE book, even because I haven't read so many, but the Sun's tutorial looks very good.

Rating:
Summary: Avoid this book
Review: I have read hundreds of technical computer books and I own many of them, so I can judge very well if a book is worthwhile. "J2EE: The Complete Reference" by Jim Keogh is the "WORST" book I have ever read. There are errors in almost every illustration and example. I expect one or two typos, but this is beyond belief. It was a total waste of my time to read and money to buy. Avoid this book and do not waste your time and money.

Rating:
Summary: Don't quite understand why others rate it so high
Review: I recently bought this book after seeing 16 5-star reviews here on Amazon.com I don't find this book particularly useful. It covers a lot of topics, but none of them well. For example, EJBs are covered briefly. It does not mention any EJB patterns, any pitfalls in the EJB design. Even basics are not covered that well. Basically, this book is probably a good thing if you want to prepare for the job interview or want to quickly brush up on some basic J2EE concepts. It's is not a good book to really learn J2EE architecture and implementation details.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent - Keogh at his best
Review: I recommend this book to anyone contemplating developing web service applications using J2EE. Keogh writes clearly and explicitly, addressing concepts of J2EE, concepts of webs services and how to Blend the two to create real work, industrial strength web services application written in J2EE. Keogh also highlights potential problems and pitfalls along the way. Absolutely a mandatory book for every member of J2EE development team especially for those teams who plan to use J2EE to build a web services application.