Rating: 
Summary: good introduction book to start with struts
Review: If you are new to struts, or even Java servlet and JSP, this is a good book to begin with. The author has done a great job to explain the whole thing step by step. Chapters are well divided and each one is very precise. However, there are some sample codes are missing. Also the example only works for struts 1.1.I changed my rating on this book now because after I actually used struts, the information provided by this book is not enough and for sure you won't "master" struts.
Rating: 
Summary: wonderful book to start with struts
Review: If you are new to struts, or even Java servlet and JSP, this is a great book to begin with. The author has done a great job to explain the whole thing step by step. Chapters are well divided and each one is very precise. My only regret is I didn't get this kind of book much earlier when I start to build jsp apps one year ago.
Rating:
Summary: Good starter book
Review: If your new to struts then you may find this book helpful. Particularly when it comes to configuring the Struts framework for use. The book touches upon everything you will need to get started in Struts, configuration, Actions, ActionForms, etc.. but doesn't go much beyond that. I've been working in Struts on and off for about a year and I find I use this book only for reference when trying to tweak a configuration. For a more in depth loook at this terrific framework, I would recommend Ted Husted's "Struts In Action"
Rating:
Summary: Nice Struts 1.1 book
Review: Mastering Struts is clearly written, detailed and full of pragmatic development and deployment advice. I'm surprised at the reviewers who say this book doesn't cover much (or any) 1.1 information. The 1.1 coverage I found very useful includes ActionForm, ActionServlet, ActionsMappings, plugins, RequestProcessor, new 1.1 tags, etc etc. Other material in this book was far deeper than the Struts docs, including:
* The value of MVC, and when and why to use Struts (amazingly, the Struts docs are very light on these crucial adoption issues)
* I18N. The docs have a couple paragraphs, and this book has a whole chapter--really helped me internationalize my apps in a meaningful way.
* Debugging and error handling
* The tag references add a lot of info not in the docs and give code examples
* Tons of database and JDBC info with MySQL examples. Again, amazing that the docs don't cover much on hooking into databases since 99% of serious webapps connect to one.
* Also there are two, full apps that the author develops in this book that go a long way to showing how a Struts app can/should be built and deployed. I don't know if I'll buy any of the other books when they come out (I might) but they have a lot to live up to.
Rating:
Summary: Struts...and shocks
Review: Not a bad book. By the same token not a good one either. As has been suggested by other reviewers, this book is rudimentary. It should be "Intro to Struts 1.0.x" instead of "Mastering..." Points for:
(A decent job of detailing the pieces of Struts.)
1. ActionMapping extension (this is hard to find elsewhere.)
2. RequestProcessor and Plugins.
3. Detailed info on tags, though more usage examples would have been good. Points against:
1. Lack of info on [1.1+] ActionForms. DynaActionForm, how to use a java.util.Map on a form to create "dynamic beans" (you still have to dig through emails on newsgroups), and how/why to set up form-beans to do coarse-grained forms are all absent.
2. Pathetic attention to 1.1 updates. All chapters *except* chapter 7 show the correct method "execute()" in the Action class but 7 for some strange reason shows the *deprecated* method "perform()". Either use 1.0, 1.1, or make a note of the difference somewhere!!
3. A useful feature that *someone* should document:
when you want a simple redirect without an action mapping. Interesting that all of the books are hitting shelve within 3 months of each other! I would have given this a 2 star, however Goodwill was the first Struts book to market (ok, not quite true but it's the first of a whole bunch coming out, and as I understand it the Struts fast-track book was a real joke!) and I figured that should count for something. I am being more than generous. But I'm returning the book anyway--someone else will do this topic much better! You can get almost all of this info from Jakarta's [poor] documentation plus some of the links therein.
Rating:
Summary: Good Basic Coverage
Review: Others have raised the issue that this only covers Struts 1.0,and that 1.1 has so much more, that the book is outdated. I have been using Struts since August 2000, and 80% of the questions new users have on the struts-user mailing list apply equally well to 1.0 or 1.1.
50% of the questions aren't purely Struts related they are JSP, JavaScript, HTML, Tomcat related.
Examples are:
1) How do I use the to iterate over a bean in my form. Answer: 50% of the time the problem is knowing JSP syntax.
2) I would like to have my ActionForm access my business logic ... Covered, you don't !
3) How do I use JavaScript to submit when a user clicks on a link.
4) How do I use struts with frames.
5) JDBC ConnectionPooling, JSTL, Unicode, LOCALE, Upload/Download.
etc...If a book is well written, the writer gives you insights into the big picture, and where every thing fits together. They will also point you to other resources. But is this book outdated ? Well yes, --If-- you define it as not covering all the features of 1.1. Using that definition: "Every single book currently scheduled to be printed, Ted's book, James Book are outdated. Example: Just in mid November, XHTML compatibility was added to Struts 1.1.
It is dated but not outdated. For the basic foundation of Struts, where the pieces are this book will get you started in the right direction. For the same price, if given a choice between buying this book and buying one that is newer, I would buy the newer IF and only IF it was as well written ! I am not affiliated in any way with the Author or his publisher.
Rating: 
Summary: Overall good book
Review: Overall good book.
Lots of mistakes...not proof-read properly.
Gives you the essentials to get up to speed with Struts.
A chapter should have been dedicated to security with Struts IMHO.
No examples with javascript embedded in it.
Some provided examples are not illustrated properly..or illustrations missing(a pic is worth a..)
Rating: 
Summary: Naperville IL
Review: Since this is the only available book currently on the Market on the Struts Framework I will rate the book as an ok introduction on the Subject.
The book is by no means a "Mastering Series" as the title indicates.
Coverage of overall Struts Framework in there but barely, I feel the books lack real detail and is at best a Quick Start to using Stuts.
Rating:
Summary: It's already outdated.
Review: Struts 1.1 is shaping up to have so much different from 1.0 that it feels like this book is already outdated. DynaActionForms, a feature of 1.1 which may end up largely unused (but which I think will in effect boost dev speed by 50%) are not covered AT ALL in this edition. I would recommend this edition of the book only for the purpose of getting familiarized with 1.0.
Rating:
Summary: Hot Topic, Hot Book
Review: Struts are hot and this book provides a really excellent introduction---very readable and loaded with practical code examples. The tutorials are very clear and well-illustrated, and I liked the reference section, which provides a lot more detail than the online docs. A great book!
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