Rating: 
Summary: Foreword
Review: As Jim points out, there's a big difference between building a simple web site and building a web application: the former is relatively static, but the latter is much more dynamic, full of rich content and capable of changing the state of the business as a result of user interaction. A web site is sufficient if all you want to do is publish information, but you really need the scope of a web application for anything else, such as e-business, collaborative content, and distributed communities on the web.Building a web site is relatively easy, because the barriers to entry are low and development is largely uncomplicated. Building a web application, however, is hard work. Because of the rich content and its importance to the business, you'll have to deal with many different stakeholders, ranging from graphic artists to code warriors to lawyers. Additionally, you'll have to architect your system for continuous change, because a web application that is stagnant is a web application that is dead. If you are webifying an existing client/server system, you'll have to cope with the challenge of integrating legacy. Finally, you'll have to prepare yourself for periods of peak interaction; a system that fails at the most critical moments is one that will seriously harm the business. You'll find lots of good books that explain how to build web sites. There are also many good books that teach you the details of a specific web technology, such as HTML, XML, EJB, SSL, CGI, TCP/IP, ASP, JSP, and lots of other acronym-enabled things. However, this book is different, for it tells you how to build whole web applications upon these disparate technologies. Building a quality web application in a predictable and repeatable fashion is a team sport, and requires the use of proven development practices such as iterative development, a focus on architecture, and visual modeling. Jim's book addresses all of these practices, and more. Jim's an experienced web developer, and I'm delighted that he's found this medium to share his experience. I think you'll be delighted as well. Grady Booch, Chief Scientist, Rational Software Corporation
Rating: 
Summary: A good surprise
Review: Honestly, I'd own this book with only a little conviction. In truth, I now effectively work with UML on web application. In truth, I trust in the Addison Wesley's OO series, but I found to much buzzword in the title to be honest ... But in fact, the book is good ! It's probably too light for UML experts (I pretend to be one of them), it's also probably too light for web experts (I'm not). But, first of all, it's very rare to be the both. Second, the book really makes the connexion between both worlds ! And it makes it in a smart fashion with good and effective ideas, like simple activities and effective traceability. If you know Doug Rosenberg's book, you will be easy with the proposed ideas. OK, it's not the book of the decade (unlike Design Patterns, for example), but it's far from a lost of money, and the book can be red very fast, which is also a very good point.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much padding
Review: I bought this book looking for a common language for describing web project requirements and design that we could use for project specification and working with partners. I am an experienced Web Project Manager with a lite experience of UML in the past. The book assumes UML knowledge, but the first 150 pages are dedicated to explaining web technology to the reader. Not quite "The Internet for Dummies", but hardly critical content? When eventually the author gets into the meat of the Web Extension for UML, it's interesting, but he still spends a lot of time talking about thick-client applications, which really are the exception on public websites. There is one pretty extensive example based on ASP, complete with code. The WAE is useful, but of 300 pages, I found only about 50 useful. A lot of it has already been publisher by the Author on his own website.
Rating: 
Summary: why oh why must authors do this.
Review: I hate it when authors will assume their book is going to read by neophytes so they better include a detailed description of what html is - or what a browser is....
Anyone reading this book is probably looking to design enterprise quality web applications using UML. One would think that based on the title at least...Which is a fairly advanced goal. How would anyone who requires UML exposure not understand a client-server relationship???
This author wastes time and paper droning on about ridiculously obvious topics. Let me give you an example:::
"HTML defines a set of tags that can be used either to tell the browser how to render something or to define a link to another Web page. All tags are enclosed by angled brackets (< and >). Tags are usually used in pairs, with beginning and ending tags. For example, the emphasis tag: <em> italicizes a word. A sample sentence and the HTML to render it follow:"
WOW!!!! How very relevant!!!!
Anyway he's not the first author to increase the book's shipping weight w/ fluff and he probably wont be the last.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for Beginner - Not much new for the experienced.
Review: I really don't like giving this book only three stars but it just doesn't deliver much useful information for experienced developers. It is an easy read and it's explanation of a UML notation for the Web is interesting but it is only a very small part of the book - a whitepaper on the subject would have been more than adequate. The first half of the book gives a good but rudimentary overview of Web application development. If you are new to Web development then you will find this section useful. The second half of the book also gives a good but very simplistic overview of the object-oriented development process. Once again, if you want a nice high level overview of the process then this section is good too. However, I think most people buying this book are going to be looking for more detailed information than this book delivers. Maybe Addison Wesley needs to have a "Beginner" and "Professional" series like Wrox Press does.
Rating: 
Summary: revise my opinion
Review: I've used the second half of the book extensively. Previously I wrote the first-half wasnt that good. Thats not correct - the first half of the book is a great introduction to web development for newbies. This is a great book to teach you HOW to DESIGN a dynamic web application.
Rating:
Summary: Great UML Book
Review: If you use UML for designing web sites this book is a must have. The book covers everything from beginner to advanced for UML web development. This book is built for the hardcore designer and will really make you think about the way that you design. The book has lots of examples and comes with a reference guide to boot. It has a home on my bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: Modeling = planning, which translates into web success
Review: It is a tribute to the versatility of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and a compliment to its authors that it can be used to model web applications. Given the origins of the UML as a tool to model projects using Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), it is easy to believe that that is the only place where it can be used. Web programming is largely done in JavaScript and VBScript, where the first is only somewhat object-oriented and latter nowhere close.
In this book, the author introduces some new notation that can be used to model the construction of web applications, and given the topics of recent journal articles, it is somewhat overdue. I have read some articles recently where the topic is the planning of a company web site. The consensus is that one should plan for several months before the official launch. Translated into real terms, this amount of planning can be summed up in a single phrase, "model it."
The real significance of this book is the introduction of the concept of modeling with regard to web applications and that is what makes it valuable. Without the appropriate terms, it is not possible to properly describe a course of action, and the author introduces the necessary terms. The core of the book details the steps in a typical project:
1) The Process
2) Defining the Architecture
3) Requirements and Use Cases
4) Analysis
5) Design
6) Implementation
applied to the goal of designing, building and maintaining a substantial web presence. With the emphasis on the modeling, very little in the way of HTML and scripting skills are needed and very little code is presented.
If you are in the process of planning a web application, either a replacement or a new one, then it is worth your while to examine this book. For many businesses, a quality web presence is now an absolute necessity for survival. This book will help you achieve that.
Rating:
Summary: A demonstration of the versatility of the UML.
Review: It is a tribute to the versatility of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and a compliment to the authors that it can be used to model web applications. Given the origins as a tool to model projects using Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), it is easy to believe that that is the only place where it can be used. Web programming is largely done in JavaScript and VBScript, where the first is only somewhat object-oriented and latter nowhere close.
In this book the author introduces some new notation that can be used to model the construction of web applications, and given the topics of some recent journal articles, it is somewhat overdue. I have read some articles recently where the topic is the planning of a company web site. The consensus is that one should plan for several months before the official launch. Translated into real terms, this amount of planning can be summed up in a single phrase, "model it."
The real significance of this book is the introduction of the concept of modeling with regard to web applications and that is what makes it valuable. Without the appropriate terms, it is not possible to properly describe a course of action, and the author introduces the necessary terms.
If you are in the process of planning a web application, either a replacement or a new one, then it is worth your while to examine this book. For many businesses, a quality web presence is now an absolute necessity for survival. This book will help you achieve that.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for people moving from static to active HTML
Review: Jim does a great job of helping the novice developer understand how HTML-based projects can benefit from established methodologies for analysis and design. If you've already done server-side programming, don't waste your time on this book. However, if you are transitioning from doing static web design to working with developers and database administrators on back-end functionality, this book will help you navigate this new domain. The book only rates a 3 because is promises value not just to analysts and designers (which it does well), but also to project managers, architects, and web programmers (all of whom would likely be bored to tears with most of this volume). Another useful aspect to this book is the way that it reviews the landscape of competing technologies in the web development arena. His perspective is unbiased, although his examples are heavily dependent on Microsoft standards.
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