Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing...
Review: Reading the reviews and ratings of this book here and at other sites, I was expecting a serious, in-depth look at using Java and XML together from a technical perspective. Unfortunately, the areas of detail in this book weren't applicable to my current project, and I ended up relying more on the Xerces documentation than on this book. Apart from a good overview of the SAX parser in Xerces and how to code event handlers for it, there isn't much more than a brief introduction to many aspects of coding Java applications for XML, followed by a sequence of one-chapter overviews of various business applications. The book simply tries to cover too many topics in too short a space. Between XSL, SAX, DOM, JDOM, stylesheets, DTDs, B2B data interchange and all the other topics, the book should have been twice as long. This book could be useful in conjunction with a more detailed technical reference or programming guide (if such a book exists), since it does provide some good skeleton objects in its various scenarios. It should not be your only book (or your first book) on this subject.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book on practical programming--not just for Java
Review: This is easily one of the top five computer books I've ever read. The writing is clear and concise and the book covers a LOT of ground without being overwhelming. The world of XML is known for generating an important new standard almost every week, and keeping up with it all (or even figuring out how much of it is worth keeping up with) is quite a chore. McLaughlin concentrates on SAX and DOM, two competing standard APIs for writing programs to use and manipulate XML data. The fact that these APIs are not language-specific means that this book is useful for anyone who programs for XML, not just Java folks. Personally, I do more or my XML-related work in Perl and found this book very useful anyway (no XML/Perl book exists so far). It's also worth noting that while the author insists that this is a book for "Java developers," I found all of the examples quite understandable even though I'm rather new to Java. To sum up, if you are a programmer of any sort and you either use XML now or are thinking about starting to use it, I think you can really benefit from this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty much a waste of time
Review: Now, after having had this book for about 1 year, and having looked at other sources which explain XML and using XML with Java, do I realize how much of my time this book has wasted. The author might be a genius, but if you wish to learn XML and it's usage with Java, please take my advise and stay away from this book. The book is too verbose and the author in the process, to give him the benefit of doubt, forgot to explain the concepts, and then wandered off to his favorite specialized topics such as JDOM and other usages of XML which may be of interest to just a few readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Good start, not excellent
Review: I learned a lot about XML and the DOM from reading this book. I think anyone looking to get a good start in XML and Java (not necessarily just XML) will benefit. I share another reviewer's frustration that half the book goes over JDOM, the author's own "standard" interface, and includes the actual standards later in the chapter. This is more frustrating when I'm paging through for a quick example, then realize I'm not looking at Xerces, but rather at JDOM, so I have to go digging for a typically less-explained section of sample code. My binding broke in less than a week as well, but O'Reilly customer service was very helpful in this area. I think there must have just been a bad run of books, and won't hold this against them. In all, the book is good enough to start with. As you look to do more, you'll need to look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Best book on Java and XML
Review: One of the first and best books that really showed how to use XML within a Java development context.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worthy a O'Reilly title
Review: I think the previous reviewers giving this book one or two stars has said it all. My advise is clear: "Don't buy this book" (and I really can't see that the second edition is much of an improvement either.
Rating:
Summary: hmmm. check out the newer edition
Review: This book was ambitous, overly optimistic, and even a little 'unfocused', if you can believe that about an O'Reilly title. These problems probably stem from the fact that it was written when XML, and especially the Java API's for XML, were very, VERY new. Check out the 2nd edition. It's actually thinner, and surely much improved. I'll have to borrow one and see if it's worth buying. (and I'm pretty optimistic, as Brett obviously knows his stuff!)
Rating:
Summary: Get the second edition, not this one
Review: Readers should note that the second edition will be available in a week or two; you can pre-order it elsewhere on this site (my rating is meaningless by the way... its just the review system insists you give it a rating...). Posted 22nd August 2001.
Rating:
Summary: A Helpful Book for Java and XML
Review: This book is great for getting up to speed with Java and XML, though I don't recommend it for learning XML. The book is of the high quality that I've come to expect from O'Reilly and all fourteen chapters are quite good. Some of the examples are a little contrived, but they definitely help in understanding the material. One complaint about the book is the focus on web sites. In my case, I'm working on a stand-alone Java application and wanted to use XML for my data files. If you are completely new to XML, I recommend picking up Learning XML by Erik T. Ray first, and then coming back to this book. Since the second edition is due out shortly, I would wait for it.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good
Review: This book has certainly generated a lot of controversy. I read it several months ago and thought it was pretty good. The book assumes you know Java but not XML. Chapters vary in focus between the two. I found it quite readable. There is decent coverage of the main programming APIs -- SAX (Simple API for XML) and DOM (Document Object Model). SAX is only useful for parsing XML; it can't (directly) be used to build an XML document. It's purely event-driven. If you get lost reading this part of the book or the associated code, it's proably the API, not the author. Neither of these APIs is particularly geared for Java. The author developed an API called JDOM ... that is more in the spirit of Java. I've used both DOM and JDOM on projects, and the latter allows for simpler code. The fact that it's beta doesn't disturb me, but then I believe in testing. It might disturb a client and in that case, of course I do what the client wants, but given a choice, I'd use JDOM. There are some fairly esoteric topics included, for example, XML-RPC, but in general, the topics covered do include what you might hope for. As I said, I thought this was pretty good when I first read it, and I still feel that way.
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