Rating: 
Summary: Do not buy this book
Review: I bought this book because it was about JSP, Servlets and MySQL, and that was exactly what I was going to be working with. I was very disappointed.The arrangement of text and examples makes it confusing to read, and I often found myself flipping pages back and forth to try and grasp what the author was talking about. Often there was first a result, and then examples of all the files used to get that result. In my experience, most computer books show you the pieces and then the finished product. This backwards organization made many of the explanations more difficult than they needed to be. While the introduction section had lots of decent content, the way it flowed made it a more difficult read than it needed to be. I browsed the part on MySQL. Most of it dealt with database design and normalization as opposed to the MySQL server and it's configuration. All of the information in this book regarding MySQL is in the "getting started" section of the MySQL documentation. The explanations regarding database design were terrible, and the suggestions regarding how to design the database were obviously made by someone with very little programming (and especially maintenance) experience. When I finally got to the meat (part three and four) I found that the same poor organization of part one was still present, and beyond a URL for the MySQL JDBC driver, none of the content is worth reading. The design patterns are poorly explained, to the point where they suggest obscene programming techniques. When the author suggested to name files ".htm" instead of ".html" to avoid infinite loops when using the MVC design pattern, I finally put the book down, went to the bookstore, and bought something else. You do not correct an infinite loop by implementing a naming convention -- you correct it by not creating the scenario in the first place. David Harms does not demonstrate a strong understanding of the content, nor does he demonstrate a strong understanding of programming. The book I bought on my second trip to the bookstore was "Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages" by Marty Hall (Sun), and I've learned more from chapters one and two than I did reading the first 300 pages of this book. This book is a waste of time and money, and I pity those that use it as a guide.
Rating: 
Summary: Personal opinion
Review: I found this book very helpful. I knew nothing about JSP, servlets and mysql. My previous experience came from a standard university course in Java. The book took me through setting up tomcat, mysql,etc. It started me off using the technologies. The book is built around a core example. I didn't reproduce and test the code supplied but dipped in to take what I needed. Downloading the code from the website was confusing. Overall this book has been very helpful. I found the content concise and to the point. Thanks to the author.
Rating:
Summary: Just not well done
Review: I picked up this book because I had already decided that I was going to use JSP and MySQL together to create my web site. Quite frankly, I haven't learned anything from this book that wasn't done better in other books, which is a shame because this is an area that really deserves a more thorough treatment. In several areas he just fills several pages with code and hardly explains it at all, other than a few lines--so why bother showing the entire example? This is a clear case where better editorial review would have helped to focus the book on material that would have been more helpful to the reader.
Rating:
Summary: Awfull book, Don't waste your money!
Review: I was very very disappointed in this book, to the point of being angry at the author! It was okay for reveiw of basic MySql commands but its content had so many errors that all my time was spent trying to fix errors. The content left out crucial information about the web site design. I regressed and finally decided to go get the code mentioned on the cover. Guess what? It doesn't exist. This author decided to enhance the code after the book and added packages and code so now it does not match the book. Nothing is the same. I tried to awork with the new code, and there is errors in the new code and the database create file. All the code I typed in can't be checked to see if the errors are mine or his. I am pretty sure its his. The code just doesn't work. I highly suggest looking into another book if your looking to learn JSP, servlets, or MySql.
Rating:
Summary: Very Disapointing
Review: It is nice to read a book that utilizes Java where it is the most powerful: on the server side
Rating:
Summary: Good book
Review: It is nice to read a book that utilizes Java where it is the most powerful: on the server side
Rating: 
Summary: A painful read..
Review: The TOC sounded great, so I bought the book. I hate to reiterate what other reviewers have already said, but it's true: there are so many errors it's rediculous. It was painful to figure out why I wasn't understanding some of the material (for example, the SAME SQL statement produces two DIFFERENT result sets on page 208/209)when in fact it was just a very poorly edited book. The book's topics are perfect - now someone needs to go through it with a pitchfork to weed out all the errors. Not to mention that the example code you can download has been refactored (to put it nicely). It's an expensive lesson in wasted money and time and frustration, but from now on, I'll always check the reviews here before ordering any book.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting title with careless content
Review: This book has a very interesting title and the TOC look great too, but unfortunately the content is carelessly chosen/written. I don't want to repeat the error in the code listings. I just want to mention about design problems in this book. JSP has its born-with problem that it is hard to set boundary for Server Programmer and HTML Programmer. These 2 kinds of work need different skill set. That's why separation of Data and Presention is very important to JSP web site design. The author of this book carefully avoided to include much JSP code in HTML pages, but his design leads to another extreme: almost every control (forms, buttons, links) are generated by JSP code. This approach will create a nightmare for JSP programmers for changing the appearance of the web site. So besides coding error, this book has design issues. I really can't imagine who should be the audience...
Rating: 
Summary: This book really helps me
Review: This book really helps me to know about mySQL. It is a good investment.
Rating: 
Summary: Mileage My Vary
Review: This book was useful for getting an idea of how to get your JSPs and Servlets (using Tomcat) to talk to MySql. If you already know how to use JSP and Servlets, and are specifically trying to get some ideas on this configuration, it's probably worth it's one-time useage. (Better yet, see if you know anybody with the book, i'm sure they'll be willing to part with it) Some of the examples were useful. But, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone trying to learn about Java or JSP. As someone already wrote, the link to the Java drivers for MySQL was probably the most valuable thing in this book.
| 
