Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action

Book Description

Prototype and Scriptaculous are libraries that extend standard Ajax. They make it easier to program Ajax and provide powerful features like drag and drop and animation. In this book, developers learn by playing and see how the libraries work in the real world.

As experience with Ajax increases, developers want the standard Ajax capabilities they repeatedly use to be preprogrammed for them--and that's exactly what Ajax libraries do for them. They reduce the pain of handling cross-browser inconsistencies, they add useful language features, and provide sophisticated functionality. Of these, Prototype is the most popular JavaScript and Ajax framework for low-level user interface features such as animation, drag and drop, and pre-built widgets. Together, they free the developer up to concentrate on building the application. They make a rich user experience easy to achieve.

This book guides the reader through the Prototype and Scriptaculous libraries feature-by-feature. In just 350 pages, readers will find over 100 small working examples to help them explore the libraries. As well, they will develop a web-based image gallery that teacher them how to use Prototype and Scriptaculous in the real-world.

Customer Reviews:

Top-notch tome.......2007-06-25

Javascript has exploded onto the web development scene in the last few years, and powers much of the web 2.0 and Ajax revolution. Every web developer now needs to know how to do common Ajax tasks. Thankfully, Prototype and Scriptaculous In Action makes it both easy and enjoyable.

This is a comprehensive book. The size (510 pages) was initially intimidating, but Prototype and Scriptaculous In Action is exceedingly well written and a genuine pleasure to read. The thorough and thoughtful organization of the book provides some real structure to the discussion, making complex subjects easily digestible. This is the defacto bible of Prototype and Scriptaculous, and these days I turn to this book more than anything else on my shelf.

The book is divided up into four multi-chapter parts, any of which could stand on it's own as a definitive guide. The chapters are full of useful examples, and there's strong emphasis given to migrating existing sites to Prototype and Scriptaculous, which is a major plus. You could turn to any section of the book and immediately see how to inject some new behavior into your existing application, but if you take the time to read from cover-to-cover you'll be rewarded with some deep understanding of both the libraries and Javascript itself.

I'll summarize the four parts of the book:

Part 1, Getting Started, introduces the Prototype and Scriptaculous libraries, focusing heavily on Prototype and Ajax. There's a lot of information on re-designing an existing site for Ajax. Two full chapters are devoted to Prototype's Ajax features. You can get up and running VERY quickly after glancing through these chapters. There's also a lot of depth, and consideration is given to the pervasive effects Ajax has on architectural issues and the new ways that an application will have to manage HTTP traffic.

Part 2, Scriptaculous Quickly, covers effects, controls and drag-n-drop. This is hands-down the best Scriptaculous documentation currently available, anywhere. The core effects are explored and tweaked, and there's lot of very practical examples demonstrating some of the niftiest stuff, like running effects in parallel versus sequentially. And the drag-and-drop coverage is incredibly clear, making it easy, almost trivial, to implement. The Scriptaculous coverage is indispensable, and you'll return to it again and again if you implement Scriptaculous-enabled pages.

Part 3, Prototype in Depth, explores Prototype's Javascript-oriented features. There's a fantastic chapter on functions contexts, and the discussion of closures is one of the best I've seen. There's a lot of information about Javascript fundamentals, and how Prototype can be used to implement inheritance, address arrays, and manipulate the DOM in the browser.

And finally, Part 4 Advanced Topics, has two unrelated chapters. The first chapter overhauls an example app, giving it a Prototype and Scriptaculous makeover. The last chapter is about integration with Ruby on Rails. Prototype was initially written as the Ajax interface to Rails, so there's some strong integration.

As a long-time enterprise web developer, dealing with Javascript has always been a chore. But now I actually (gasp) look forward to tasks that involve Javascript. I'm a convert, and I have Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action to thank.

Excellent.......2007-05-22

I wrote a longer review that Amazon has apparently lost. Oh well. This is an excellent book, very well written. The authors are the rarest kind of technical author: they can actually construct prose that is pleasant to read, not deadly boring, but which works well as a reference book later. The book's organized thoughtfully--it's certainly much more than just an API reference. There's also quite a lot of general advanced Javascript information here, too.

There's at least one other book on these libraries in production from Pragmatic Programmers. If you're considering that, I strongly suggest downloading the sample chapters of both books and comparing. The Crane book is much more appealing to me (not to mention it's available now, not in six months).

Basic libraries coverage with a good example application........2007-04-19

This book lacked detailed coverage of the programming techniques and advanced topics of prototype and scriptaculous. The authors covered the basics by discussing only the API's of the libraries (more attention was given to scriptaculous API's, even though its usage is obvious and prototype API's are more extensive). With 500 pages and the libraries as the title, I expected details about the inner workings of the API's and discussions about its usages/ applications. Instead, 150 pages were devoted to verbose repetitive coverage of scriptaculous' API, which could easily have fitted into 50 pages at most. ALL of the info on scriptaculous could easily have been read online at its wiki site - the book provided no further insight (ch. 5 is especially useless)! Prototype's coverage was decent, but lacked details on several parts of its API. Although prototype and scriptaculous are tightly integrated with Rails, there was only 1 chapter devoted to its discussion, which served more like an overview than a usage guide. Based on content on the libraries alone, I would give this book 3 stars. However, if you're in need of an example application, then it may deserve 4 stars. This book provides a good example of applying prototype's ajax and scriptaculous web 2.0 techniques to a photo gallery website. It shows the advantages these libraries have over plain javascript and dhtml. The extra 100 pages wasted on scriptaculous would better serve Rails' RJS templates or a more complete/ thorough discussion of prototype. Of course it can be argued that the book is not titled, "Prototype, Scriptaculous, and Rails in Action," but it should be.

Average customer rating:

You can't live without Groovy. You just can't.
Cracking stuff
Mostly as good as everyone says
Programming literature
An amazing journey

Groovy in Action
Dierk Koenig , Andrew Glover , Paul King , Guillaume Laforge , and Jon Skeet
Manufacturer: Manning Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

XML & Databases | Databases | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Web Services | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Definitive Guide to Grails (Definitive Guide)
Groovy Programming: An Introduction for Java Developers
Java Persistence with Hibernate
Java Generics and Collections
Getting Started with Grails

ASIN: 1932394842

Book Description

Groovy, the brand-new language for the Java platform, brings to Java many of the features that have made Ruby popular. Groovy in Action is a comprehensive guide to Groovy programming, introducing Java developers to the new dynamic features that Groovy provides. To bring you Groovy in Action, Manning again went to the source by working with a team of expert authors including both members and the Manager of the Groovy Project team. The result is the true definitive guide to the new Groovy language.

Groovy in Action introduces Groovy by example, presenting lots of reusable code while explaining the underlying concepts. Java developers new to Groovy find a smooth transition into the dynamic programming world. Groovy experts gain a solid reference that challenges them to explore Groovy deeply and creatively.

Because Groovy is so new, most readers will be learning it from scratch. Groovy in Action quickly moves through the Groovy basics, including:

Simple and collective Groovy data types

Working with Closures and Groovy Control Structures

Dynamic Object Orientation, Groovy style

Readers are presented with rich and detailed examples illustrating Groovy's enhancements to Java, including

How to Work with Builders and the GDK

Database programming with Groovy

Groovy in Action then demonstrates how to Integrate Groovy with XML, and provides,

Tips and Tricks

Unit Testing and Build Support

Groovy on Windows

An additional bonus is a chapter dedicated to Grails, the Groovy Web Application Framework.

Early PDF chapters of Groovy in Action are available from the Manning Early Access Program (MEAP) at http://www.manning.com/koenig. As part of this program, readers can also discuss the early manuscript with the author and help shape the manuscript as it's being developed by joining the Author Forum.

Customer Reviews:

You can't live without Groovy. You just can't........2007-08-18

I am going to make this short, because I want to get ONE message across to you, loud and clear. If you are working with Java, you MUST take a look at Groovy.

I cannot overemphasize the coming importance of Groovy on the Java platform, not just in web development, but everywhere. Just try it already. You'll "get it." Just trust me and do it!

Groovy in Action is a first rate introduction and reference, and you really do need a book for this language. I don't recommend trying to go it alone with online reference material, though there is plenty there to give you a taste of why Groovy is about to become your new favorite language.

Read the other reviews. I'm not going to repeat a bunch of stuff here. But whatever you do, TRY GROOVY. You will quickly come to wonder how you ever got along without it.

Cracking stuff.......2007-07-20

Whatever you think about the merits of Groovy as a language, a serious contender on the JVM, or a complete mess, you couldn't hope to find a better advocate for Groovy than this book.

One of the secrets of GinA's success is that it assumes the reader is already proficient with Java development, including Swing, Ant and JUnit. It would also help to know about XML, SQL, HTML, JSP and a vague idea of how MVC applies to web apps. You don't need to be an expert in these areas, though. If you've sufficient knowledge to decode the preceeding alphabet soup of initialisations, you'll be ok.

The reward for possessing this background knowledge is that GinA doesn't waste time with trivial examples, and barrels through Groovy the language in the first part, leveraging your existing knowledge of Java to highlight the important differences in Groovy. In particular, the advantages of interpolating strings, simple hash and array construction syntax, optional typing and metaprogramming are stressed. The big win in Groovy over Java is the use of closures and their used in a block-based approach to iteration, which is as well motivated here as the material in, say, The Pickaxe is for Ruby.

The second part of the book provides examples of the Groovy library. It begins with an excellent chapter on Groovy's Builders, which provide a very neat, uncluttered syntax for putting together hierarchical structures. An obvious application is XML, and by extension Ant scripts, which appears to have some major advantages compared to the challenging readability of vanilla Ant. Even more impressive is the SwingBuilder example, which builds a GUI with the minimum of fuss and a complete lack of anonymous inner classes.

Beyond the Builders, there are also compelling chapters on templating HTML and server side Groovy (Groovlets), writing DAOs and DTOs in Groovy to simplify database programming, and a chapter on XML, which even manages to find the space to introduce Groovy for SOAP, XML-RPC and REST web services.

The final part of the book describes some non-core libraries and other applications of Groovy. The chapter on Groovy extensions to JUnit is interesting, although perhaps this is one place where it assumes too little on behalf of the reader. I would have assumed that the average developer sufficiently motivated to pick up a book on Groovy knows enough about unit testing and JUnit that more space could have been given to the advanced topics. Particularly appealing is the idea of testing Java code with dynamically typed Groovy unit tests, which would make mocking and stubbing more palatable; I would have liked more on that subject.

Another noteworthy chapter is the last one, which introduces the web app framework Grails. This has a different style to the other chapters, being a dialogue between two of the authors as they build a simple app. This reader admits to finding it a little bit naff, but it does usefully demonstrate the grails way (which is a lot like Rails).

If you have the slightest interest in Groovy, alternatives to Java on the JVM, or dynamic languages, GinA makes the perfect case for Groovy as a first class integration language for all the bits of Java where you really wish you were working with something like Perl, Ruby or Python. It's well-written, with good examples, clear explanations, and it's relentlessly practical, never forgetting its target audience. It's all the more impressive given lead author Dierk Konig's comment in the preface that English is not his first language. Kudos to him and his co-authors for what they've delivered.

One can only wish that every language had its GinA. Outstanding.

Mostly as good as everyone says.......2007-06-22

What more can be said of a book extolled by dozens of reviewers, a book that seems to have matched its subject in ubiquity, a book that will likely become to Groovy what the "pickaxe book" is to Ruby? As much as I would love to be a lone voice (or rather a lone whisper) of dissent, the clarity, simplicity, and accuracy of most of Groovy in Action cannot be overlooked. Let no one be fooled by the size of the book - to learn the gist of Groovy, all you really need is a leisurely stroll through chapters 2 through 7 (chapter 1 is the mandatory introduction/history chapter which, in the frustrating tech book tradition, doubles as the "free sample" chapter). Of course, most of its clarity and concision GIA inherits from the language it describes. Still, it is encouraging to have a book that is as valuable a reference as it is a tutorial, and GIA shines in both capacities.

With all its accolades, GIA does have two caveats. First, it is getting closer and closer to being out of date. Groovy 1.1 is already in Beta, and it has an impressive list of features not covered in this Groovy 1.0 book: EJB3 support, JUnit4 and TestNG integration and annotations, just to name a few. I am reminded of Pragmatic Programmers' Agile Web Development with Rails, whose second edition shipped a year after its first. I sincerely hope GIA 1.0 buyers will not be similarly cheated.

The second caveat is the coverage of Grails. Grails may be the single most attractive Groovy application to date yet its coverage in GIA is flaky at best. The authors decide to abandon their polished, clear, and concise writing style and instead author the entire chapter as a bland conversation amongst themselves. In addition to failing to grasp the humor in such presentation, I find that this style hinders me from following along with the tutorial. It makes scanning back for missed steps or clarifications extremely difficult. Furthermore, vapid attempts at humor occupy space that could be otherwise devoted to some omitted topics, such as mapping domain objects to specific tables or using data sources. Coverage of these topics would have been far more valuable than the authors' purported beer garden conversations with a DBA named Martin.

Despite the pour Grails coverage and the looming Groovy 1.1, Groovy in Action is a must-have for anyone who is even mildly interested in Groovy or dynamic languages in Java in general. Coupled with the ease, clarity, and downright beauty of the Groovy language, GIA can turn even a passing interest in Groovy into a burning passion.

Programming literature.......2007-05-15

It is a Gordian challenge to write an interesting and readable book about nothing but a programming language. Dierk König and his co-authors actually did succeed in cutting the knot. They even accomplished much more: they added lots of insight about object orientation, programming language design and good software development. As long as I only had the PDF availabe, it served me as THE reference for all my questions about Groovy. Now the printed copy makes my commuting time worthwhile. Cover to cover. 700 pages of computer LITERATURE.

An amazing journey.......2007-03-29

The book contains a lot of Groovy interesting features, with samples tested to work,asides the writting style exciting to you to discover the new programming world open in front of your eyes thanks to the exceptional Groovy features.

I consider it as much as a Groovy bible.

J2EE Web Services: XML SOAP WSDL UDDI WS-I JAX-RPC JAXR SAAJ JAXP

Average customer rating:

The best webservice book
Simply Suberb Book
starts fom the Basics...good guide for beginners
The web services bible.
Excellent book for a developer/practitioner

J2EE Web Services: XML SOAP WSDL UDDI WS-I JAX-RPC JAXR SAAJ JAXP
Richard Monson-Haefel
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Web Services | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Computer Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for J2EE Technology Study Guide
Core J2EE Patterns: Best Practices and Design Strategies, Second Edition
Head First EJB (Brain-Friendly Study Guides; Enterprise JavaBeans)
Enterprise JavaBeans
Service-Oriented Architecture : A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services

ASIN: 0321146182

Customer Reviews:

The best webservice book.......2007-07-22

I got everything i need in this book. This is very helpful for the sun exam also....in one word, this is the bible of webservice.

Simply Suberb Book.......2007-07-04

Perfect book for a beginer. The book starts from basics to leads complex points in a balanced manner.

starts fom the Basics...good guide for beginners.......2007-05-13

just started reading it.easy to read ,has a good flow,clear explanation.i think it will be a good resource for my current web services project and if i take the certification exam too.

The web services bible........2007-05-12

Monson-Haefel has written the book to own if you are developing web services. Even though the book is a few years old, you still need to get this book. If you go around my company and my previous company, all J2EE developers have this one sitting on their desk.

Do a Google search and read Monson-Haefel's blog. You will get some insight on his thoughts during and after writing the book and you will find that he will not be doing a revision.

That's a complete shame but I don't blame him. It would be nice to get a new revision on all of the new stuff that has come along like annotations, JAX-WS, etc.

Excellent book for a developer/practitioner.......2007-04-20

This book is very useful for developers/architects who are writing system software or application software dealing with web services.

If you are just going to write some web service client code to access some web service or planning to deploy simple web services, then this book will not be very useful.

There is good coverage of XML Schema, UDDI, JAXR and WS-I Basic Profile wherever relevant. The J2EE 1.4 model web services are explained in decent detail. Some extra examples would have been better. Of course the number of pages would have increased then.

To be an architect/developer/practitioner of web services related technologies, you need to have a sound knowledge of the theory behind the specifications. You can always look up online tutorials etc for sample code. This book will provide you the theory behind web services.

Anil Saldhana
Chicago Java Users Group

Core Security Patterns: Best Practices and Strategies for J2EE(TM), Web Services, and Identity Management (Core Series)

Average customer rating:

Best Java Security Book for J2EE and Web Services.
Java security made easy. Excellent title worth investing on.
Excellenet book for Java Security architects
The reference book of the java security
I don't think this is an awesome book

Core Security Patterns: Best Practices and Strategies for J2EE(TM), Web Services, and Identity Management (Core Series)
Christopher Steel , Ramesh Nagappan , and Ray Lai
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

New Business Enterprises | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Web Services | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Network Security | Networking | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Computer Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Core J2EE Patterns: Best Practices and Design Strategies, Second Edition
Java Concurrency in Practice
POJOs in Action: Developing Enterprise Applications with Lightweight Frameworks
Enterprise JavaBeans
Service-Oriented Architecture : A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services

ASIN: 0131463071

Customer Reviews:

Best Java Security Book for J2EE and Web Services........2007-09-23

This is a great book - by far the best security design book for Java and J2EE (including Java SE 6 and Java EE 5) I have read to date. When I first heard about my coworkers talking about this book, I thought "oh great, another J2EE book!" Much to my surprise, this book is not just a how-to security API or patterns recipe book but much more than that - I see it as a collection of valuable suggestions and examples on how to choose security mechanisms and use them in J2EE applications and web services. Moreover, it tells you what the bestpractices, pitfalls and tradeoffs are for each design pattern option you take. Particularly, You will find this book as an ideal companion for CORE J2EE PATTERNS - Deepak Alur et al, which is my favorite for designing J2EE applications.

This book is as close to size of a pillow and I do understand why the authors gave only code snippets for selected examples instead of full implementation. The case study is just right, it discusses the scenario and how to incorporate the patterns right in to the application design..which is just right for a Java developer who is involved with Java enterprise applications and web services. The best practices and security checklist detailed in this book - helps a lot during development and when you want to deploy a J2EE application/web service in production.

Having said that, I prefer this book as a must-have for any serious Java developer/designer/architect who wants to build Security from understanding basics of WHAT and know WHY you should architect your J2EE system in a particular way using best practices (a long list) and not just HOW. Ultimately you will find this book as an onestop reference for building security in J2EE applications and web services.

Java security made easy. Excellent title worth investing on........2007-09-18

If you ever want to understand about security and its role in the development of J2EE enterprise-level applications, then you should consider buying this book from your local bookstore.

The authors have done an excellent job in explaining the basics of security as it applies to the most common business practices, as well as deliver intricate details on the inner workings of the Java platform security architecture. Even though this book covers in its majority Java technologies, you don't have to be a Java developer or architect to appreciate it.

The book is divided in 7 major parts:

Part 1: Introduction and Basics of Security

Part 2: Java Security Architecture and Technologies

Part 3: Web Services Security and Identity Management

Part 4: Security Design Methodology, Patterns, and Reality Checks

Part 5: Design Strategies and Best Practices

Part 6: Putting it all together

Part 7: Personal Identification using Smart Cards and Biometrics

Parts 1-5 provide reams of detail about the fundamentals of security, the J2EE security architecture, and the technologies used to enable Web services security. In addition, there is a comprehensive explanation of patterns and practices for J2EE developers, as well as design strategies and best practices for securing J2EE Web components and web-based applications.

Web developers might want to pay special attention to Part 3 of the book because it gives an insight on fortifying Web services, authenticating and authorizing end users, and applying the latest cryptographic techniques. XML is described in detail as the encoding for messages between parties using a Web Service.

Note that this book does not explain the specific JAVA APIs needed for basic J2EE application development. Twenty-three proven security architectural patterns are discussed and presented through several realistic scenarios, covering architecture and implementation and presenting detailed sample code.

Part 6 of the book describes how to use this newly acquired knowledge in the implementation of real-world security scenarios.

Finally, we found the last part of this book as the most intriguing. It provides an in-depth coverage on Personal Identification using Smart Cards and Biometrics, their role in physical and logical access control, and the different technologies used in their implementation. Best practices and common pitfalls that might arise when implementing security using smart cards and biometrics are also discussed.

Overall we believe this is excellent book for the security enthusiast who wants to build robust end-to-end security into J2EE enterprise applications.

Excellenet book for Java Security architects.......2007-07-22

Like any Sun core book, this "reference" manual is cut above the rest. Personally I use it more as a reference manual helping me to understand and design security requirements for a project.

The reference book of the java security.......2007-07-19

A fantastic book that each java developer should have. Today, the security is becoming a real requirement of each java based enterprise application, and this book, in my opinion, represents the best reference. It is a very exhaustive and complete book for both beginner and advanced levels.

I don't think this is an awesome book.......2007-05-09

I am amazed by the 5 star ratings everybody has given this book! And I have implemented several enterprise level security implementations/integrations supporting hundres of thousands of users.

In my opinion, this book is really feeding the buzzwords frenzy of security domain. It certainly "talks the talk", but can it "walk the talk"?

I can think of numerous glaring examples where the book falls short. To name a few:
- Smart Cards (lots of power point and management level sales fluff here)
- JAAS (I have seen it being described much better in fewer words)
- SAML (huh?)

I think the book does a below average job of providing practical information. Even the content does not flow very smoothly and coherently.

Building Web Services with Java: Making Sense of XML, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI (2nd Edition) (Developer's Library)

Average customer rating:

The Bridge Less Travelled..
An excellent book
The worst book
sample code is not complete
Samples

Building Web Services with Java: Making Sense of XML, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI (2nd Edition) (Developer's Library)
Steve Graham , Doug Davis , Simeon Simeonov , Glen Daniels , Peter Brittenham , Yuichi Nakamura , Paul Fremantle , Dieter Koenig , and Claudia Zentner
Manufacturer: Sams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Web Services | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Computer Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Service-Oriented Architecture : A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services
Developing Web Services with Apache Axis
Understanding Web Services: XML, WSDL, SOAP, and UDDI (Independent Technology Guides)
Perspectives on Web Services: Applying SOAP, WSDL and UDDI to Real-World Projects (Springer Professional Computing)
Real World Web Services

ASIN: 0672326418

Book Description

Sams has assembled a team of experts in web services to provide you with a detailed reference guide on XML, SOAP, USDL and UDDI. Building Web Services with Java is in its second edition and it includes the newest standards for managing security, transactions, reliability and interoperability in web service applications. Go beyond the explanations of standards and find out how and why these tools were designed as they are and focus on practical examples of each concept. Download your source code from the publisher's website and work with a running example of a full enterprise solution. Learn from the best in Building Web Services with Java.

Download Description

Building Web Services with SOAP, XML, and UDDI assumes proficiency with Java and with distributed computing tools. Throughout the book, examples will be presented using Java and the Apache SOAP platform, although a set of sidebars will address .NET development, which Microsoft developers will use to deploy Web services. The book uses progressive disclosure to present an increasingly complex project as it moves through its development cycle. The final section of the book presents linking the completed project with other systems built in J2EE and .NET.

Customer Reviews:

The Bridge Less Travelled.........2007-08-23

The problem with Learning Web Services is just one - there is too much happening..the technology has grappled everyone's attention and a lot of Organizations are on it..
A beginner to web services just doesn't know where to look..strong foundations give 'empire estates', this book does just that
The primer on XML was one of the best i ever read anywhere and i am a big fan of Dr.Google, the clarity of the authors on WSDL Element model is very informative. All in all - if you need a book to trace Web Service concepts and build your foundations - i would strongly refer this book.

If you are looking for a quick reference/book to get started in implementation you should look elsewhere..Sam's 'Teach Yourself Web Services in 24 Hours' is a good choice..but then i believe that this book is definitely worth a reference because it goes a distance conceptually.
Kudos to the authors

An excellent book.......2007-07-30

This book has helped me immensely in implementing some really intense production quality data interchange across systems using web services.

This book will quickly help you understand the entire XML stack of technologies that you will need for Web Services.

The authors have uniquely enabled the readers to develop an understanding of the underlying technologies that make up the web services. Certainly expect to put in some effort in understanding the content.

The worst book.......2005-09-07

The writers either do not understand the topics, or they want to confuse the readers intentionally. You will find their writing style extremly annoying. They use the Skatestown(??) example to mislead the readers whenever they need to explain something. I dont know how such a bad written book can make it out to the book stores. If you buy this book, it will be the biggest waste of money.

sample code is not complete.......2005-03-05

I am still wondering why the authors don't provide all the code, since the book describes an application and that should have been tested and the code is there. Just a few wsdl files don't help very much.

Samples.......2005-01-23

There is an important thing missing in this book: complete samples. It is hard sometimes to understand what they are explaning since you just see a fragment of a WSDD, but not the classes or vice-versa. Since the book is already too long, the authors should have samples in the Internet. They even don't need to explain too much about these complete samples. Leave the developers to comment and validate them in Internet forums. In my view, samples will transform what now is just a so-so book in an excellent one.

Average customer rating:

Outdated but excellent...
Obsolete and belated book
Excellent starting point when dealing with web services
All bones, no meat
Perfect reading to get started

Web Services Essentials (O'Reilly XML)
Ethan Cerami
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Web Services | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Web Programming | Programming | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books

General | Programming | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books

Look Inside Computer Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Programming Web Services with SOAP
Understanding Web Services: XML, WSDL, SOAP, and UDDI (Independent Technology Guides)
Real World Web Services
Programming Web Services with XML-RPC (O'Reilly Internet Series)
Sams Teach Yourself Web Services in 24 Hours

ASIN: 0596002246

Book Description

As a developer new to Web Services, how do you make sense of this emerging framework so you can start writing your own services today? This concise book gives programmers both a concrete introduction and a handy reference to XML web services, first by explaining the foundations of this new breed of distributed services, and then by demonstrating quick ways to create services with open-source Java tools. Web Services make it possible for diverse applications to discover each other and exchange data seamlessly via the Internet. For instance, programs written in Java and running on Solaris can find and call code written in C# that run on Windows XP, or programs written in Perl that run on Linux, without any concern about the details of how that service is implemented. A common set of Web Services is at the core of Microsoft's new .NET strategy, Sun Microsystems's Sun One Platform, and the W3C's XML Protocol Activity Group. In this book, author Ethan Cerami explores four key emerging technologies:

XML Remote Procedure Calls (XML-RPC)
SOAP - The foundation for most commercial Web Services development
Universal Discovery, Description and Integration (UDDI)
Web Services Description Language (WSDL)

For each of these topics, Web Services Essentials provides a quick overview, Java tutorials with sample code, samples of the XML documents underlying the service, and explanations of freely-available Java APIs. Cerami also includes a guide to the current state of Web Services, pointers to open-source tools and a comprehensive glossary of terms. If you want to break through the Web Services hype and find useful information on these evolving technologies, look no further than Web Services Essentials.

Customer Reviews:

Outdated but excellent..........2007-05-25

First of all, to clear up someone else's comment:
while the API samples, URLs, etc. in the book are all outdated but even beginners should be able to figure out the updates.

The only word of caution: it does NOT cover REST.

This book provides a wonderful set of core topics and values that are essential to understanding what is currently out there (at the time I'm writing this in close-to-mid 2007, anyway). Providing samples, history and general information on each topic covers allows this book to be a wonderful, thorough introduction to the world of WS.

Samples focused in Java and Perl help keep things simple, while there is more of a focus on the Java world. The APIs changed, but since the author references primarily open-source, it is easy to figure everything out.

I recommend this book at this time, but can definitely see it being completely out-dated by the same time next year.

As with many emerging technologies, however, I think this is a must have in order to better understand and follow the evolution of its realm. Since it provides pointers/references to pieces of the puzzle(s) even before its publishing, you can gain even more insight and possibly make some educated decisions as to where the future will take it.

Recommended for all, if for nothing else, as a general reference and "emerging history" lesson.

Obsolete and belated book.......2003-07-31

This book is based on obsolete specifications and older SOAP implementation which is not even available for download. The Apache SOAP is already a piece of junk and Apache recommends to use Apache Axis (which is not in the scope of this book). All other implementation examples such as XMethods and UDDI4J are also obsolete as well. The APIs are already deprecated and the code discussed does'nt make any sense.

Excellent starting point when dealing with web services.......2003-04-21

This book is really an excellent one for programmers who want to start with web services. It gives a compact overview of XML-RPC, SOAP, UDDI and WSDL. Especially Java programmers will find some good code listings. But don't expect more than an introduction to web services.

All bones, no meat.......2003-04-21

This book is really lacking on much useful information. It's mostly a high-level overview. For anyone seriously interested in web services I'd recommend getting a different book!

Perfect reading to get started.......2003-01-15

An introduction to all the main technologies involved in Web services, with a high level coverage of XML-RPC, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI. The book includes a good range of working examples and can be the perfect reading to get started on this topic

Average customer rating:

Good, Informative, current
VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
No longer useful
What Happen? Were are the missing chapters? Were are the missing pages?
Solid material for the Java developer working with XML...

Java and XML
Brett McLaughlin , and Justin Edelson
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Web Services | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Java | Programming | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books

Web Programming | Programming | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books

General | Programming | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books

Look Inside Computer Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Java Generics and Collections
Java I/O (O'Reilly Java)
Pro XML Development with Java Technology
Java Concurrency in Practice
SOA Using Java(TM) Web Services

ASIN: 059610149X

Amazon.com

Two hot topics come together in this developer's guide from Brett McLaughlin, Java and XML. Both Java and XML are cross-platform technologies; by using Java for code and XML for transporting data, you can build truly portable applications. This title is aimed at intermediate to advanced programmers; while XML topics are explained more or less from scratch, readers will need prior knowledge of Java.

The book begins with an overview of XML and its uses, and goes on to explain how to parse XML by using the Simple API for XML (SAX 2). Next, there is coverage of how XML is validated by using Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and XML Schema, and transformed by using eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). Brief coverage of Sun's Java API for XML is followed by a detailed look at the Java Document Object Model (JDOM), a new API devised by the author in association with O'Reilly, the publisher.

The last part of the book is more advanced, and covers applications of XML and Java. There are chapters on Web-publishing frameworks, XML Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs), using XML to read and write configuration data, and generating XML with Java. There is also a short business-to-business example. Appendices provide an API reference to the various specifications discussed in the book.

The strengths of Java and XML include the author's deep knowledge of his subject, and a writing style that is both clear and enthusiastic. If you happen to know a lot about Java and not much about XML, this is the ideal title. Readers who already have a good grasp of XML basics might be frustrated by the amount of introductory material. --Tim Anderson

Book Description

Java and XML, 3rd Edition, shows you how to cut through all the hype about XML and put it to work. It teaches you how to use the APIs, tools, and tricks of XML to build real-world applications. The result is a new approach to managing information that touches everything from configuration files to web sites.

After two chapters on XML basics, including XPath, XSL, DTDs, and XML Schema, the rest of the book focuses on using XML from your Java applications. This third edition of Java and XML covers all major Java XML processing libraries, including full coverage of the SAX, DOM, StAX, JDOM, and dom4j APIs as well as the latest version of the Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) and Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB). The chapters on web technology have been entirely rewritten to focus on the today's most relevant topics: syndicating content with RSS and creating Web 2.0 applications. You'll learn how to create, read, and modify RSS feeds for syndicated content and use XML to power the next generation of websites with Ajax and Adobe Flash.

Topics include:

The basics of XML, including DTDs, namespaces, XML Schema, XPath, and Transformations
The SAX API, including all handlers, filters, and writers
The DOM API, including DOM Level 2, Level 3, and the DOM HTML module
The JDOM API, including the core and a look at XPath support
The StAX API, including StAX factories, producing documents and XMLPull
Data Binding with JAXB, using the new JAXB 2.0 annotations
Web syndication and podcasting with RSS
XML on the Presentation Layer, paying attention to Ajax and Flash applications

If you are developing with Java and need to use XML, or think that you will be in the future; if you're involved in the new peer-to-peer movement, messaging, or web services; or if you're developing software for electronic commerce, Java and XML will be an indispensable companion.

Customer Reviews:

Good, Informative, current .......2007-08-23

This edition was published in Dec. 2006, so when I bought it Jul. 2007 it was the freshest book on the topic that I found. There are a lot of different Java XML tools with overlapping funtions SAX, DOM, JAXP, JAXB, Castor, JDOM, dom4j . . . This really help sort them out.

VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!.......2007-07-11

Are you developing with Java and need to use XML? If you are, then this book is for you. Authors Brett McLaughlin and Justin Edelson, have done an outstanding job of writing a book that that cuts through all of the hype about XML and put it to work.

McLaughlin and Justin Edelson, begin with the basics of XML. Then, the authors cover three ways of defining the structure of XML documents. Next, they introduce the Simple API for XML (SAX). They also cover less-used, but still powerful items in the API. The authors continue by covering DOM basics. Then, they discuss the various Level 2 and Level 3 DOM modules like Traversal, Range, Events, Style, HTML, Load and Save, and Validation. Next, the authors examine the Java API for XML Processing. In addition, they also show you how to SAX and how it compares to both SAX and DOM. They continue by examining JDOM, a Java-specific object model API. Then, the authors examine another Java-specific object model API, dom4j. Next, they cover JAXB 1.0 and 2.0, as well as the general basics of data binding. Furthermore, the authors show you how to syndicate content. They continue by looking at a variety of techniques for using XML in the presentation, or visual portion of web applications. Finally, the authors provide some brief overview of technologies not covered in depth in this book.

This most excellent book shows you how to use the APIs, tools, and tricks of XML to build real world applications. Perhaps more importantly, this book offers a new approach to managing information that touches everything from configuration files to web sites.

No longer useful.......2007-07-04

This book was probably useful back in 2000. Unfortunately, a lot has changed since then, and some of the information in this book is now flat our wrong.

For example the chapter about DOM objects was not updated to include information about recent api releases. So when the book says there is no simple way to serialize a DOM object, that simply is no longer true. You can now do it with the JAXP api.

The book has other problems as well. For example, the section that describes the difference between XSL and XSLT is extremely misleading and not helpful at all.

This is one of the few books that I intend to return

What Happen? Were are the missing chapters? Were are the missing pages?.......2007-06-16

I had purchased the 2nd edition a few years back and I felt it was a great XML book for the times. This year I'm starting to use SOAP and other XML web services so I purchased the 3th edition hoping for updated chapters on the subject. Boy was I surprised to find out chapters on XML-RPC, SOAP and Web Services were dropped from the book. What were they thinking? The other chapters are too basic for the times and very disappointing.

The 2nd edition has 509 pages and the 3rd edition has 465 pages. I am glad O'Reilly is saving trees but I purchase my books for subject matter and information. I think the next editions should have more pages not less.

A note for Brett & Justin: Please add the missing chapters back and you will have a good book, again. (Brett did Justin ask you to remove the chapters?)

I am returning this edition. (Never returned a book before)

Solid material for the Java developer working with XML..........2007-02-04

[Review of 3rd Edition]

Being able to work effectively with XML is getting to be nearly a requirement for a Java developer. The book Java and XML (3rd Edition) by Brett D. McLaughlin and Justin Edelson focuses specifically on the relationship between those two technologies, as well as what options are available for parsing an XML file.

Contents:
Introduction; Constraints; SAX; Advanced SAX; DOM; DOM Modules; JAXP; Pull Parsing with StAX; JDOM; dom4j; Data Binding with JAXB; Content Syndication with RSS; XML As Presentation; Looking Forward; Appendix - SAX Features and Properties; Index

SAX and DOM parsers have entirely different approaches and uses when it comes to reading an XML file. The book does a good job of explaining those differences, as well as showing coding examples of how those parsing routines would look in Java. The additional coverage of lesser-known parsers like StAX is also appreciated, as you may not always have the choice of which methodology and API you'd like to use. I felt that the combination of code samples and diagrams of hierarchies was done well, and anyone with a good background with Java and XML would have no problem going forward from here. The only part of the book I felt could have been left out, strangely enough, was the introduction and constraints chapter. The book is not a complete introduction to either Java or XML (nor did I expect it to be). If you come in with the prerequisite knowledge I think you'd need, the first two chapters are unnecessary. And if you come in as a complete beginner to both subjects, the chapters don't go into nearly enough detail for you to proceed. While it seems "proper" to have introductory material in a book, in this case I think you could have left those out entirely and just jumped right in to the parser material.

Nitpicking on the first two chapters aside, this is definitely a book that the Java/XML developer will find useful. Most of what you'll need to know can be found here...

Oracle Database Programming Using Java and Web Services

Average customer rating:

Outstanding
Nice but Incomplete
For Java programmers looking to exploit Oracle, indeed!
It was written for me only, wasn't it ?
A complete book for today's developer

Oracle Database Programming Using Java and Web Services
Kuassi Mensah
Manufacturer: Digital Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Database Management Systems | Databases | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Databases | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Java & Databases | Databases | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Web Services | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Expert Oracle Database Architecture: 9i and 10g Programming Techniques and Solutions
Expert Oracle JDBC Programming
Oracle JDeveloper 10g for Forms & PL/SQL Developers: A Guide to Web Development with Oracle ADF (Osborne Oracle Press)
Oracle Database 10g XML & SQL: Design, Build, & Manage XML Applications in Java, C, C++, & PL/SQL (Osborne ORACLE Press Series)
Oracle Application Server 10g Web Development (Oracle Press)

ASIN: 1555583296
Release Date: 2005-08-19

Book Description

The traditional division of labor between the database (which only stores and manages SQL and XML data for fast, easy data search and retrieval) and the application server (which runs application or business logic, and presentation logic) is obsolete. Although the books primary focus is on programming the Oracle Database, the concepts and techniques provided apply to most RDBMS that support Java including Oracle, DB2, Sybase, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. This is the first book to cover new Java, JDBC, SQLJ, JPublisher and Web Services features in Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (the coverage starts with Oracle 9i Release 2). This book is a must-read for database developers audience (DBAs, database applications developers, data architects), Java developers (JDBC, SQLJ, J2EE, and OR Mapping frameworks), and to the emerging Web Services assemblers.

* Describes pragmatic solutions, advanced database applications, as well as provision of a wealth of code samples
* Addresses programming models which run within the database as well as programming models which run in middle-tier or client-tier against the database.
* Discusses languages for stored procedures: when to use proprietary languages such as PL/SQL and when to use standard languages such as Java; also running non-Java scripting languages in the database
* Describes the Java runtime in the Oracle database 10g (i.e., OracleJVM), its architecture, memory management, security management, threading, Java execution, the Native Compiler (i.e., NCOMP), how to make Java known to SQL and PL/SQL, data types mapping, how to call-out to external Web components, EJB components, ERP frameworks, and external databases.
* Describes JDBC programming and the new Oracle JDBC 10g features, its advanced connection services (pooling, failover, load-balancing, and the fast database event notification mechanism) for clustered databases (RAC) in Grid environments.
* Describes SQLJ programming and the latest Oracle SQLJ 10g features , contrasting it with JDBC
* Describes the latest Database Web services features, Web services concepts and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) for DBA, the database as Web services provider and the database as Web services consumer.
* Abridged coverage of JPublisher 10g, a versatile complement to JDBC, SQLJ and Database Web Services.

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding.......2007-06-08

I've been doing Oracle database-related application design and development since before Java even existed. As time progressed, Java became more and more prevalent in the Enterprise environment, web servers became application servers, and before you knew it, Java was being run right in the database.

It has always been difficult and confusing to figure out the various Java technologies and tools and implementations when it comes to a complete Enterprise system... until now.

Kuassi does a remarkable job of providing keen and detailed insight into all aspects of Java in the Oracle Database realm.

A nice, logical technical progression as well as very detailed code samples make this book useful for those wishing to introduce themselves to the basic concepts, or write a specific implementation.

The detailed case studies that show real code used in real world solutions are invaluable. (We've already implemented one of them for a new project we're starting on!)

All in all, it's an excellent book and should be on the shelf of any DBA/Developer that has anything to do with Java in their environment.

Nice but Incomplete.......2007-06-01

This book has a good deal of information that is accessible. However, several coding examples are incomplete and in some cases misleading. Given the strengths of the book, they are probably oversights or space limitations. The missing code segments are too frequently in the wrong places.

The code examples predominate the book. Hidden gems are nested where readers only find them searching out topics. On a bright note, the index is good at locating what is in the book.

For Java programmers looking to exploit Oracle, indeed!.......2007-01-07

I've been programming in C++, Corba and Java for years and was looking for a book to develop agaisnt the Oracle database. First of all this book is well written and at a glance, it covers all the API and utilities that a Java developer may use to exploit the Oracle database including Java in the database, JDBC, SQLJ, JPublisher and Database Web services ( Corba folks like myself will love the Web services part). You will be amazed reading through this book all the possibilities that Java in the database allows ; the Groovy and Jython stored procedures are just well presented. I am right now digging into Part-II dedicated to JDBC, the Rowset API, RAC support, etc. This book will provide great career advancement opportunities. I strongly recommend this book to my Java developers fellows.

It was written for me only, wasn't it ?.......2006-08-31

If you use Java and/or Oracle (Or if only you've planned to), this is THE book you miss ! Complete and easy to read, every concept comes with samples and scripts. Full of informations that I didn't find anywhere else, I've learned a lot. When it talks about something I already knows, it does it so well : "There is probably no better ways to explain things".

A complete book for today's developer.......2006-08-01

I have been working on different projects building enterprise level software involving many J2EE and Database technologies. One of the major frustration facing developers is how "practical information" related to these two worlds are completely isolated from one another, in fact, it is very common to see the majority of today's developers specializing in one of them and completely ignoring the other. The few who actually can keep following up with both can understand and achieve a lot more.
I found the information in this book to be complete; it describes the notions, the architectures (even those details that are hard to find anywhere) and it gives detailed examples on how it will look like in the code which cuts learning time for engineers a lot.

Average customer rating:

On par, but nothing special... good for testing, though
Very specific
Decent Book
Great bridge from theory to practical...
not what I was hoping for

Real World Web Services
Will Iverson
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

eBay | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Web Services | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Computer Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Web Services Essentials (O'Reilly XML)
Service-Oriented Architecture : A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services
Understanding Web Services: XML, WSDL, SOAP, and UDDI (Independent Technology Guides)
Sams Teach Yourself Web Services in 24 Hours
Programming Web Services with SOAP

ASIN: 059600642X

Book Description

The core idea behind Real World Web Services is simple: after years of hype, what are the major players really doing with web services? Standard bodies may wrangle and platform vendors may preach, but at the end of the day what are the technologies that are actually in use, and how can developers incorporate them into their own applications? Those are the answers Real World Web Services delivers. It's a field guide to the wild and wooly world of non-trivial deployed web services. The heart of the book is a series of projects, demonstrating the use and integration of Google, Amazon, eBay, PayPal, FedEx, and many more web services. Some of these vendors have been extremely successful with their web service deployments: for example, eBay processes over a billion web service requests a month! The author focuses on building 8 fully worked out example web applications that incorporate the best web services available today. The book thoroughly documents how to add functionality like automating listings for auctions, dynamically calculating shipping fees, automatically sending faxes to your suppliers, using an aggregator to pull data from multiple news and web service feeds into a single format or monitoring the latest weblog discussions and Google searches to keep web site visitors on top of topics of interest-by integrating APIs from popular websites most people are already familiar with. For each example application, the author provides a thorough overview, architecture, and full working code examples. This book doesn't engage in an intellectual debate as to the correctness of web services on a theological level. Instead, it focuses on the practical, real world usage of web services as the latest evolution in distributed computing, allowing for structured communication via Internet protocols. As you ll see, this includes everything from sending HTTP GET commands to retrieving an XML document through the use of SOAP and various vendor SDKs.

Customer Reviews:

On par, but nothing special... good for testing, though.......2007-05-25

While the samples are straight-forward, to the point and easy to follow, the book doesn't really provide enough under-the-cover view. Generally speaking, if you are looking for some insight into WS used with Google, eBay, FedEx, etc. this is a wonderful book.

If you are looking into information for things such as "using Axis for real-world WS", this just scratches the surface.

However...

This book provided a wonderful set of quick, easy test setups for use against generic WS implementations (such as those provided in B2Bi software) for comparative results. The peer into the provider-specific details made it wonderful to have provide expected output and check the diffs on files.

Recommended for QA, unit testing, automated testing, etc.
Recommended for those interested in quick samples but not in a core understanding of the technologies.

Very specific.......2007-04-23

I thought that this is a book very specific to certain aspects of web services and examples are overly detailed...I dont expect the book to be compiled mostly with elaborative examples.

Decent Book.......2006-03-17

Real World Web Services by Will Iverson is more of a "here's an example of something someone might want to do" type book. The book contains a lot of Java source code to connect to some web services from big names like eBay, Google, and FedEx. Whether these examples are useful or whether the reader can glean out other uses of the code depends on the skill the reader has in programming. The book also goes over some basic concepts and tools the reader can use to get started with web services. All in all, Real World Web Services will give you a taste of what web services are, yet leaves out the low level details of how it works.

Great bridge from theory to practical..........2005-02-14

Since Domino 7 will start to incorporate web services more readily into application development, I figured it was time to start getting a little more versed on the subject. To that end, I got a copy of Real World Web Services by Will Iverson (O'Reilly). Coupled with a detailed tutorial/reference manual, this is a really good selection.

Chapter List: Web Service Evolution; Foundations of Web Services; Development Platform; Project 1: Competitive Analysis; Project 2: Auctions and Shipping; Project 3: Billing and Faxing; Project 4: Syndicated Search; Project 5: News Aggregator; Project 6: Audio CD Catalog; Project 7: Hot News Sheet; Project 8: Automatic Daily Discussions; Future Web Service Directions; Index

While the book is smallish (206 pages), there's a lot of value packed in it. Iverson takes you from the beginning of simple HTTP request and responses, through data scrapping, into RPC technology, and then finally into web services. The overview really helps you to understand how we got to where we are. He explains how to set up a simple test development environment as well as what you'll need, and then it's directly into the example projects. Here's where the book shines. These projects connect to live data sources such as Amazon, Google, FedEx, and eBay, so you're not dealing with simple examples that don't translate to the real world. Each of the projects are applications that you could easily see yourself using on a daily basis, either exactly as written or with some moderate tweaking. And since you're learning the mechanics of connecting with that service, it's easy to extrapolate the information into the areas that might interest you more.

If you have no background in SOAP or WSDL, I'd recommend you get a foundational book that has a good tutorial and reference material. You won't get it from this book, nor should you expect to. It's not his intended purpose for the book. But this is the book that will help you go from theoretical to practical, and that's worth its weight in gold.

Very good book if you're looking to take the next step in your web services development...

not what I was hoping for.......2005-01-31

I was very disappointed with this book. I was hoping for something that would go into detail of the various Web Services solutions offered by Amazon, Google, etc. Instead it is just another Java book filled with mostly code (is it a sin to use prose anymore?) and lacking in any kind of detailed discussion at all. It basically talks about very specific problems, offers some code, then moves on to another specific solution. I found it completely uninteresting.

The only person I would suggest this book for is someone who wants code to Cut and Paste without really understanding what they are doing. And good luck to them ;-)

Average customer rating:

Out of date
Nothing Special
Makes it understandable...
Nice intro, clear layout
The content is dated!

Java Web Services
David A. Chappell , and Tyler Jewell
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Web Services | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Java | Programming | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books

Web Programming | Programming | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books

General | Programming | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books
Similar Items:

Java and SOAP
Java Message Service (O'Reilly Java Series)
Java Web Services in a Nutshell
Java & XML, 2nd Edition: Solutions to Real-World Problems
Building Web Services with Java: Making Sense of XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI

ASIN: 0596002696

Amazon.com

At the end of the day, Web services aren't hard to conceptualize. They're just a bunch of software modules with specific rules about how they go about discovering one another and sending messages back and forth. Implementation is another story, however. In the Java language, writing Web services requires an understanding of half a dozen specialized APIs at minimum, and more than that if you want to do fancier stuff. Java Web Services does a very good job of dispersing the confusing terminology (and obfuscating hype) and of showing you exactly how to do Web services work in Java. This doesn't sound like a revolutionary concept, but unfortunately it is. David Chappell and Tyler Jewell have comfortably fit into less than 250 pages what others have not done as well in twice as much space.

Take Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) work as an example. UDDI exists to help software locate other software that does what it wants. How do you do that? Chappell and Jewell present two concise program listings--a client and a server--that show how to do a UDDI lookup. They then refine their code by using a third-party API that makes the work easier. Similarly pragmatic attention goes to Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), in which they show how to create a message, populate it with XML, make an attachment if necessary, and send it on its way. You won't find a lot of frills or conceptual explanations (though there are enough "why" sections to ensure that you're not just typing recipes blindly); the emphasis is on writing Java code that interacts with Web services protocols and standards. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to write Web services software in Java, with respect to Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and Web Services Description Language (WSDL). There's also coverage of interprocess communication under JAX-RPC and ways to implement security. All of the low-level stuff is here. Look elsewhere for architecture and design information.

Book Description

For many Java developers, web services appeared to come out of nowhere. Its advantages are clear: web services are platform-independent (like Java itself), language-agnostic (a clear advantage over Java RMI), can easily be tunneled through firewalls (an obvious benefit to anyone who has dealt with modern enterprise networks), object-oriented (we all know about that), and tends to be loosely coupled (allowing more flexible application development). But these advantages have been obscured by a cloud of hype and a proliferation of jargon that are difficult to penetrate. What are SOAP, UDDI, WSDL, and JAXM? To say nothing of JAXR, tModels, category bags, WSFL, and other friends? And assuming that you understand what they are, how do you do anything with them? Do they live up to their promises? Are they really the future of network computing, or a dead end? Java Web Services gives the experienced Java developer a way into the Web Services world. It helps you to understand what's going on, what the technologies mean and how they relate, and shows Java developers how to put them to use to solve real problems. You'll learn what's real and what isn't; what the technologies are really supposed to do, and how they do it. Java Web Services shows you how to use SOAP to perform remote method calls and message passing; how to use WSDL to describe the interface to a web service or understand the interface of someone else's service; and how to use UDDI to advertise (publish) and look up services in each local or global registry. Java Web Services also discusses security issues, interoperability issues, integration with other Java enterprise technologies like EJB; the work being done on the JAXM and JAX-RPC packages, and integration with Microsoft's .NET services. The web services picture is still taking shape; there are many platforms and APIs to consider, and many conflicting claims from different marketing groups. And although web services are inherently language-independent, the fit between the fundamental principles on which Java and web services are based means that Java will almost certainly be the predominant language for web services development. If you're a Java developer and want to climb on the web services bandwagon, or if you only want to "kick the tires" and find out what web services has to offer, you will find this book indispensable.

Customer Reviews:

Out of date.......2005-10-29

I bought this, hoping to be able to use it on a web services project I'm doing.

I find it's completely out of date. Both Sun's JWSDP and Apache Axis have moved on since this was written, and you'll get better information from their websites than you'll get from this book.

Don't bother with it.

Nothing Special.......2004-02-13

I wish I could recommend a better introduction to Java Web Services. David Chappell usually does a good job at explaining new technologies in simplified form; however, he falls short with this one. It comes very close to being a step-by-step, build-up tutorial but falls short. If you already know SOAP, perhaps coming from the .NET world and you just need to make the right connections in the Java world, then this would be a good book for you. However, if you don't know SOAP and you're looking for a thorough understanding of what's going on under the covers before you move on to advanced APIs, then this is not your best bet. Actually, I'm not sure what is. I started writing such a tutorial myself but got distracted by other projects. However, this book is solidly average, nothing necessary wrong with that, and if you can find it at a good discount it's a decent buy.

Makes it understandable..........2004-01-11

This book covers the topic of web services, primarily from a Java perspective. It assumes a familiarity with Java and XML so as to be able to follow the code examples. The chapters are as follows: Welcome To Web Services, Inside The Composite Computing Model, SOAP: The Cornerstone Of Interoperability, SOAP-RPC, SOAP-Faults, and Misunderstandings, Web Services Description Language, UDDI: Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration, JAX-RPC and JAXM, J2EE and Web Services, Web Services Interoperability, and Web Services Security.

Review
If you read the chapter headings and say "What does THAT mean?", then you probably have a reasonability good idea as to whether this book is for you. As stated in the preface, this is not a "For Dummies" treatment of web services. While it covers all the different technologies that make up web services, it does it at a pretty high level of detail with a lot of code samples in Java.

The good thing here is that many of the examples are given using the Apache Tomcat server as the mechanism for processing the request. This is great in that you can download that software for free from the Apache site. This book doesn't go into detail as to how Tomcat is set up and configured, however. You need to work through that on your own. Once you get to that point, you can use Tomcat to play with the examples that are used throughout the book. While they can look complex and intimidating, you can learn a lot from them.

As a Notes/Domino developer, I learned a lot by reading the book. Am I ready to start developing web services? Not hardly. But I do understand more of the concepts behind how they work. Since web services often use servlets to process requests, Notes/Domino 5 doesn't fit the traditional picture of the technology. But since web services usually involve SOAP XML statements sent to a server, there's no reason you couldn't program a web service in Domino as a web agent that runs when a user submits a web page or runs a URL that activates a server agent. The processing is done and then returned to the client as an XML page. Once you read and digest the basic concepts behind it all, it all starts to come together.

Conclusion
If you are a Notes/Domino developer who is trying to understand "web services", this book could be useful. The book gets progressively more complex and detailed, so you may find yourself skimming at the end. If you are to the point of being ready to run an implementation of a servlet and SOAP engine (like Tomcat), this book will help you get started with your understanding of web services.

Nice intro, clear layout.......2003-11-22

Not that dated, you will get the background that is behind all the hype and you will get some hands on. Not a first choice but it is a solid review and a book I still keep on my desk. Get this and of course one of the newer titles. The new ones may be hyping something that isn't going to happen, at least with this one you will find most of the topics still are the cornerstones of web services. There is gold in them there hills, and those hills are strewn with books discarded too soon as old. Many explain things very well and offer knowledge. Nice book.

The content is dated!.......2003-05-30

The content in this book is a little dated. For a current book on Web Services check out either the Wiley book (Developing Java Web Services) or my favorite Java Web Services Architecture.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books