Pro JSP, Third Edition

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 624 pages
• Published by: Apress
• Edition: 3rd Edition September 10, 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1590592255
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1590592250
• Book Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1.3 inches
• Weighs: 2.1 pounds

Product Description


Simpler, faster, easier dynamic website development based on new additions to an established and proven technologythat's what JavaServer Pages (JSP) 2.0 is all about. Pro JSP, Third Edition is the most comprehensive guide and reference to JSP 2.0 yet. It equips you with the tools, techniques, and understanding you need to develop web applications with JSP and Java servlets.

The new features of the JSP 2.0 and Servlet 2.4 specifications make developing web applications easier than ever before. The new JSP Expression Language (EL) provides a new, simple language for creating JSP pages and tags. In addition, by also using the JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL), you'll never have to use a Java scriptlet or write spaghetti code again.

Beyond covering the JSP and Servlet APIs, this book shows you how to choose and implement the best persistence option for your web applications; how to secure your web sites against malicious attack and accidental misuse; how to improve the performance and scalability of your JSP pages; and how to architect and design your applications to be reliable, stable, and maintainable through the use of design patterns and best practices.

Finally, no JSP book would be complete today without looking at the role that open source projects such as Ant, Struts, XDoclet, JUnit, and Cactus can play in making your web development even easier.

About The Author
Simon Brown works in London as a technical architect and has been using Java since its early beginnings, working in roles ranging from developer and architect to mentor and trainer. In the past few years, Simon has presented at the JavaOne conference and has authored/coauthored several books, including Professional JSP Tag Libraries. Simon maintains an active involvement within the Java community as a bartender (moderator) with JavaRanch and his open source JSP custom tag-testing framework called TagUnit.

Sam Dalton has worked with Java and related technologies for a number of years, and coauthored Professional Java Servlets 2.3 and Professional SCWCD Certification. He is an active contributor to TagUnit, an open source custom tag testing framework, and is also pursuing other open source interests. He has just embarked on the next stage of his career adventure by joining ThoughtWorks.

Daniel Jepp is currently a senior developer at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, based in London. He has been working with the Java platform and related technologies for a number of years now, and he has presented several sessions at the JavaOne conference. Dan has recently completed work on Professional SCWCD Certification with coauthor Sam Dalton.

Dave Johnson currently works at HAHT Commerce and is an experienced software developer in the commercial software development, telecommunications, and geographic information systems industries. Dave has been working with Java since before the dawn of Java 1.0. Since then, he has been involved in the development of a number of Java-based commercial products, including the HAHTsite Application Server, HAHT eSyndication, Venetica's Jasper document viewer, and Rogue Wave's Object Factory IDE. Dave is also an active weblogger and the original developer of the open source Roller Weblogger software. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife and three children.

Sing Li is a systems consultant, avid open source developer, and active freelance writer. With over two decades of industry experience, Sing is a regular contributor to printed magazines and e-zines, and has a sizable roster of book credits. Sing is an evangelist of the mobile Java, VOIP, and P2P evolution.

Matt Raible is a Montana native who grew up in a log cabin without electricity or running water. He would hike to school a mile and a half every day (skiing in the winter), and would arrive home to a very loving family. "The Cabin" is a gorgeous place that will always be near and dear to him. Even without electricity, his father connected the family to the Internet using a 300 Baud modem, a Commodore 64, and a small generator. CompuServe was the name, slow was the game. Matt became inspired by the Internet in the early 1990s, and has been developing websites and web applications ever since. He graduated from the University of Denver in 1997 with degrees in Russian, international business, and finance.

Reader Reviews
I have been a Java developer for five years now, and have worked with JSP and Servlets for a number of years. As many in the software industry can attest to, you can quickly get tied down working on applications that were initially designed several years ago. This can leave you with little time to explore all the new features that come out with the latest release of the Servlet and JSP specs. Wanting to get a handle on what JSP 2.0 has to offer, I decided to get a book on the subject matter that starts from the ground up. Although a lot of the material would be review for me, I always find it important to read this information over again as it helps to strengthen my overall understanding. `Pro JSP' is probably one of the best books on JSP that I have read in a long time. To me a good technical book needs to do three things. First it needs to explain how the technology works. Second, it needs to explain how best to use this technology in the real world. And finally, it needs to do the first two things in a clear and understandable manner. The reader shouldn't be left scratching their head trying to figure out what the author was trying to say. On the first point, `Pro JSP' does a thorough job of explaining the ins and outs of the JSP 2.0 release. The expression language, JSTL, tags, filtering, security, deployment; all of these important topics are covered. There are an amazing three chapters devoted to tags and another two chapters on filtering! The authors do an excellent job of focusing in on some of the more complex aspects of JSP and spending the time to fully explain all the nuances. Based on just the technical content alone, a person will walk away from this book with a solid understanding of the power available to them with JSP 2.0. But of course `JSP Pro' doesn't just end there. Unlike many books that simply throw a ton of information at you and then leave you to figure out how to use it, this book goes much further. The authors spend a considerable amount of time discussing the best practices to use when including this technology in your applications. From repeatedly hammering home the need to keep scriplets out of JSP pages, to the chapters devoted to web application patterns and performance enhancements, the reader will be left well prepared to use their newly acquired skills on their own projects. The writing itself is also very well done. The examples are short and to the point, and the writing is clear and understandable. I never found myself struggling to understand what the author was trying to convey, or tripping over complicated code to see the examples in action. The only caveat I would have would be with the last chapter dealing with using `Struts, Xdoclet, and Other Tools'. The authors recommend that the reader have an understanding of these tools before reading the chapter. They then dive right in to how to best use these tools without a lot of explanation. This may be just a little too much for someone coming to this book as a complete beginner to JSP. This chapter will of course prove invaluable to a more experienced programmer, but the abrupt change of pace from the rest of the book felt a little uneven. All in all I would definitely recommend this book to JSP programmers of all levels.