Java Servlet and JSP Cookbookby Bruce W. Perry
Published by:
O'Reilly & Associates
746 pages
Retail Price: $44.95
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An ever growing number of web sites are utilizing Java for dynamic web page creation. The most popular include the U.S. Postal Service, Sams Warehouse, and Half.com (soon to be absorbed by eBay). The book's content leans more towards server management solutions for BEA WebLogic (an Enterprise JavaBeans server) and Tomcat servers as container engines for Java servlets and JSP, with over 200 practical examples represented. JSP tag libraries are covered in detail, as well as JSTL (JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library) in surprising detail. A chapter is especially devoted to Apache Ant, a Java replacement build tool for make. Several chapters cover ways to use Java pages with Javascript, databases, authentication, and with setting cookies. Another interesting chapter focuses on using JSP and servlets with the prominent web services available from Amazon and Google.
Most books on the subjects gloss over Java servlets and JSP, or either reiterate what is in the Java documentation. This is the best book I have seen on the subjects (as a co-author of Professional JSP myself), and covers all the bases exceptionally well with examples throughout.