While the look and feel of an enterprise web application is certainly important, developers usually find themselves spending far too much time on the front-end presentation before they can get to coding the good stuff--the business logic at the heart of the program. Jakarta Struts addresses this issue by combining Java Servlets, Java ServerPages (JSP), custom tags, and messaging resources (like Java Message Service) into a unified, re-usable framework. The result is a cooperative, synergistic platform that's efficient and suitable for independent developers, large development teams, and everyone in between. The Struts Framework has become a highly popular open source project, but there's still woefully little documentation on the technology. What does exist is far too basic and lacks critical information for developers like you writing today's complex web applications. The revised and expanded Programming Jakarta Struts, 2nd Edition covers everything the successful earlier edition did--including an overview of the concepts involved in writing web applications; installation and configuration instructions for getting Struts up and running; a thorough discussion of how Struts implements the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design paradigm (known as the Model 2 approach) and how to interface with that pattern in your own applications; Logging, Validation, and Exception Handling with Struts; using Tiles; writing internationalization and localization code using Struts; and practical, real-world best practices for web applications--as well as plenty more: now fully up to date with Struts 1.1, this edition covers the latest material on tag libraries and the new JavaServerFaces (JSF) APIs and even includes all-new chapters on JSF, JSTL/EL, and security. With each enterprise system he s developed, author Chuck Cavaness has spent many grueling hours learning invaluable lessons about Struts and figuring out the dos and the don'ts of building web applications. He saves you time and headaches by sharing that invaluable real-world experience here, with his realistic, practical, here's how to do it approach to using the Struts Framework to its fullest potential.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 77 Ratings

Not a tutorial - Don't buy if you want to learn struts - 2006-08-10
Reviewer Rating:
This book should not be viewed as a tutorial. If you know nothing about struts and you want to learn, do not buy this book. You will only confuse yourself.

It makes a great reference once you already know how to use struts, but you cannot learn struts from this book - at least how to code an app.

Simply put, the author does not write this as a tutorial. It does have a running example but it is not a learning book.

Best (but FEW YEARS AGO!) - 2009-03-08
Reviewer Rating:
Outdated, but it was one of the best about Struts. But I gave it 4 stars because it was really my fav.

Good content... but a-whole-lotta-"shoulds" - 2008-03-24
Reviewer Rating:
The book provides a good, basic foundation for working with Jakarta Struts from 1.1 and on. From beginner to advanced developer you'll get a good overview of what Struts is, does and some little details about the inner workings that you will benefit from knowing. Clear, concise examples make it a wonderful intro and reference.

However... the downside to the book is that the author constantly talks about and goes too in-depth into the "shoulds" of development (i.e. separating business layer from presentation, MVC etc. etc. etc.). This is not a topic for the book and results in a lot of things that could have trimmed the book down (and the cost). There's just a whole lot that he didn't need to get into that made reading it a bit of a bore at times (since it's all standard stuff everyone already knows).

Great book... just be ready to skip a bunch of sections in it.

Not very good - 2008-03-21
Reviewer Rating:
i've just joined a new company using struts. i am a java programmer of more than 5 years but completely new to struts, this is the book i was given by my boss but i cant understand it. My main problem is that there are no good examples to follow as if the writter assumes you know struts already. In one word, disjointed.

Thorough Review - 2006-06-21
Reviewer Rating:
The previous book I had on Struts did a poor job of... well, everything. It is called "The Struts Framework" and the main reason I bought it was because it was a manageable 150 pages long. (Am I the only one tired of several hundred page tech books?)
This bably logs in at around 400 pages and does a far better job of explaining what Struts is all about - both fundamentally and specifically. I read the first few introductory chapters and then just checked out the areas I was intrested in. The concepts were presented clearly and the corresponding examples weren't overly complex.
Probably the biggest downside to this book is that it covers Struts 1.1, and today Struts is at 1.2.9, which means 1.3 can't be far away. (Man, writing tech books and then keeping them up-to-date has got to be one tough job!)

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Internet/Online
Programming

Sub-Categories:
Internet/Online > Java
Internet/Online > Web Development
Programming > Java