| Head First Servlets and JSP: Passing the Sun Certified Web Component Developer Exam (Brain-Friendly Guides) | 
| Authors: Bryan Basham, Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $24.99
You Save: $25.00 (50%)
Buy New/Used from $24.98
Avg. Customer Rating:   (132 reviews)
Sales Rank: 26112
Format: Illustrated
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 911
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 8 x 2.2
ISBN: 0596516681
Dewey Decimal Number: 005
EAN: 9780596516680
ASIN: 0596516681
Publication Date: August 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Looking to study up for the new J2EE 1.5 Sun Certified Web Component Developer (SCWCD) exam?
This book will get you way up to speed on the technology you'll know it so well, in fact, that you can pass the brand new J2EE 1.5 exam. If that's what you want to do, that is. Maybe you don't care about the exam, but need to use servlets and JSPs in your next project. You're working on a deadline. You're over the legal limit for caffeine. You can't waste your time with a book that makes sense only AFTER you're an expert (or worse, one that puts you to sleep).
Learn how to write servlets and JSPs, what makes a web container tick (and what ticks it off), how to use JSP's Expression Language (EL for short), and how to write deployment descriptors for your web applications. Master the c:out tag, and get a handle on exactly what's changed since the older J2EE 1.4 exam. You don't just pass the new J2EE 1.5 SCWCD exam, you'll understand this stuff and put it to work immediately.
Head First Servlets and JSP doesn't just give you a bunch of facts to memorize; it drives knowledge straight into your brain. You'll interact with servlets and JSPs in ways that help you learn quickly and deeply. And when you're through with the book, you can take a brand-new mock exam, created specifically to simulate the real test-taking experience.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 127 more reviews...
 Barely Useful for Certification October 24, 2008
I used Kathy Sierra's "Sun Certified Programmer & Developer for Java 2 Study Guide" to pass both of those certification exams with flying colors. Although the overly jokey format of that book was more cringe-worthy than engrossing, the book contained solid information and was somewhat easy to review, reference, and study with.
I already have a solid working knowledge of servlets and JSPs, so I wanted to find a book that was geared only for certification. I was very hesitant about purchasing this SCWCD book after seeing that it followed the useless Head First approach to teaching, but hoped that the actual information in the book would outweigh the shortcomings. I read the entire book, and took every practice exam but still came away thoroughly disappointed.
PROS:
- The authors are also involved in writing the actual exam, so they have solid observations about the specific types of questions you will see, and offer tips on areas requiring memorization, as well as possible trick questions.
CONS:
- The book tries to be both a "learn servlets and JSP" text and a "prepare for certification" text. These objectives are completely at odds with each other, and the book loses focus when trying to fulfill both. The certification thrust will confuse new developers just learning JSPs, and the learning thrust is extra fluff to wade through for the cert-minded (900 pages of fluff at that).
- Even at 900 pages, the book is not a comprehensive certification source. There were several instances where I encountered mock exam questions that had not been discussed in the text. Instead, the answer key referred me to the Sun specifications (free online). For example, the text devotes 2 pages to RequestDispatchers, and then poses 2 mock questions about query strings that aren't even covered. Later, the book provides a list of the commonly used ServletRequest methods along with the note "// MANY more methods". Of course, one of these unlisted methods is the answer to a mock question at the end of the book.
- There is no way to quickly review the contents of each chapter. I don't necessarily need a reference book, but the Head First approach takes you on several paths through related information, but doesn't step back and show you all the information at once. Some sub-chapters have bullet lists, but this is not consistent throughout.
- The humor is only funny in a "look at me, I'm funny!" way. Tech books can use subtle humor effectively (see Russ Olsen's "Design Patterns in Ruby") but the humor here really turned me off.
- The Head First approach adds a lot of fat that could have been trimmed. For example, the book takes you through 13 pages of examples on dynamic tag attributes before informing you that the approach is tedious and incorrect (the last page tells you to use the built-in DynamicAttributes interface instead).
- Typos abound, not all of which are in the published errata. Particularly egregious were the mock questions with completely wrong answers. The online errata showed nothing wrong, but loading the online copy of the book on the Safari O'Reilly site showed the answers magically correct. Another multiple choice question doesn't even have the options listed.
- For me, the Head First approach to teaching (visual learning, conversational style, keeping the reader's attention, and touching the reader's emotions) fails completely. Your mileage may vary, but a clear, concise lesson on these topics would have been much more effective than endless pages of bad cartoons and captioned kung fu movie screen caps.
As a comparison, I also read "Professional SCWCD Certification" by Jepp and Dalton. This book was perfect -- concise, easy to consult and review, and covering everything in a tome just 1/3 the size of the Head First book. Unfortunately, it covers an older edition of the SCWCD and does not cover SimpleTags, EL, or Tag files (the Filters section is smaller too). If they ever release a new edition, I'd recommend it with 5 stars in an instant.
Bottom Line: The fact that the authors of this book can give you an "inside look" at the style of the actual exam is all that keeps this book afloat as a certification text. Unfortunately, there aren't many other options that cover the most recent iteration of the exam. I got an 89% on the exam, but I equate this more to the free materials on JavaRanch and my pre-existing knowledge than this book.
 Great Intro into Servlets and JSPs October 16, 2008
Head First Servlets and JSP: Passing the Sun Certified Web Component Developer Exam (Brain-Friendly Guides)
Great introductory book into Servlets and JSPs. The authors didn't assume the reader knew much about web applications or what goes on in the background. With 1 year of Java knowledge/experience, I found this book easy to follow with the way it explained how things worked step by step, and by effectively using excellent diagrams and examples.
I bought this book to learn about Servlets and JSPs, not necessarily to take the certification exam; and as such I would recommend this book to anyone who has little or no knowledge of servlets and JSPs, and wants to dive into the subject.
 Awesome October 14, 2008
Book is very good you have to get use to this kind of book. It is different from others. It gets to the point.
Frustrating - 800 pages for 50 pages of info October 7, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is the exact opposite of what you want for a certificate book. The presentation of the material is story-based, meaning that instead of giving a simple fact, it gives a whole back story and then casually mentions the "punch-line". This makes this book 90% useless. Don't take my word for it, if you have access to the book, go to page: 550 to 565. There is no new information there. In fact the punchline can be summarized in a sentence. "Tags can have dynamic attributes, there must be a dynamic attribute in the TLD file, there is a function called setDynamicAttributes()". And a small example would help. That's it. About a quarter of a page of material takes 15 pages to present. Sometimes these punchlines are not even well explained at all. Stories, pictures, and the rest of this cutesy stuff is clutter.
I just took the SCJP (with Bates, Sierra book), and if I have to learn everything I did back then in this type of cutesy style, I'd have to read a 4000 page book. If you are the type of person that needs a long story and happy little pictures to learn simple facts, then you will have a horrible time as a programmer. In fact, the target audience, people who passed the SCJP, should find this style frustratingly slow and useless.
What's worse? The information is spread hap-hazardly and there are no end of chapter summaries. They sometimes have "bullet points", but those are randomly placed and sparingly used. This makes it an absolutely worthless reference book - especially in a test where it's so granular that you need to memorize what XML tags are in the web.xml file. There are many, many other problems with this book. It's 800 pages, and still doesn't have all the information needed. For example, I saw some functions that I never saw before in the book (setSecure in cookie). Also, there is no electric copy of the examples presented. Multiple authors have left their footprint everywhere, making it feel disjointed and long-winded. It's over 900 pages and soft cover, making it a physical pain to use and carry. The picture on the cover is so annoying that it's actually quite embarrasing to carry around at work. The mock exam is much harder than the real thing and will not give you an accurate prediction of how you will do in the real test.
In terms of the target audience, I think my profile is similar to many people reading this. I passed the SCJP recently. I know Java, and programmed in it for a while, but wasn't really experienced at all with Servlets and JSPs. Even though I'm a full-time developer, I don't use Servlets or JSPs, so my work wasn't going to add anything to my knowledge.
My suggestion - if you have this book, here's how to use it: DON'T READ IT AS A NORMAL BOOK. Nothing sticks, it sucks your time, and makes everything seem harder and more complicated that it really is. Read the headers, write the examples that are presented, and get the basic feel - an hour and a half per chapter max - that's it.. Ignore all the exercises as well. Afterwards, go to javaranch.com and get SCWCD notes and mock exams and use that as a your main learning tool. Why am I suggesting this is? I read half the book, and then just skimmed the other half, and I scored higher on the chapters that I skimmed through instead of read. In fact, you don't even need the book, as you can get the same mock exam online through a link on javaranch.com
So, in theory, if you can read 800 pages and be able to remember random, near hidden points here and there without every referring back to the book, then this book is perfect for you to get around 80% on the test. I'm going to assume that this is not you, and I hope you explore some other books or try the method I suggested above. The SCWCD is a very easy exam covering a small subset of J2EE (if it wasn't easy, JSP and Servlets wouldn't be used at all in the real world)- don't make it overly complicated and boring. The SCWCD was my second Sun certified test, and I just passed it today. I spent about 40 hours studying for it, and if I used a better book, I bet I could have cut 10 valuable hours off of it.
Good Surprise on Delivery by Amazon August 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I ordered for 'Head First Servlets & JSP' which shows 2004 edition on web-site. But much to my Surprise, I got March 2008 (2nd Edition) of the Book which is the latest version for the SCWCD 1.5 exam. Thanks to Amazon for giving the best.
-Sandeep Parmar
|
|
|
