Developing Java Web Services: Architecting and Developing Secure Web Services Using Java
by Ramesh Nagappan, Robert Skoczylas, Rima Patel Sriganesh
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (13 December, 2002)
list price: $50.00 -- our price: $50.00
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Reviews (36)

A decent intro to web services
This book is okay as a starting-point in learning Java web services. It attempts to cover a wide range of topics but fails to expand on some subtleties crucial to the understanding ofthese topics. One obvious example of this is the distinction between document-literal binding style and document-based web services. The book touchs on both concepts but stops right there without any explanations on how these concepts are related or not related, what are the implications of choosing a binding-style from the perspective of a web services developer or an admin, whether the choice of a binding-style determines the programming model, the API set, etc.
The authors tend to be loose from time to time with their use of terminologies and concepts. Admittedly, part of this is due to the state of the art of web services itself. That being said, some of the comments in the book are quite confusing and misleading. One example is found on page 454 of the book "JAX-RPC is also a best-fit solution over JAXM ... where high performance ... are defined as the key requirements." This is simply contrary to the common wisdom that loosely-coupled messaging applications usually out-perform their tightly-coupled RPC style counterparts when "performance" is defined as the system throughput. RPC style apps may offer a more predictable response time at the cost of inferior throughput. However, this point was never expanded on with any further information. Similar comments can be found throughout the book.
The writing style of the book is quite verbose and repetitive. Quite often the same point can be found twice or more in one paragraph.
With its shortcomings, the book is still a decent introduction to web services. However, I would recommend supplementing with other online sources. There are many wonderful technical articals on SUN's blueprint site, IBM and Oracle's developer communities.

Don't buy this book!
The other reviews saying "Repetitve and shallow content" are all 100% true.
It repeats itself over and over again. Is not only boring but it's also extremely hard to follow.
I'm an experienced java/jsp developer trying to get into web services, and this book only gave me frustration and disapointment.
When I started reading this book I thought that WS technologies were very complex and hard to understand. Then I realized the only thing hard to understand is this book.

I'm taking this book back to the store.

Good reference
I've been looking for a good reference book to help me in my web services project work, as I was not familiar with the topic. After reading the reviews I decided to give it a try and to my pleasant surprise, I've realized it's worth buying. I recommend this book for beginners as well as intermediate level. This book along with Morgan Kaufmann's "Java Web Services Architecture"(which I also purchased) would provide complete reference for web services.

The only drawback is that the book covers JWSDP1.1, but there's no big deal about it 'coz there's little difference between the current & previous versions of JWSDP. ... Read more

Isbn: 0471236403
Sales Rank: 149813
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. Data Processing - General    5. Internet - Web Site Design    6. Internet - World Wide Web    7. Programming - General    8. Programming Languages - Java    9. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    10. Java & variants    11. World Wide Web (WWW)   

Understanding Web Services: XML, WSDL, SOAP, and UDDI
by Eric Newcomer
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (13 May, 2002)
list price: $39.99 -- our price: $27.99
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Editorial Review

Web services, the new way of stitching data and processing resources together to form elaborate, distributed applications, aren't like other software systems. They differ even from other architectures for distributed applications. In his fantastic Understanding Web Services, Eric Newcomer helps his readers figure out what Web services are all about. This book is better than any other book out there in helping readers come to grips with the terms, technologies, behaviors, and design requirements that define the Web services universe. It's remarkably light on code--Newcomer's logic appears to be that you should dig into the details of implementation only after you thoroughly understand the design concepts--and emphasizes definition and exposition of SOAP, UDDI, WSDL, and ebXML.

Newcomer's work looks and reads almost like a notebook, with succinct statements in the margin (for instance, "SOAP processors first have to check the mustUnderstand attribute, if any"), adjacent to paragraphs that go into greater depth. He's careful to call attention to differences among the relevant standards documents, and points out differences among implementations. Graphical learners may wish for more conceptual diagrams, as there aren't a lot of them here. Newcomer's prose is brilliant, though, and it's pretty easy to determine what he means. Perhaps best of all, Newcomer isn't cheap with his opinions and forecasts. It's helpful to read his informed feelings and predictions. --David Wall

Topics covered: The specifications, implementations, and popular trends that define the Web services movement. Conceptual coverage of Extensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL), and the Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) protocol fills these pages. Emphasis is on how it all works rather than on how to program for it. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Good coverage, difficult read
I have been thrown into the web services technology without a parachute and this book has helped to put things into perspective. You are not going to sit down and write code from this book, but it does help to define all of the pieces of web services technology and get you started.

With that said, this was a difficult book to read because the writing style is very abrupt, does not flow, and reads like an old style academic textbook trying to impress and confuse the student. I've read more technical books that were easier to understand because they explain their subjects in more natural prose. I found myself frequently reading pages over one or more times.

Excellent overview book on the data side of XML
This book is about the data side of XML as opposed to the document side. It is the first excellent (and mature) one I read so far. It gives a thorough introduction to all relevant subjects. Its chapters are often more helpful than an entire book devoted solely to the chapter topic. Especially helpful I found a lot of explanations for seemingly simple or trivial things that nobody else explained and I admittedly did not dare to ask.

Good introductory book to Managers
Very nice book. I have been following some great technolgies over the last 10 years. With Web services, I was overwhelmed with the bundle of various APIs, tools, standards, specifications that emerged. This is a well written book for aspiring Web services enthusiasts. Almost all the chapters are covered in depth with high-level introductions to the technologies. ... Read more

Isbn: 0201750813
Subjects:  1. Application software    2. Computer Bks - Internet    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer Networks    5. Computer network protocols    6. Computers    7. Design    8. Hardware - Personal Computers - General    9. Internet - General    10. Internet - Web Site Design    11. Microcomputer Application Software    12. Networking - Network Protocols    13. Programming Languages - General    14. Web site development    15. Web sites    16. Computers / Internet / General   

Web Services Business Strategies and Architectures
by Mike Clark, Mark Waterhouse, Peter Fletcher
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (11 July, 2003)
list price: $39.99 -- our price: $39.99
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Reviews (6)

Way too high level to be useful...
If you are looking for a high-level book on Web Services, then this book is OK. Otherwise save your money and buy a book that outlines Web Services from the architecture perspective.

Excelente Referencia
Este libro es una excelente referencia acerca del tema, ya que da la visisón de negocios de la Arquitectura de los WebServices, la integración de sistemas legados, ERPS, CRM, etc. Es un compilado de varios artículos que reune las mejores prácticas en el diseño, desarrollo e implantación de WebServices, es una buena forma de introducir el tema desde la perspectiva de visión de negocios.

Very high level book - Definitely not an Architecture book
(-) Don't set big expectations on this book especially if you are looking for defining a Web services architecture.
(-) Does not address the Webservices implementation complexities especially Transactions, Security, Interoperability etc. (I WAS LOOKING FOR IT)
(+) This book is full of high level content if you want to know the basic story of Web services and where you can apply them. ... Read more

Isbn: 1590591798
Sales Rank: 244425
Subjects:  1. Business    2. Computer Bks - Internet    3. Computer Books: Web Publishing    4. Computer network architectures    5. Computers    6. Data processing    7. Information Technology    8. Internet - Web Site Design    9. Internet - Web Site Directories    10. Web site development   

J2EE Platform Web Services
by Ray Lai
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (15 August, 2003)
list price: $49.99 -- our price: $32.99
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Reviews (7)

atrocious code
Have a look at the code snippet on pages 138-139.It's terrible.I've let go of a couple of coders over the years on the basis of their poor coding practices, and this reminds me of their stuff.Yeah, I know... the thrust of the book is big-picture high-level architecture, so nit-picking on coding style may be missing the point, but in the design and architecture area as well, I'm seeing impressive-looking diagrams and hifalutin claims of superior insights that, on closer examination, reveal a disorganized and indiscrimate jumble.Right now, I'm inclined to return the book.This book might impress your managers, but it shouldn't impress you.

Not For Programmers
When I obtained this book, I would looking for some in the trenches guidence on how to code web services using Apache Axis.The table of contents suggested that this might be an appropriate book for my needs.

I should have read the Amazon reviews first.This is not a programmers guide, but a guide for architects and managers.

This was a huge disappointment for me.

Didn't give me any clue on how to build web services on J2EE
This book is not very useful for the average designer who wants to implement web services on a J2EE platform. It is more for managers and high level architects. It spends alot of pages on topics like business cases and ebXML, but JAX-RPC is covered in one single page. It does not focus on the core technologies you need to build a web service on a J2EE platform. The WS-I basic profile is hardly mentioned.
If you are a programmer/designer/architect you should have a look at the book "J2EE Web Services" by Richard Monson-Haefel instead. ... Read more

Isbn: 0131014021
Sales Rank: 222170
Subjects:  1. Application software    2. Business enterprise    3. Computer Bks - Internet    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computer Networks    6. Computer Programming Languages    7. Computers    8. Data Processing - General    9. Data processing    10. Development    11. Internet - General    12. Internet - World Wide Web    13. Programming Languages - Java    14. Web services    15. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   

Building Web Services with Java: Making Sense of XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI
by Steve Graham, Simeon Simeonov, Toufic Boubez, Glen Daniels, Doug Davis, Yuichi Nakamura, Ryo Neyama
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (12 December, 2001)
list price: $49.99
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Reviews (32)

sample code is not complete
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
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 isjust a so-so book in an excellent one.

Poor for working schmucks, great for students
This book can be summed up in one word: bloated.It is too heavy and based on theory rather than real-world examples and summarized concepts.I am a product developer in the working world, and I simply don't have time to churn through this huge book.The only chapter that was slightly relevant was the one on Apache Axis.If you want to learn the ins and outs of web services from a theoretical and architectural standpoint, this might be your book.Otherwise I would go with another book if you want working examples and concise writing. ... Read more

Isbn: 0672321815
Sales Rank: 148458
Subjects:  1. Application software    2. Client-Server Computing - General    3. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    4. Computer Books: Languages    5. Computer Programming Languages    6. Computers    7. Development    8. Distributed Computer Systems    9. Java (Computer program languag    10. Java (Computer program language)    11. Miscellaneous Software    12. Operating Systems - General    13. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    14. Programming Languages - HTML    15. Programming Languages - Java    16. Web site development    17. Web sites    18. Computers / Programming Languages / HTML, SGML, VRML, XML