33 of 33 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Beware this book, Jun 22 2005
By Steven M. Whitlatch - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Scwcd Exam Study Kit: Java Web Component Developer Certification (Paperback)
The first edition of this book was for the 310-080 exam. It was quite good. The updates for the second edition are not written by the original authors. So, you should automatically be suspicious. If you are, your suspicions are warranted. The second edition does not thoroughly cover the details of the updated JSP spec (2.0) as you would expect. For example, this new edition does not cover the details of how a 2.0 compliant JSP engine (test 310-081) locates a TLD as opposed to how previous JSP engines located a TLD (test 310-080), and you are expected to know both. I found this deficiency just glancing through the new book (chapter 15 in both editions). In contrast, the OReilly book (Basham, Sierra, Bates) covers this specific subject very well. I expect to find more of the same deficiencies in the second edition of Manning's SCWCD Exam Study Kit. If you are studing to pass the 310-081 exam, get both books (the Manning book and the O'Reilly book), but rely on the OReilly book as the final authority for everything. If you do that, the Manning book can be useful as it takes a traditional teaching approach and is mostly well written.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but don't use it as the only reference for the exam, Oct 15 2005
By Edson Yanaga - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Scwcd Exam Study Kit: Java Web Component Developer Certification (Paperback)
The only reference I've read for the exam was this book and although I've passed the SCWCD exam I must say: it is not a complete reference.
Particularly weak are the Servlet Container Model and EL sessions. It does not cover the servlet container objects life cycle (filter, listeners and servlets).
The questions in the 310-081 exam are much more difficult than the questions presented in the book.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Do not buy this book, Oct 25 2005
By Carlitos "Crash" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Scwcd Exam Study Kit: Java Web Component Developer Certification (Paperback)
Having bought both O'Reilly's SCWCD exam study guide and this one (SCWCD study kit 2nd. ed) I can tell you this: There is not a single reason to buy this one!!
Think about this:
a) Deployment descriptors were not updated to reflect the new XML Schema document definition instead of Servlet 2.3's DTD reference. Although this is not crucial for successful web application deployment, it makes me think Manning didn't invest enough time/resources to release this 2nd. edition
b) As of the 9 chapters I have read, the authors do no more than describe (in a quite arid manner) Servlet API classes and methods, leaving out the rationale behind the API design and proper usage.
c) At the end of chapter 9, namely in the "Summary" section, you can read a reference to the following chapter dealing with the "development of thread-safe servlets". It is not possible as the following chapter is about JSPs and no threading issues are treated in chapter 10. This makes me think they did not revise nor update the whole of the book, as the back cover states.
d) Do you really need any more comments?
Go straight ahead and get O'Reilly's!!!