Web Services Book

[Chandra Gupta]

Hello all,

First of all I apologize for bringing this question/topic. You might have heard this question many times. But, I don't have any better option and my only hope is posting here at Javaranch as I heard there are a lot of Java experts here who could help newbies like me.

I have decent experience in Java but I don't have any experience in Web services. I have/want to learn Web Services and I want to buy a book on web services. I found that a lot (almost all) of books on web services in amazon.com had mixed reviews. So, I was unable to decide which book to buy to learn web services. I found these two books to have better reviews when compared to others:

1. Perspectives on Web Services: Applying SOAP, WSDL and UDDI to Real-World Projects
by Olaf Zimmermann, Mark R. Tomlinson , Stefan Peuser

2. J2EE Web Services: XML SOAP WSDL UDDI WS-I JAX-RPC JAXR SAAJ JAXP
by Richard Monson-Haefel

Are any of the above two books good for a beginner in web services? Could anyone please recommend me any book for learning Java based web services?

Thank you very much and once again I apologize for this question.

Yours Sincerely,
Chandra Gupta
[ June 30, 2008: Message edited by: Chandra Gupta ]

[Ulf Dittmer]

Welcome to JavaRanch.

While I can't comment on whether any of these is a good introduction (since I have read neither), I know that the Monson-Haefel is a bit outdated. E.g., it talks about the JAX-RPC API -which is deprecated- instead of JAX-WS. There's a newer book by Mark Hansen which covers the latest Java WSAPIs, but it's not a beginner's book IMO. You can find a review of it (and many other Java WS books) in the Web Services and SOAP section of the JavaRanch Bunkhouse.

[Chandra Gupta]

Thank you Ulf Dittmer for your suggestions. I saw the link you provided but most of the books there are also outdated according to amazon.com.

Could you please suggest me a good source(even something available on the web) to learn web services? Please help me. Also, is the book "J2EE Web Services by Richard Monson-Haefel" totally useless to learn web services?

Thank you very much

Regards,
Chandra
[ July 01, 2008: Message edited by: Chandra Gupta ]

[Jimmy Clark]

Your best bet to learn about service design is:

Enterprise SOA
Service-Oriented Architecture Best Practices
ISBN: 0131465759


Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Compass
ISBN: 0131870025

[Chandra Gupta]

Originally posted by James Clark:
Your best bet to learn about service design is:

Enterprise SOA
Service-Oriented Architecture Best Practices
ISBN: 0131465759


Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Compass
ISBN: 0131870025

Thank you for your suggestion James. Are those books suitable for beginners to web services like me? Also, it looks like those books do not cover the technical aspects of web services like UDDI, SOAP and WSDL (Please correct me if I am wrong) which I am interested in learning. Thank you very much for your help

Regards,
Chandra

[Jimmy Clark]

Are those books suitable for beginners to web services like me?

They sure are. Before you start programming "web services", you would do yourself a favor if you understood what they were, and what and how they should be used, and the different types of services that can exist.

If you understand this material first, and then learn to program services, you will be better off because you will understand what you are doing.

Reading these books will give you that understanding. Reading a few paragraphs on someone's web page is not sufficient.

Designing idempotent services, fine-grain, coarse-grain, single purpose, multi-purpose, general/domain specific, data services, process services, learning what an enterprise service bus is, role of service infrastructure, JBI runtime, service registry, service orchestration, etc. You can certainly search Google with these terms, but you will not get what reading these books will give you.

Good luck!
[ July 02, 2008: Message edited by: James Clark ]

[Chandra Gupta]

Thanks James for your suggestions.

Regards,
Chandra

[Jimmy Clark]

To quote a famous American actor, "no problemo"

[Chandra Gupta]

Hello James,

This question may be annoying but I have to ask this question at some point of time. After reading the above two books, which book(s) do I need to read in order to learn web services programming.

Thank you James.

Regards,
Sharath

[Ulf Dittmer]

Once you understand WS technology in general (SOAP, WSDL, REST etc.), the Mark Hansen book I mentioned earlier will teach you how to use them with Java.

[Jimmy Clark]

Chandra Gupta: After reading and learning the material in the books I mention, you will be able to clearly identify technical material best suited for your objectives.

As mentioned there are a lot of different, but related areas. Again, understanding the high-level concepts of a "service", a "web service", a "business process", a "composite service", a "business rule", will help you identify what you want to program.

[Nitin Gaur]

Apart from Mark Henson's book, another book has recently been published. I haven't read but it seems to be decent introduction.

Service Oriented Architecture with Java
by Malhar Barai (Author), Vincenzo Caselli (Author), Binildas A. Christudas (Author)
http://www.packtpub.com/service-oriented-architecture-for-java-applications/book

[Yogesh Gnanapraksam]

I am new to web services, any good books recently for beginners. This seems to be old thread ,so thought of a fresh question.

Thanks
Yogi