Choosing a JSP book

[ARS Kumar]

Hi Mr.Bergsten,
Nice to have the opportunity to get opinion from you directly. In our company we will be having an internal JSP training end of this week. I have been told to collect JSP books for two different kinds of students.
1. Developers [ has Java knowledge, new to JSP ].
2. QA [ Some has java knowledge, some don't even know how CGI works ]
I kind of finalized your book as one of my choices for the developers as well as some of the QA members who are already familiar with programming.
Can you suggest some JSP book for the beginners ? Or do you think that even people with no specific java knowledge will be able to pick up from your book ? [ with the help of training. ]
Thanks for your time.

[Hans Bergsten]

Originally posted by ARS Kumar:
Hi Mr.Bergsten,
Nice to have the opportunity to get opinion from you directly. In our company we will be having an internal JSP training end of this week. I have been told to collect JSP books for two different kinds of students.
1. Developers [ has Java knowledge, new to JSP ].
2. QA [ Some has java knowledge, some don't even know how CGI works ]
I kind of finalized your book as one of my choices for the developers as well as some of the QA members who are already familiar with programming.
Can you suggest some JSP book for the beginners ? Or do you think that even people with no specific java knowledge will be able to pick up from your book ? [ with the help of training. ]
Thanks for your time.

It was definitely my intention that beginners should be able to learn from the book, primarily Part I and II, and I know that many have (especially people with an ASP, PHP or CGI background, but also people with just HTML and a little bit of JavaScript or VB knowledge). That said, people who have never "programmed" in any sense of the word probably need to read some chapters more than once and have access to someone to ask.

[David Walsh]

The one we used for my beginner is Core Servlets and JSP by Marty Hall. Even better is that you can download it for free at http://www.coreservlets.com .. You students will love that. Plus, it's well-written in a conversational style.

[Jeroen Wenting]

The APress (Wrox) book might be a good one to have as well.
While not that suitable as a teaching book (it can be used for self-study, but I think it's probably less suited in a classroom environment) you would do well to have it in your library as it contains a lot of useful information and usecases.

[Ko Ko Naing]

Originally posted by David Walsh:
The one we used for my beginner is Core Servlets and JSP by Marty Hall. Even better is that you can download it for free at http://www.coreservlets.com .. You students will love that. Plus, it's well-written in a conversational style.

David Walsh, Welcome to the Ranch!!!
If I am not wrong, that free downloadable ebook is in older edition, isn't it? There is a new edition of that Core Servlets and JSP by Marty Hall... I'm not sure whether the new edition of More Servlets is out or not...]
Just my 2 cents...

[Ko Ko Naing]

Originally posted by Jeroen Wenting:
The APress (Wrox) book might be a good one to have as well.

Hope this thread might be helpful for those, who are comparing Mr.Bergsten's book and Pro JSP from APress...

[Nigel Browne]

The tutorial from the source contains over two hundred pages on JSP

[Pradeep bhatt]

Originally posted by Nigel Browne:
The tutorial from the source contains over two hundred pages on JSP

The above tutorial is good for getting basics but in order to master the new JSP version we better go for some book. The tutorial was not good enough for the SCWCD beta exam.

[Nicholas Cheung]

For the issues of SCWCD beta, SUN really expects us to read a lot of resources, JSTL, EL, etc, together with the specifications.
In addition to these, SUN also wanna us to understand the concepts and how to apply the technolgoies differently with the same situation.
Thus, in order to master JSPs, we need to read lots of detail books, and tutorials, and the most important thing is, we need to have hands-on practice.
Nick.

[ARS Kumar]

Thanks for all the help. I will be picking up

JavaServer Pages, 3rd Edition
and
Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages, Vol. 1: Core Technologies, Second Edition
for the class reference.
Another book which our JSP developers like a lot is
Java Servlet & JSP Cookbook.
Regards
Suresh.

[Alvin chew]

have anyone try Murach's Java Servlets and JSP book before ?

[Pradeep bhatt]

Originally posted by Alvin chew:
have anyone try Murach's Java Servlets and JSP book before ?

It is a good book by I would recommend Hall. Moreover Murach's covers old spec.
[ March 10, 2004: Message edited by: Pradeep Bhat ]

[Nicholas Cheung]

Murach's book has a good discussion on Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2. If you are new to JSPs and Servlets, it is a good start.
The only disadvantage is, it does not cover the new specification Servlet 2.4 and JSP 2.0. In fact, in the Servlet part, the specification does not change a lot, however, in the JSP part, many new features are included, such as EL, JSTL 1.1, Simple Tag and Tag file.
If you wanna new knowledge besides the basic, you may need reading other books as well.
Nick.

[Pradeep bhatt]

I feel the book by Mr.Bergsten is great one to master new JSP spec.

[Nicholas Cheung]

I agree with Pradeep.
JavaServer Page 3rd edition covers all new areas in JSP, which is good for us to learn the new stuffs.
Nick.

[Ko Ko Naing]

There is one more option that covers the new specs as well as servlets(not only JSPs)...
Servlets and JSP: The J2EE Web Tier by Jayson Falkner, Kevin R Jones
That book was in the JavaRanch promotion about 6 weeks ago... BTW, I won that book in that promotion and I am reading that book these days... That book is really good as well... It covers almost all aspects in J2EE web tier... But comparing to Mr.Bergsten's JavaServer Pages, that book has less spaces for JSPs... As far as I see in the TOC, Mr.Bergsten's book covers details about JSPs than in Jayson Falkner & Kevin R Jones's book...
Just an alternative for choosing a servlet+JSPs book... I hope this might not affect the current book promotion... :roll:

[Nicholas Cheung]

I think Hans' book will be more detail in the aspect of JSP, because the book focus on JSP.
The book you won last time not only discuss JSP, but also Servlets, and J2EE patterns, and thus, it should be less focus than the book of Hans.
Nick.

[Pradeep bhatt]

Unlike the previous version, mastering JSP 2.0 requires lot of practice (EL etc). So buy a book which have more examples and less theory.

[Nicholas Cheung]

The book Beginning Jsp 2.0: Build Web Applications Using Jsp, Java, And Struts talks about JSP 2.0 as well, however, personally, I prefer O'Reilly's book because of the writing style.
Hope this book gives you an alternative.
Nick

[Surasak Leenapongpanit]

I used a "Web Development with JavaServer Pages, 2nd Edition" book. Did anyone read this book?