Need Book and WEB Server suggestions.

[Edisandro Bessa]

Hi guys,

Last saturday morning I eaten the SCJP5 exam scoring 91%. Now I've decided to continue my study journey aiming the SCJWCD certification.

Could you please suggest me the best book for that ?

I've heard that Head First Servlets and JSP and SCWCD Exam Study Kit Second Edition. (Also known as Manning Book) would be considered as better choices.

Is it really necessary two books or can I purchase only one book instead ?

I also heard that I should download the specs for JSTL as an authoritative source for some specific doubts not covered in the two books above. Is it true ? Don't the book covers all exam objectives ?

I also would really appreciate if you could tell me what programs I need to study. I've heard that I would need Tomcat 5.5 or Sun Application Server 8.2 or JBoss as Web Server as well as a good IDE such as NetBeans.

I have no JSP/Servlets background and I'm really a JSP/Servlet newcomer.

Finally, I also have a dilema : Should I go for SCDWCD or SCDJWS ?

Recently, I also heard here that SCWCD would become obsolete in a few years because of the possibility of some super-language/the-code-generating-supertool will make servlets/jsp/j2ee obsolete. So now, I'm really in doubt about what should I consider.

As I know nothing about these two certifications, I really would like to hear your valuable opinions about that.

Any comments would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance.

Edisandro.

[Bernd Hennson]

Edisandro,

the choice of a study guide is not that easy, i personally found the hfsj layout to confusing, but the mock questions are superb while the "SCWCD Exam study kit" was an ok book which could sport more mock questions.
Just buy one book and head for those free mock exams on the net. For preparation you will need nothing but tomcat 5.5.x and an ide that supports web-projects (servlets,jsps), such as eclipse.
regarding my post in another thread: i didn't say java web components will become obsolete in a few years, I just mocked about "better future" of certain technologies because it-standards behave in funny/political ways and THE technology of today may become old crap in a few years. That's why it-learning is always good but don't go for the narrow-minded "java ueber alles"-attitude, focus on one big thing and suddenly realise that everyone else is using the stuff from the dark side. Be prepared for technology changes, stay open-minded and become versatile - that's my way of surviving in a bull it-world.
I'm personally going for scwcd because it's an nice-to-have and although I am using jsp/servlet stuff at work there was (and still is) a lot of details I did not know about until preparing for the certification.
If I were you I'd go for scwcd first too get acquainted to the muddy waters of web programming before jumping into web services.

whatever you do, just do it.

[Edisandro Bessa]

Thanks Bernd for your valuable reply