HF Servlets update

[Bert Bates]

I just talked to the publisher yesterday afternoon.

The fastest ways to get the book will be through Amazon or through the O'Reilly site, of course you won't get a discount through the O'Reilly site. Amazon placed a pretty big order for the books, but the customer pre-orders are also big. The publisher believes Amazon will start shipping books to customers somewhere between 8/25 and 8/27.

One note of caution! Amazon uses a "just in time" sort of inventory approach. If their first batch of books sells out, it only takes a few days to get a new batch and start shipping again, but the Amazon site might say scary things like "2-3 week delivery". Don't Panic! Once they're shipping, they should be released from Amazon in a fairly steady stream.

Depending on the individual bookstore, (and there are a ton of variables!), the book should arrive between 8/31 and maybe 9/10.

Of the other online booksellers, Bookpool might be your best bet after Amazon.

Hope this helps , and as we get more news we will post it here!

Thanks,

Bert

[Matt Henderson]

Hey Bert,

My sincere appreciation for publishing books that the public has wanted all along. My question is this: are you guys using Struts as the focal point to tie all of the issues related to the certification? I think its good that you've done that.

[Bert Bates]

Hey Matt,

I would say that MVC principles run through the entire book, as do OO design principles. We cover Struts at a high level in the chapter where we talk about J2EE patterns for web applications.

Servlets and JSPs are a HUGE topic! In general our philosophy is to write our books with a specific focus, and try not to be everything to everyone. This book is intended to give you a solid foundation in servlet and JSP technologies. It's not a guru's guide to advanced servlets. It's not a total coverage of the Struts framework.

There are over 2300 Java books for sale on Amazon! 2300!! IMHO there is no single servlets book, or EJB book, or core Java book, or Swing book,,, blah, blah, blah

So, once you're well grounded in these Java web technologies, you'll probably want to go and explore certain avenues in greater depth - we hope that after reading HF servlets, you'll have a solid launching pad from which to take off and explore where ever you want to

I guess the short answer is, this isn't a Struts book (but we hope it will be a good intro to Struts).

- Bert

[Tom Hill]

Any chance of a preview of the table of contents - it would probably answer a lot of questions like that?
Or would it spoil the surprise?

Tom

[Bert Bates]

Hey Tom,

I think a TOC preview is a great idea!

These are just the highlights, you should be able to fill in the small gaps

Intro - Brain based learning, what you need, the exam...

1 - Why use servlets? (http, html, urls, micro tutorial) 34 pages
2 - Wep app architecture (container basics and an MVC intro) ~30 pgs
3 - Mini MVC tutorial (iterative development of a tiny MVC app) ~ 20 pgs
4 - Being a Servlet (request, response, params, headers, redirect, req. disp) ~ 45 pgs
5 - Being a web app (init params, serv. config, serv context, listeners, attrs, threads) ~ 55 pgs
6 - Conversational state (session id's, cookies, binding listener, migration...) ~ 25 pgs
7 - JSPs (basics: JSP elements, syntax, directives, expressions, variables, decl, implicit objs, lifecycle...) ~40 pgs
8 - Script free (EL, std actions, dot op, [ ] op, implicit, include, forward...) ~ 70 pgs
9 - Using custom tags (forEach, if, choose, set, remove, param, url, catch, rtexprvalue, TLD...) ~40 pgs.
10 - Building custom tags (tag files, tag handlers, classic, iteration, TagSupport, BodyTag, PageContext...) ~ 55 pgs
11 - Deployment (WAR, servlet mapping, welcome,error, JSP document...) ~30 pgs
12 - Security (authentication, authorization, confidentiality, data integrity, HTTPS...) ~35 pgs
13 - Filters (life cycle, declaring, ordering, request filter, response filter, wrappers) ~ 20 pgs.
14 - Enterprise patterns (JNDI, RMI, Bus Del, Serv Loc, Trans OBj, MVC, Struts, Front Cont, Struts example) ~ 45 pgs.

Final mock exam ~ 75 pgs.

Notes:

- The final mock has 69 q's - just like the real exam...
- Another 138 q's (2 more exams worth) are sprinkled throughout the book.

Hope that helps.

Bert

[Ray Yu]

Hi Bert Bates:

Is that have CD rom include in this book?
If yes, is that CD rom have E-book that contain whole book content in PDF file?

Thanks

[Bert Bates]

Hey there Fire Fox;

First I'll put my moderator's hat on and say "please fix your name to align with basically our only rule other than "be nice" ".

Now I'll put my author hat on and say, sorry, no CD. We're kicking around the idea of PDFs but security is a big issue, and we gotta eat

The other big problem with a CD is that it raises the price of the book, and most people we've talked to don't think it's worth the extra cost.

We are however always open to new ideas or approaches

- Bert

[Chandra Vadlamani]

Hi Bert,

Is the www (wickedly smart website perhaps!) a bad idea for posting the electronic version of the book, granted it might affect the sales! I love to have the electronic version of the chapters which was a lot help with SCJP 1.4 when i had to read while i was at my office or while traveling.

I am buying the book no questions but would also love to have the electronic version as well if possible! I love your books so much can't complain about any thing PERIOD.

[Tom Hill]

Theres always someone tho that wouldnt agree with copywrite laws - What would be useful on the CD would be the code examples - and the chances are that Bert/Kathy will put them to download on WickedlySmart - like HF.
The book looks really, really interesting by the way - obviously a lot of work has been put into it - only a few more days to wait for!

[Joe McIntyre]

... sorry, no CD. We're kicking around the idea of PDFs but security is a big issue, and we gotta eat

Don't do it (the CD, that is). The book is worth 3 times what Amazon will charge for it, and y'all deserve every penny you get from the sales of the excellent HF series.

[Ray Yu]

Yes, I agree!
That 1st priority is to relelase the book as soon as possible!

[Mark Jones]

Hi,

I'm a little confused because the date has been moved again on amazon.co.uk to 30th September 2004. Is this accurate?

Regards
Mark

[Kshitij Ktambe]

Originally posted by Mark Jones:
I'm a little confused because the date has been moved again on amazon.co.uk to 30th September 2004. Is this accurate?

Dear Mark see this reply from one of the authors.

Originally posted by Bert Bates:
Amazon site might say scary things like "2-3 week delivery". Don't Panic! Once they're shipping, they should be released from Amazon in a fairly steady stream.

Depending on the individual bookstore, (and there are a ton of variables!), the book should arrive between 8/31 and maybe 9/10.

Authors have done whatever they could. Ball is now in the court of publisher and distributors so stay tuned as I have been for the last 3 months.