Mr. Bergsten - how do you recommend to read this book

[Mike Firkser]

Sounds like a stupid question, but here is what I mean. Is this a book you just pick up and read cover to cover, or one you browse through to be familiar with the contents, and then keep by your desk for easy reference?

[Nigel Browne]

I was wondering the same thing. Is this book meant for a beginner who has never programmed jsp before and if so to which level can a reader be expected to be taken after reading the book?

[Nicholas Cheung]

I think the book is for both beginners (former chapters) and intermediate (latter chapters). You will find it useful for understanding JSP 2.0 concepts.
Nick.

[Ko Ko Naing]

By seeing the following portion of the book description, you might find that the book is for two types of audience... But for more details about the level about those types of audience, we may need to wait for the author to reply to us... Anyway, the following passage might help you to realsize the level of the book...

This book recognizes the different needs of the two groups of professionals who want to learn JSP: page authors interested in using JSP elements in web pages, and programmers concerned with learning the JSP API and using JSP effectively as a part of an enterprise application. If you're in the first group, you'll learn from the practical web application examples in the second part of the book. If you're in the latter group, you'll appreciate the detailed coverage of advanced topics in the third part, such as how to integrate servlets and JavaBeans components with JSP using the popular Apache Struts MVC framework, and how to develop custom tag libraries using the JSP API, with realistic examples that you can use as a springboard for your own libraries.

[Hans Bergsten]

Originally posted by Mike Rutgers:
Sounds like a stupid question, but here is what I mean. Is this a book you just pick up and read cover to cover, or one you browse through to be familiar with the contents, and then keep by your desk for easy reference?

As described in the quote Ko Ko Naing posted, the book is targetted to both Page Authors (people who primarily develop JSP pages using JSP elements, JSTL and custom tag libraries developed by others) and to Java programmers (who develop servlets, filters, beans, custom tag libraries, etc.). Part I and II are primarily intended for the first category and doesn't require much programming experience, while Part III is the focus for the latter category and assumes that you know Java but explains the servlet API, the JavaBeans conventions, and enough of JNDI and JDBC to understand the examples.
It's a tutorial-style book, intended to be read cover to cover. It also contains appendixes with tag library, JSP EL, and Servlet/JSP API reference material.
I've heard from many readers who keep it at their side as a reference book after reading it. I use the appendixes and some of the chapters myself when I need to look up some details.

[Ko Ko Naing]

Originally posted by Hans Bergsten:

It's a tutorial-style book, intended to be read cover to cover. It also contains appendixes with tag library, JSP EL, and Servlet/JSP API reference material.
I've heard from many readers who keep it at their side as a reference book after reading it. I use the appendixes and some of the chapters myself when I need to look up some details.

Yeah, that's right. I do believe that almost all books published by Oreilly are tends to be tutorial-style book... They may need to be read chapter by chapter... But when I was preparing for the SCWCD Beta Exam, I used the sample chapter of this book to study about the Tag Files Implementation... That chapter is excellent and it was not difficult to read that chapter, even though I hadn't read the chapters before it...
What I mean is that if someone is able to fetch the concept enough, then he/she can use this book as a reference book as well...