Enterprise Java Programming with IBM WebSphere

If you are familiar with Java and want to learn how WSAD works together with concrete non trivial examples, then this is the book for you.As a developer, I wanted to get books with no "gaps". i.e I dont want to read the book and go through an example and think "fine but you just went from step A to C, where is step B?". The code comes on a CD, and one chapter can be accessed via the authors website.In my previous job, I had to pick up WSAD on the fly and did not fully understand how it fits together. This book explains in detail how WSAD works, and you work your way from a trivial web application, to struts, mappers, session and entity beans, messaging, and web services.IMHO it also has a good balance between code, and description of why one should develop in the given direction .e.g from mappers to EJB.My only criticisms are;1) Chapter14 was missing from the code examples, but I found it later on the authors website.2) Appendix A contains really important information that should be at the front of the book as a must read.Conclusion: The book is Hardback and represents excellent value for money. If you want to know WSAD and J2EE buy it.

OK, so this isn't a beginner's text. It has literally thousands (yes, thousands) of typos. Why 5 stars? This is simply the best book on explaining and demonstrating J2EE concepts that I've read, and I've read many.It's virtually impossible to find this much valuable info in one place. And please, don't bash this book until you've read the whole thing (which you may need to do more than once!).The code on the CD works. As far as showing incomplete printed examples, do you really want every line of code printed in the book? Given the level of developer this book targets, they strike a fine balance of what goes on the existing 900 pages and what can be browsed on the CD. The only topic I had trouble digesting was their discussion on Mapper Objects (Ch. 16), but it's easy enough to understand the code.I have yet to find a large technical book without lots of errors. I would rate the editing job on this book as 1.5 stars because of the abundance of seemingly careless typos. However, they're minor annoyances that don't detract from this technically correct marvel of a book. As developers, we need useful information. This book more than delivers and is worth every penny.