Book Review: Head First Servlets and JSP

This book is actually 2 years old now and hopefully there will be an updated edition out soon as the book deals with Java 1.4.

The book is part of the collection of "Head First" books and this particular title was written by Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates and Bryan Basham. The first two authors are involved in co-ordinating the Sun Certified Programmer exams. I should make it clear that the book is actually for those intending to take the Sun Certified Web Component Developer Exam but even if you are not interested in sitting that exam the book is still useful.

The book subject matter covers the basics of JSP's and Servlets plus Expression Language, developing your own custom tags, web application security and struts.

The book is set out in the normal style of the Head First Series. This style being lots of graphics, at least two ways to explain important points and repetition to ensure that you remember what you just read. Each chapter ends with a list of questions so you can practise what you have learnt and there are frequent highlighted boxes throughout the book informing you what you do and don't need to know for the exam plus useful information for those needing to learn the information for work purposes. At the end of the book is a mock exam covering material from all the chapters.