by Sue Spielman
Published by Morgan Kaufmann Review by Erich Pletsch JSTL is a useful technology for jsp programmers. JSTL—Practical Guide for JSP Programmers does a very good job of explaining the functionality available throughy the JSTL and of providing practical examples of the JSTL in action. However, the book lacks depth, and may better be viewed as a JSTL evangelism than as a JSTL guide. To programmers with interest in the JSTL as a freestanding technology, this is a good book to read. However, I would not recommend it to programmers that want to extend the JSTL or use it in conjunction with other technologies. I was particularly impressed with the way that the book started. The author began by helping someone who doesn't know anything about JSTL setup a JSTL environment. This section did lack some depth, and assumed that the reader understands things like classloaders, standard and extension library paths, and how most servlet engines work. But I would suggest that it would be helpful to just about anyone who is deploying JSTL for the first time. The book is a great introduction to the variety of functions available in the JSTL, especially to someone who is not familiar with the JSTL at all. Each of the core tags are explained in detail, including most of the functions available with each tag. Of particular interest to me were the ways in which the author used the JSTL to replace other technologies. With the approach that the author took, JSTL could indeed be used for just about anything. The book also provides numerous code examples of each tag in real JSP pages. The book shows the code, the result on execution, and often provides common mistakes or errors that a beginning programmer might make. Most tags are shown in at least one situation that a programmer would commonly use them in, rather than in abstract examples. And, as was mentioned in the previous paragraph, the author's use of the JSTL to do things that one might not normally use it for, helps the reader appreciate the powerful tool that it is. Moreover, as the book progresses, the examples build on each other to some extent, so that the reader begins to see some of the potential for complex JSTL interactions. However, I must admit that throughout the entire book, I felt like I was being spoon-fed the notion that JSTL is the only way to effectively write a JSP. For someone who has written JSPs for several years, it is hard to swallow that using the JSTL for common operations like writing a variable's value out to the page buffer is easier in JSTL than with a straight out.print(). Some of the examples presented did go over the edge that way, even to the point of being ludicrous. I also wanted to see examples of interaction with other technologies, like plain old jsp, or perhaps a brief example of JSTL with struts. And, I had hoped that the author might show how to extend the JSTL. Such examples were not to be found. So, although I did find the book to be useful, I would only recommend it to programmers with interest in the JSTL as a freestanding technology. I would not recommend it to programmers that want to extend the JSTL or use it in conjunction with other technologies.
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