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Google, Amazon, and Beyond
The first two chapters are introductory material, though the authors quickly introduce some code with JavaScript routines to talk to both Google and Amazon. The second of them does a good job explaining the intricacies of DOM and how you use it to build a web page in Java. Then the authors get down to some serious work at using Java, including stand-alone applications and applets, to access web services.
They move fast throughout the book; this is not one to read quickly or without ready access to a computer. That said, the writing is good; the text is understandable and all the code is well explained.
The book covers a wide gamut of techniques and technologies, including SOAP and REST on the query side, and XSLT and XPath on the output side.
Then the book moves on to instructions for offering your own services. This part of the book starts off with WebDAV using Tomcat, though there is a short digression into Java Server Pages before really getting down to the nitty gritty. Finally the book shows how to use WSDL and Axis to easily create full web applications.
You can see that this volume covers a lot of territory. This breadth may well be the book's largest flaw; its wide reach means no topic gets a really deep coverage and a number of topics do not get the coverage they deserve. Indeed I would have to say that only a much better Java programmer than I would get full value from this volume -- there were parts where the authors lost me entirely and it took an effort to get back my understanding, occasionally resorting to a Java manual.
The publishers have a page for the book that has an example chapter, table of contents, index and source code. The example chapter, 4, details how to build a SOAP server using Java and provides an excellent example for the book. If you're a little unsure of your Java skills, take a look at this chapter and see if you can easily understand the code and explanation. If you can, then this volume should have no surprises for you.
It should be said that nothing about the book's cover tells you how much of it relies on Java, though a good read of the table of contents makes it obvious. I would have personally preferred a book that was more general in the programming language it used, covering more of the tactics and methods rather than examining specific code. If, on the other hand, you are an experienced Java programmer looking for a book on programming web services in that language, then this is an excellent volume.
You can purchase Google, Amazon, and Beyond from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Well, yes and no.
I think Web Services has its place. Is it going to "change the face of the web"? Perhaps, but not like the marketers say.
Let's be realistic. Web Services, as you said, started getting big 2 years ago. Which means that is when most PHBs heard about it. And it represents a fundamental change in the way a lot of businesses function. Which means that it will take a significant amount of time to adopt.
My personal feeling is that there are a lot of uses for it. Once we can get through the phase of competing standards, matching XML formats, etc, it is a useful tool.
But to call it huge, I don't know. Does it have it's place? Absolutlely. We've used it to get disparate systems talking to one another, which, granted, could have been done with Corba, or anything else. But the learning curve is much faster for the Junior programmers.
On the flip side, I think it is wrong to say it is going the way of the dodo. It has its use. Just like XML has its use. They *can* change the way businesses are run, but in the end, they will help in instances where they are needed, and save (or make) the companies money.
Random Musings