Hi,

I bought this book as well as all other books on the topic AND took the training at Apple. Conclusion:

If you want/need to learn WebObjects, take the course at Apple (become good in Java first !) because no book available on the market today will really allow you to get passed the many subtilities of this environment. The learning cure is very steep. Get ready to become a Java guru otherwise you'll be totally lost.

As for this book, the Authors intent are very good, but I could not complete any of the very good techniques described. It gives you an idea of the potential WebObjects has, but it's not a HOWTO kind of book. The examples used are full of errors an ommissions which makes it impossible to fully understand the otherwise valuable techniques the authors are trying to explain. As a proof, I could not compile any applications by doing the exercices, only when downloading it from Wrox's very poor website. When analysing the downloaded source with the book's explanations, I discovered all the hidden java code required to compile the application. That's very frustrating because what they were describing was exactly what I wanted to learn.

The chapters on Direct2Web were great but a whole book would be required on the subject. The D2W apps I've tried with it generated too many errors and no one to turn to for help. D2W potential sounds very good, but it's ONLY for experts in Java I guess.

Anyway, it's still worth buying it, hopefully an errata page will eventually be publish or a second edition to finish the otherwise excellent effort. This book is really for experts only with a very good experience in WebObjects, Java, HTML and sql.

I found Ruzek's book much easier to read.

Regards,

I started coding WO almost 2 years ago now and I sure wish I had this book sitting on my shelf when I started! To be honest I have not read this book from cover to cover, but I did browse all the chapters and the earlier chapters would have turned on the light bulb a lot quicker for me when starting out.

Having said that, this book is not limited to beginners. I have recently started the process of learning DirectToWeb and this book has already paid for itself with just the couple of D2W chapters there are. These chapters are especially important because D2W documentation is sorely lacking in the WO world.

A must have for any WO developers shelf.

OK .. I haven't completed the book yet! But, I have skimmed it entirely. The is one of the best computer books that I have read! WebObjects is deep, there is a lot to it. To use WebObjects one cannot not simply skim documentation and then start to hack away on a project. I started with one of the other books which was good, but effort wasn't yeilding my desired results.

After going throuh the work of reading, doing the excercises and digesting, I need to produce! I kept thinking, just go back to using servlets this ain't worth it. The other book wasn't exposing WebObjects well enough to get me psyched.

The quality of this book and clarity that it is giving me, has kept me working through the chapters. It is well detailed and fun to read. The book's projects are very good, and worthwhile. I feel that when done, my work will have been justified. This is not just a 50 pound redo of readily available product documentation, like so many other books. Most nerds can't write, these guys do, and they did an excellent job.

Next, I'd like to see a refernece manual.

This book is not worth the time. Only libraries, craving other points of view, should buy this.

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