Reviews for Professional XML Development with Apache Tools: Xerces, Xalan, FOP, Cocoon, Axis, Xindice (Wrox Professional Guides)

1. Not particularly good

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2006

   With too wide a focus, this book is useful as an overview but holds nothing useful for a developer wanting anything more than a skim of knowledge.
   And as for the quality of the paper it's printed on; don't get me started...

2. The best tutorial - but it costs more than googling

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 2004

   This book deals with a number of open-source XML tools developed by the Apache foundation and details how to use them in conjunction with Java. As well as clear explanations there's plenty of example code and, as the author is a member of the Apache Software Foundation, you can be confident that it's all being explained by someone who knows what they're talking about. It's assumed that the reader has a good knowledge of Java and XML and is also familiar with OO concepts and techniques - there isn't any explanation of the basics provided. This is good if you don't need all that stuff as it makes reading the book a much more manageble and simpler task as there aren't any simple explanations to skip over.
   The main problem is that the web is full of free tutorials on all this stuff and to some extent you are just paying to have them collected together in a convenient printed format.
   The tutorials are all really good and certainly a lot better than the majority of free ones on the web, but bearing in mind the availability of free tutorials and how quickly Open Source software changes it's debatable whether you'd want to spend your (or your employer's) money.

3. An excellent buy!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2004

   As a senior consultant I've been out of serious development for a number of years. Nevertheless you HAVE to stay up-to-date with all developments. Especially the developments in the Apache domain are of great interest for companies. However, without proper knowledge, you aren't able to decide if something is valuable or just a big risk for the company.

   You could dive into the Web-database and try to "Google" your information together, or another option is to get a good book.

   Let's be honest. There is a lot around, but the majority is too generic or so in-depth that you need at least 5 years of experience to understand the subject. This is not the case with XML development with Apache tools. The book is well written and has very good examples. I red the book in a number of days and I got that "Aha, that is what their doing!" feeling. The chapters on Xerces and Xalan clearly explain what you can do with it. The Cocoon and Xindice parts weren't directly to my interest, but maybe it will be in the future.

   I was especially very happy with the parts on FOP and SVG.

   I examined the possible use of FOP before, but the available information on the Internet didn't convince me a lot. I would prefer to see some extra explanation on XSLT and possibly some extra pictures on the final output, but it is useable as it is. Maybe something for a second edition?

   A number of the SVG examples can be found on the Apache's BATIK site, but without the explanation. The book which clarifies a lot. The only negative point I have in the SVG-chapter is about the recommendation to use Scripting to manipulate the images instead of plain old Java. It's ok, as long as it doesn't contain any business-rules. Unfortunately this isn't the case in the real world. So, I certainly wouldn't recommend scripting!

   After some copying and pasting I had the examples up-and-running in a day. And again it worked flawless and gave me - as a semi-professional old-timer - the opportunity to experiment and convince my surrounding that Apache is what you need when you want to develop high-quality products, but don't have the time to develop or the budget to buy commercial off-the-shelf products.

   Still there was more in the book. The last chapter is on XML-Security. I couldn't grasp the need for such a product before reading the book. The chapter helps you understand basic needs for secure transmission of XML-data over the open and very insecure Internet. It even includes a small tutorial on encryption issues.

   This short review doesn't cover the lot and it certainly doesn't provide enough space to communicate the usefulness of this book for developers but also for decision makers like me.

   Final "verdict": It is worth every penny I paid for it!