I have been a Java developer for five years now, and have worked with JSP and Servlets for a number of years. As many in the software industry can attest to, you can quickly get tied down working on applications that were initially designed several years ago. This can leave you with little time to explore all the new features that come out with the latest release of the Servlet and JSP specs. Wanting to get a handle on what JSP 2.0 has to offer, I decided to get a book on the subject matter that starts from the ground up. Although a lot of the material would be review for me, I always find it important to read this information over again as it helps to strengthen my overall understanding.

`Pro JSP' is probably one of the best books on JSP that I have read in a long time. To me a good technical book needs to do three things. First it needs to explain how the technology works. Second, it needs to explain how best to use this technology in the real world. And finally, it needs to do the first two things in a clear and understandable manner. The reader shouldn't be left scratching their head trying to figure out what the author was trying to say.

On the first point, `Pro JSP' does a thorough job of explaining the ins and outs of the JSP 2.0 release. The expression language, JSTL, tags, filtering, security, deployment; all of these important topics are covered. There are an amazing three chapters devoted to tags and another two chapters on filtering! The authors do an excellent job of focusing in on some of the more complex aspects of JSP and spending the time to fully explain all the nuances. Based on just the technical content alone, a person will walk away from this book with a solid understanding of the power available to them with JSP 2.0.

But of course `JSP Pro' doesn't just end there. Unlike many books that simply throw a ton of information at you and then leave you to figure out how to use it, this book goes much further. The authors spend a considerable amount of time discussing the best practices to use when including this technology in your applications. From repeatedly hammering home the need to keep scriplets out of JSP pages, to the chapters devoted to web application patterns and performance enhancements, the reader will be left well prepared to use their newly acquired skills on their own projects.

The writing itself is also very well done. The examples are short and to the point, and the writing is clear and understandable. I never found myself struggling to understand what the author was trying to convey, or tripping over complicated code to see the examples in action.

The only caveat I would have would be with the last chapter dealing with using `Struts, Xdoclet, and Other Tools'. The authors recommend that the reader have an understanding of these tools before reading the chapter. They then dive right in to how to best use these tools without a lot of explanation. This may be just a little too much for someone coming to this book as a complete beginner to JSP. This chapter will of course prove invaluable to a more experienced programmer, but the abrupt change of pace from the rest of the book felt a little uneven.

All in all I would definitely recommend this book to JSP programmers of all levels.

When I first bought this book was totally new to JSP and XML. I started reading it and then i realize that it was not a beginners book. It was great because it would force me to study a little bit more. I read a XML and JSP tutorial and it was enough to begin studying JSP with this book.
It has lots of detailed information about client/server persistence graphics and models too.
I bought this book because the history of the author, Simon Brown, and the last edition was five star recomendation on JavaRanch and Amazon reviews.