All the steps have to be run on Axis 1.3 and eclipse 3.0 to make this book useful. Most of the steps won't work on Axis2 and eslipse 3.2. The readers need to have good knowledge on Axis2 to make the steps work.

All the steps have to be run on Axis 1.3 and eclipse 3.0 to make this book useful. Most of the steps won't work on Axis2 and eslipse 3.2. The readers need to have good knowledge on Axis2 to make the steps work.

Honestly, my first impression of the book's content was disappointing; however, I stayed with it and the book proved very helpful. If one wants a handy quick start, I'd recommend it strongly. Despite a less than stellar command of the English language and its usage, the author does well explaining things through illustration and example. The book follows a logical progression from installation to deployment, and beyond. If you are new or just want some additional information/insight about Apache Axis, buy it!

This book is very concise practical and to the point book. The author doesn't waste his time in talking about abstract details of web services. He goes right to the practical implementation of web services using Axis in a very tutorial way. Itz good for people just starting on webservices and want to get to know in a quick fast and practical way.

Honestly, my first impression of the book's content was disappointing; however, I stayed with it and the book proved very helpful. If one wants a handy quick start, I'd recommend it strongly. Despite a less than stellar command of the English language and its usage, the author does well explaining things through illustration and example. The book follows a logical progression from installation to deployment, and beyond. If you are new or just want some additional information/insight about Apache Axis, buy it!

This book is very concise practical and to the point book. The author doesn't waste his time in talking about abstract details of web services. He goes right to the practical implementation of web services using Axis in a very tutorial way. Itz good for people just starting on webservices and want to get to know in a quick fast and practical way.

I find this book very good. In the first chapter the author explained the structure of SOAP/XML which is the most fundamental part of Axis, and as the book go on, he provided examples that are very easy to follow and learn.

The way the author layout the content of the book is excellent!

I'm waiting for the author to come up with a book on AXIS2, and I'd be the first one to buy it.

I have read the first 40 pages of this book and I am convinced that this will be a great book. The author uses very simple, easy to follow language which make it a great beginner read.

I have read the first 40 pages of this book and I am convinced that this will be a great book. The author uses very simple, easy to follow language which make it a great beginner read.

The recipies in this book assumes you are using the Eclipse environment. There are lots of screen shots of Eclipse user interface. Now if you are not an Eclipse user but simply want to learn Axis, this book is absolutely the wrong choice for you.

The secret to learning Apache Axis is to read its user manual.

With all the 5 star reviews here I really had my hopes up for this book. I really, really wanted to like it and, to some degree, I did.

This is a very short book. I'm not complaining, I remember the day when excellent technical books were only 200 pages. However, these small outstanding references were kind of like Unix tools - they covered one subject and covered it well. Mr. Tong, on the other hand attempts to teach us Tomcat, Eclipse, Axis, and PKI in a 165 page book.

While I personally didn't need the tutorials on Tomcat, Eclipse, or PKI I thought they were very well done. Unfortunately I didn't feel this way about the Axis portion of the book. When reading the information about Axis it mostly seemed to me to be:

1. Do this.
2. Now do this.
3. Press enter.
4. See, it worked.

OK, so it worked. I still have very little understanding of why it worked or what other options Axis has to offer.

I also felt the book gave the impression that Tomcat-Eclipse-Axis were joined at the hip. I would have prefered to learn the workings of Axis so that I would be comfortable using it on WebLogic or WebSphere. Maybe using Netbeans as my IDE or maybe just using a command line. In my opinion, Mr. Tong does not deliver this kind of Axis understanding.

Lastly, I'd like to comment on the grammer used in the book. It is clear that Mr. Tong is not a native Engling speaker. Don't get me wrong, Mr. Tong certainly speaks English better than I speak a second language. However, I believe editing by a native English speaker would improve the readability of the book. I didn't really have any big problems understanding the text but the grammer does make it hard to read. In many cases I had to read a sentence several times to get the point.

I actually learned Apache Axis 1.X by reading this book: the easiest book to read and learn.

This is perfect book not only to learn axis but also to webservice. I don't see any other book explains clearly the concept as this. I just read the first 40 pages of the book only and I ordered it and just waiting to get it.
I read other books (J2EE Webservice) that are very elaborative but doesn't do the job. This is concise book but enough to take your knowledge level on web service to higher.
I believe a new Author (Next to my favorite author Herbert Schildt) is introduced to the Techies and really he rocks ! I sincerely thank the Author for this book.

Drawbacks :
No explanation on working with other 3rd party or opensource tools.
Nothing covered on any tools intergration with Castor or other XML Binding.It only deals with Axis default.

If they give the PDF version along with HardCopy and Software CDs for this price it would be nice.But this comes too thin book.
Still I would recommend other to buy this one.

As a J2EE developer, I buy and read several "tech tools" books per year. In most of them, the authors may be excellent programmers, but they are either too rushed, too lazy, too arrogant, or too lacking in the art of teaching, to adequately and concisely explain both the concepts and syntax of the tool. Most authors are only able to explain things in such a way that only a developer who is ALREADY familiar with the tech tool can understand what the author is saying, or intending to say.

This book is different, and stands out as a shining example of how to explain a software tool. It does so in such a way that one doesn't have to spend half a year learning ALL the subtle nuances of the supporting tools, just to gain enough background knowledge to start to understand the tool being explained, i.e. the tool that is the main subject of the book.

For example, instead of requiring the reader to fully understand Ant, the author simply and elegantly says, "A project contains one or more 'targets'. A target is just a job to do." ...and the author does this with a simple line pointing to "target", to give the reader some context. Simple, elegant, and to-the-point, with no implied message of "Well, if don't understand Ant as well as I do, you probably should't be reading my book, or writing software for that matter".

This author doesn't assume that every reader already knows what a target is, conceptually, and gives the reader a simple, short clear explanation of it...or perhaps just a quick reminder for those of us who aren't "Lawnmower Man", but who still have to learn and remember half a dozen tool syntaxes. That is the mark of a great teacher: knowing what needs explaining to the average reader, and when.

Also, the world of software tools is now full of vague, ambiguous and misleading terms. Most authors simply ignore this reality, which is sad. This author, on the other hand, does a great job at clearing up the confusion. For example, "Context" is probably one of the most overused buzzwords in J2EE today, in this author simply states:

"This file is called the 'context descriptor'. It
tells Tomcat that you have a web application
(yes, a web application is called a 'context')."

Also, the world of XML schema is full of misleading and ambiguous terms: name, element, message, and on and on, to the extent that I sometime feel like calling them "thingies". Without some kind of visual "map", it becomes tedious and frustrating, trying to guess which thingie links to these other thingies. This author uses simple line-arrows to show the links, i.e. to show which thingies are important and EXACTLY how they link to other thingies and which thingies are throw-aways, i.e. don't form a significant part of the link chain.

I've been waiting for the tech tool authors to do this for years! Very simple, very common-sense, but few authors do it. As I read this book, every few pages, I find myself saying, "Gosh, finally! Thank you!"

In summary, in the online pdf book, the author's English grammar is not all that great, but so what? That's not a make-or-break for a tech tool book, to my mind. In fact, somewhat ironically, this author should be teaching the rest of the English-speaking tech tool authors how to write tech books...and how to teach.

Ben Ethridge
J2EE Developer

Kent Tong is a gifted writer and educator who knows Apache Axis very well. I found his explanation of a complex topic such as WS-security simply the best that I have seen. The book is rather short at aound 173 pages but very informative. His diagrams and annotated explanations are very useful in conveying a lot of information in a condensed manner which would have required pages and pages of explanation. Kent has used all the open source tools, e.g., Apache Axis, Eclipse, Eclipse WTP, WSS4J, OpenSSL etc., so you don't need to invest anything. If you have access to a computer and internet, you are good to go. While working through the book examples, I found a few typos, mistakes which I conveyed to Kent. He quicky incorporated his updates in the book and gave me access to an updated PDF. I whole heartedly and unhesitatingly recommend this book if you want to learn Apache Axis and particularly, WS-security.