"Java Server and Servlets: Building Portable Web Applications" (Addison-Wesley; ISBN 0-201-67491-2) is a book that covers how to program web-based server-side applications using Java Servlets.

The book starts off with the usual section on fundamentals. It covers much of the usual stuff like HTML, HTTP, CGI, and Java. The Java section focuses on Internet programming instead of general Java which is good.

Chapter 2 expands on this by writing a very simple HTTP server in Java to illustrate how this kind of programming is done. In addition to source code, the authors regularly use UML diagrams here and through the book. It is a nice addition to the material.

Chapter 3 moves on to Servlets. Unfortunately, in this section, the material about products is a little dated because it is a fast moving target however and it is hard to expect books to be current. Then the book moves into how Servlets work. The good news about this section is that the authors do not shy away from the hard technical issues and address them head-on. This chapter is long by the end you know the core of the Servlet API.

The second part of the book focuses on the framework that the authors have developed to extend the Servlet API. Unfortunately, there is not a good overview of what the framework does. The authors pretty much just drop you right in. This is a real problem as it is hard to evaluate the worth of the framework without reading the chapters in detail. The final part of the book covers three examples and how to implement them using the framework described in part 2.

My feelings about this book is that the first section is excellent for the professional programmer who wants the real meat instead of a lot of text. That is wonderful for me. I don't feel the same way about the rest of the book however. It is hard to get excited about a framework when you don't get an overview of its features.