Spring in Action

This book is written for someone who already has an understanding of Java frameworks and spends little time explaining why something is being created or done in such a manner. It is helpful in telling you how to do something and what you are doing, but lacks the broader context of why we are doing it this way.I presume the author's target audience is experienced developers who are wanting to learn how to use Spring Framework, rather than new developers wanting to sink their teeth into Spring.The author doesn't spend any time explaining what a framework is, why we are creating repositories, or how to best organize the packages for a Spring project. While not an experienced developer, I have had some experience to designing web applications in college using Java Servlet Pages (now known as Jakarta Servlet Pages) and Apache Tomcat with an n-layer style architecture. However, not with a modern framework such as Spring Framework. As a result of this book's lack of information on why we are doing things left me scratching my head as I tried to adopt to a modern architecture. I had to rely on supplementary material from YouTube, Google, and the book Spring Start Here by Laurentiu Spilca, to put the concepts introduced into context.Additionally, the code has a number of errors, particularly in Chapter 3: Working With Data. Incompatible objects are passed as arguments from one method to another, resulting in compilation errors or crashes. Object methods are called which were never specified in previous examples. In some code snippets a class will randomly implement an interface without explanation (and the reader will not be informed as to what/how the interface methods are to be implemented), only to beAn example of these inconsistent examples can be found in Chapter 3, Listing 3.16 (page 82):The class Ingredients all of a sudden implements the interface Persistable<String> with no mention in the accompanying text as to why this interface is suddenly there nor how its methods are to be implemented. Several pages later (page 87) when discussing Spring data JDBC, the author mentions that when using the @Entity annotation we no longer require the Persistable interface, yet the interface had only been listed previously in the code snipped four pages prior with no explanation.By searching a PDF copy of the book I was able to confirm that the text "Persistable" was not mentioned prior to this code snipped, nor is in in the text anywhere after page 87. The interface simply appears in a code example without explanation and five pages later we are told we can remove it.Why was it there? What did it do? Why is it never mentioned before or after?Are the examples in the book from previous versions and not updated?Additionally, the author's code repository on GitHub does not match the code examples in the book!Some of this can be remedied by casting the object from one type to another, but at other times the example simply doesn't work! From reading reviews of the book here on Amazon, as well as on Reddit and StackOverflow, it is evident that the compilation errors which I have encountered are not unique to me. I am sure a more experienced developer could more easily solve the problems in the code examples, but the reader shouldn't have to do so in the first place!Because the book is vague in explaining its code, it can be very hard to work through the errors in the examples and one must simply move on, hoping that future examples with either fix or at the least mitigate the errors.All in all, if you are new to Spring and either unfamiliar or out of practice with frameworks skip this book and instead start with Spring Start Here by Laurentiu Spilca or the online course Web Development in Java Spring Boot on YouTube by Programming W/ Professor Sluiter. Once the reader has experienced from those two resources they can try to tackle this book and work through the example errors.

One of the most useful books I have ever read. It builds up knowledge step-by-step, chapter-by-chapter. The text is easy to follow, well organised and everything is excellently explained through examples just as the title suggests. The more advanced chapters do not discuss the topics exhaustively but more than enough to do your daily job. Anyway it is an introductory book into the world of Spring and gives you enough tastes of the framework. If you need to become an expert in any particular field of Spring, you know your options, how things work and what to study next. Loved reading it from the first page till the last one. The example the book uses is probably not the most exiting and it has a bit of text book flavour, but that's the only critics I have which is not even a real one. If you want to lear Spring buy this book, a definitive 5-star from me.

Very practical guide that explores plenty of scopes sitting under the Spring umbrella. It goes straight to the target using concise and understandable code snippets with a minimal explanation of theoretical concepts.Recommended both to beginners and to experts.

The book describes main modules and how to use them. Of course, it is just an introduction, not thorough manual.

Great all round book. Everything is clear, understandable and correct.Author writes very well, it is a pleasure to read. Aside of great explanations author suggests some side readings on the topic he finds important, but which are not the scope of the book. This book is a great example of author staying on track which is extremely hard. Topic is very broad, yet Craig managed to keep it on a short leash.Technically book is entertaining and sound. I had great times with it. Some details: software engineer with 10 years of experience, never touched Java much, but have 4 years of Scala experience. Had virtually no issues with code* / build tools / understanding. I call it a big success for Craig because walk someone through Spring who almost not applied Java (and it was last time when Java was 7th version) nor ever touched Spring framework.*Rarely code needs to be a bit fixed or added, but nothing difficult at all. There is GitHub repository with the code where it is in the correct state. Moreover, I've used different Spring version (3.1.4) and Java version (21) than suggested - also no issues.Congrats Craig Walls and Manning!