Cons: Split presentation
Reviewed by: Ian Elliot

This is a book about implementing REST-based web applications using the JAX-RS API. The first part of the book is a detailed explanation with examples of REST and using JAX-RS. The second part of the book is a step-by-step how-to including how to download, install and get started with the RESTEasy implementation of JAX-RS. The examples used are included with the download.

Chapters in Part Two refer back to the earlier chapters and are titled - Examples for Chapter 4 and so on..  If you don't notice this strange arrangment you might well fail to follow the ideas and examples in the first section which seem very theoretical. The best way to use the book is to read a chapter in Part One and then try the ideas out by moving to the related chapter in the second part of the book.

The author is the creator of the RESTEasy implemenation used as the main example and in some way it would be better to have a book that deals with how to use just this implemenation rather than trying to be completely general and then tagging on RESTEasy. However the approach used does have the advantage of emphasising the generality of the API.

If you plan to work with REST implemented in Java (JAX-RS) then you might as well give in and buy a copy of this book - it's the only option at the moment and while far from perfect it has a lot of value.