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Book Review: Building Web Applications With UML, Second Edition

• By Dan Romanchik
• January 31, 2003

As the Web has worked its way into business, the scale of applications found on the Web has increased dramatically. No longer are Web applications doing only simple things, such as processing forms or performing simple calculations. Now, entire businesses are run via Web apps.

As applications get bigger and more critical, so too does the need for robust design. In client/server environments, many developers are turning to the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to help them build robust applications. It's only natural then for developers to adopt UML when asked to build Web applications.

If this is the situation you find yourself in, Building Web Applications with UML, Second Ed . is the book for you. It's not written for the Web developer who must now model applications with UML, but rather for architects and designers of client/server systems who must develop a Web application. It assumes readers are familiar with object-oriented design and UML.

The first section covers basic Web technology, including HTTP, HTML, JavaScript and applets. It describes the technologies and how to model them and also contains a chapter on security.

The next section deals with the process of building Web applications. Topics covered include defining the system architecture, gathering requirements and use cases, and how the architecture and system requirements affect the user experience. Also included is a chapter on the Web Application Extension (WAE). The WAE enables developers to represent Web pages, HTML forms and other classes needed to model a Web application accurately. The final chapter of the book shows how to turn your UML model into production code and components.

While I certainly recommend the book, readers need to remember that the content assumes they know UML. If you're a Web developer who feels the need to begin modeling your applications, you'll have to find a book on UML and do a little studying before cracking this book open. If you're already using UML, however, Building Web Applications with UML will certainly help you apply that knowledge to your Web application development project.

Building Web Applications with UML, Second Ed ., by Jim Conallen; Addison-Wesley, Boston Mass., 2002.