Learning Apache Karaf

Ouch. $37.00 for 99 pages (plus 6 pages of general Karaf commands (available on-line), 4 pages of index). This book is a big disappointment. The first 6 pages is boiler plate prefix.Chapter 1 is dedicated to downloading and installing Karaf. I'd like to point out, this I purchased this book because I had already downloaded and installed Karaf. Not really that useful.Chapter 2 is a repacking of web pages I had already found (karaf commands and creating custom commands, but it lacked the detail to actually get it workingChapter 3. Mostly a repacking of web pages already found. One exception: Failover configuration (but no detail on HOW failover works)Chapter 4. Really needs more detail on Maven. Most disappointing omission was creating Karaf features. I had to do some trial-and-error experimentation to get a feature repo working (you have to get the names in the KARAF_HOME/etc/org.apache.karaf.features.cfg correct). The authors DON'T COVER THISChapter 5. Had some good stuff (hadn't already found it anywhere else)Chapter 6. Building an offline repo, something I had been searching for (10 pages worth paying for)Chapter 7. Clustering ... again, something I had been searching for (another 10 pages worth paying for)Chapter 8. Repacking of an on-line web page.So I paid $37.00 for 30 to 40 pages of helpful information, $1/page seems excessive. The Authors could have included a lot more detail on Karaf and Maven (looks like you have to have some significant mastery of Maven to master Karaf) and more detailed examples. This looks like a rushed job to me and I will think long and hard before ever purchasing a book from Packt Enterprise again

As the title says, this book is about "Learning Apache Karaf" and teaching the basics required to deploy and develop for Karaf. This is not meant to be "Mastering Apache Karaf" as I think another reviewer might have been incorrectly expecting. This is a "walk before you run" book that I think does an outstanding job teaching you the basics of how to utilize Karaf to deploy OSGi applications, and also dives into some of the specifics that set Karaf apart from other OSGi container projects.Another review commented that the book is a repackaging of the Apache Karaf web site tutorial content, but that statement is simply inaccurate and misleading. The progression of learning is in a similar sequence to any tutorial on Apache Karaf, but the content is most definitely original and not a copy/paste of materials in the public domain as I think the other reviewer implied.Overall I think this book accomplishes just exactly what it sets out to do, which is to bring a new user or developer up to speed on how to accomplish common tasks with Karaf. If someone is already up to speed on the basics of Karaf and desires a book covering a deep dive into the guts of things, then hopefully authors will consider a "Karaf Cookbook" or "Mastering Karaf" title in the future, and you definitely won't get that from the docs on the project site.

This book is way too short, doesn't explain much and most of the information it contains is available on the karaf site, as others have already pointed out.If you are lost about what karaf is, you first need to understand OSGI. The first 2 chapters of "OSGI in depth" will serve you better as a tutorial for understanding the underlying platform karaf runs on top of. After that you can simply go to the karaf website and everything will make much more sense.

I was looking for some in-depth info about Karaf in addition to those presented in the Apache Karaf web site. To my surprise, the book is just a repackage of the material on the web site. You can find almost all material presented in the book on the Apache Karaf web site :-(

A nice short read without all the fluff and filler that you sometimes get from technical books.This book will take you from the basics of setting up Karaf to writing extensions as well as setting up clustering. Everything you need to know in order to manage Karaf.

Even though the title implies that this is a starter book, I found that it provides a wide coverage of Karaf with lots of details.I'd say that the book is an excellent starter that can also serve as a reference to even more advanced users.Most important is that the book is well strutted and well written and I really enjoyed it even though I am not an entry level user.