Reviews (99)

This is not a "SQL 101" book
I needed to learn a little SQL to be able to run scripts in my new job.This book is not as elementary as I'd hoped.It is well formatted and easy to read, but lost me not too many pages in.

I was okay with the Select and Where queries, but got to page 30, where it said the following statement as it related to using single quotes - "The single quotes are used to delimit a string.If you are comparing a value against a column that is a string datatype, the delimiting quotes are required"HUH??????

Sorry, close book right here. Nothing identified what that meant.I need a classroom and an instructor.Once I learn what all this is about, I will write a book for people like me.

Unorganised, sparse, and erratic
This was laying around the office and I needed to pick up SQL so I gave it a whirl.[I would have never have choosen any programming book with the phrase 'in 10 Minutes' in the title!What a crock.]

I typically work in IDL and Perl and need to add a bit of mySQL.

To me reading this book is like trying to follow the path of a running squirrel.It's jumping all over the place.The thoughts are unclear and lack flow.It's supposed to be a primer but in the scatter shot approach it really makes a mess and winds up missing the connection between points.

I'm looking for something better, and it's certain to take longer than 10 minutes.

Reviews (12)

Quick solutions that work the first time!
Dreamweaver and ColdFusion are both terrific Macromedia products, so using Dreamweaver MX to develop ColdFusion applications seems logical to me.However, this is the only book I've seen that actually shows how to do simple projects that work the first time.Most importantly, Sue Hove (like most Visual QuickPro Guides) doesn't leave out steps or fail to explain what's going on with the process. I've written some CF projects from scratch and they work just as well as her examples, but I liked using this book to generate CF code from DWMX that I could use to study and learn.My copy is already dog-eared. I only regret that I have one copy and I'm always leaving it at work when I want it at home, and visa versa.

New to ColdFusion
I'm new to ColdFusion and am a hard person to teach.I don't do well after just reading a book.I needed a more tutorial or hands-on based book to walk me through and allow me to actually do it.I'm on chapter 6 so far and with the exception of some serious problems with the steps on page 51 (Ben Forta has an errata on his website for this page) its been great.I can usually tell if I am going to get anything out of a book or not after the first few pages or a chapter.Which is why I bought this book about a week after buying ColdFusion MX with Dreamweaver MX by David Green.Not sure why people say in some reviews that there is "too much talk" in these books, I need all the information I can get and this book seems to provide it in a way that even I can understand..and let me tell you thats saying a lot.Hope you have as good of an experience as I have.

Reviews (8)

This is NOT the MX 'bible'
I don't understand why this book has so many positive reviews. I have been a full-time coldfusion developer for 6 years. Our team of 4 coldfusion developers have the Ben Forta for CF 4.5 and this book.

We find this book fairly useless as a coldfusion reference. Sure it covers the procedures of web development in coldfusion, SQL, and related technologies, but you can't rely on it as a coldfusion reference once you've mastered the basics. Functions and Tags seem to either be poorly indexed, poorly detailed, or just plain missing from the book altogether. This would not be such a crime if the book had not been titled the 'bible'

We kept having to go back to our Ben Forta CF 4.5 book to look things up, even though we are running CF 6.1. We are going to have to go out and get another MX book for the newer coldfusion functions and features; this one doesn't cut it.

Save yourself time and money by getting a good reference on CF MX, and if you need help with SQL and other technologies buy a good SQL reference, etc.

First CFMX reference I reach for...
...and usually the last.I've purchased a number of ColdFusion books in the past few years, and always loved the Mastering series for CF 4.5 and 5. When MX came out, I bought both Mastering and the Bible, but truthfully, I barely ever open the Mastering book. Everything I've ever needed to learn has been in the CFMX Bible.

Adam Churvis and crew really know their stuff.Clear, concise discussions on important topics, intelligible diagrams and an index that actually helps you find topics you're looking for quickly! How long has it been since a good technical manual had one of those?!?!

For me, CFCs were something that I was going to get around to eventually, but never seemed to get the time to mess with them, but when I finally did, the Bible taught me everything I needed to know to start building them.The discussion on Web Services finally explained to me what all the hype about them is, and I actually had fun building the sample web service application and learning about XSLT.

I recommend the ColdFusion MX Bible highly, and suggest you keep an eye out for anything else Adam and David Churvis author.

Reviews (14)

Incredible Coldfusion book for Beginners or Pros
This book seems to bring a whole new perspective on Coldfusion.I have been programming CF for approximately 2-3 years, and this just opened up more doors of CF functionality. For example it displays one of the best "homegrown" login examples I have ever seen. It also really goes into great detail on more advanced topics that other books seems to skate around.Once again, an incredible book for beginners and pros!!!

Excell Adv. technical content, not instructional or complete
Overall the better of the dozen or more books on coldfusion mx in terms of development-quality reference material.

Almost all of the other books on the topic do a poor job of explaining ColdFusion MX in terms of an instructional blow-by-blow get from step 1 to step 30; where 1 is an architectural overview and by step 30 you have been "instructed" on the development of a featurable product.

This book assumes some advanced knowledge of coding technicques and advanced Web-based topics, which is fine for its targeted audience. It is not a complete Bible or Courseware-level instructional offering, by any stretch of the imagination.

Many CF MX offerings are too lite. This one is certainly not lite - it is rich in content that it does showcase, but I was disappointed when they got into the coding examples for T-SQL, but fell short by ending the topic prematurely. It also failed to give real-world examples of how SQL databases can be created, implemented and administered in a virtual capacity - as is the case with a lot of company's who do not host their own servers and do not Co-locate them either. Many, including ourselves, use a datacenter that offers industrial-grade servers that we share, and where the licensing doesn;t require me to sell my shild on the black market or a second-mortgage to pay for it

Many CF/DW texts fill their weak offerings in those subject areas (often cursory at best) with other Macromedia Applications, specifically Flash - and even these are cursory categories at best. If you don't grasp the underlying mechanics of how CF MX works, and how DW MX interfaces directly as an excellent WebDev toolset, Flash becomes so far outside the box as to make that content worthless as a resource.

All of these Macromedia offerings have their own (several hundred page) books devoted to them intimately, and still often fall short. Very few printed offerings (including this one) explicitly discuss combining DW MX for advanced design work (read: uber graphics, layout AND Database / e-commerce development/interaction...and I don't mean Access), along with DW MX's interfacing technologically with ColdFusion MX and T-SQL / SQL Server. My investigation required 2 resources: DreamWeaver MX Advanced (Towers, et al., PeachPit) and ColdFusion MX with DreamWeaver MX (David Golden, New Riders) - these were overall the "best" offerings I could find for this subject matter, although once under my belt, I will most certainly be looking forward to utilizing this book.

Hopefully someone will put all of the respective pieces together ( CF MX / DW MX / Database integration / e-commerce development). There are few (if any) that do so, or do it well - the material is just too broad and deep for most audiences. Macromedia's Web site and Developer Forums continue to be the goods in terms of supporting this - the best quality materials I have seen in a software development product to date, and a far superior approach from a content-finding and "usability" standpoint. Still difficult to find good server-level DW/CF/DB materails, with a focus on e-Commerce, though - even on the manufacturer's website. Macromedia is still tops in my book, though. Microsoft take note: If you want people to use your products and do it effectively to saturate the market and develop your IT Development base, you need to make your product offerings rich but workable at a basic level AND you must post up real-world examples that can be used as templates and starting points for that educational process - not just White papers and written (non-technical) case studies... Macromedia has this nailed, and it shows through the support and uber-cool feature sets, and in its real-world implementation guide by professional users of the technology that run it, use it, help develop it and teach it openly. Technology isn't supposed to a technical or administrative nightmare - which is sort of how I feel about Visual.Net at the moment. Adobe could also take a cue from Macromedia - it has probably the closest suite of product offerings that are usable, rish, and increibly flexible - and Version Cue is cool, but alas, GoLive sucks when it comes to DB integration and there is no Server infrastructure (or product available) to support scalability the way Macromedia's products do. If Adobe ever gets their ducks in a row in this regard, they will directly be a competitive force to be reckoned with, but until then ColdFusion MX reigns supreme, and if you know what you're doing, this book will pave the way to glory.

Reviews (31)

The best ColdFusion book out there...
I have gone through numerous ColdFusion books. I came across this book, Macromedia ColdFusion MX Web Application Construction Kit Fifth Edition, from a reference from a friend. So far into it, I have to say it is superb in the manner of which it is written, and is easily understandable. All terms, as well as common myths (such as the hits per page) are explained in detail broadening your knowledge in general of the Internet and its capabilities. Databasing and the basics are covered in the earlier chapters, followed by lead-ins to ColdFusion, and ColdFusion itself. If you're strongly interested in learning CF inside and out, you should also buy the bundle Amazon has with the Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion MX Application Development Third Edition.

Experience Coldfusion MX
So you want to code in Coldfusion hey? Start here. Having had no previous experience in Coldfusion, I picked up this book and was creating user login's, search interfaces, dual purpose insert and update pages in no time. This book covers it all, and a whole lot more.

Macromedia goes out of their way to anticipate "What the web can be", and Coldfusion delivers just that. This book by Ben Forta and Nate Weiss takes you step-by-step through a introduction to the Coldfusion environment, and then shows you how to unleash it's power. They instill excellent coding practices and the ultimate use of Coldfusion. Ben Forta makes it look easy, and it is. Together they have compiled an excellent manual/reference on the subject, and if you could have it delivered today, do so.

Reviews (6)

Same as Version 5
I was a little dissapointed with this book, instead of focusing on what is new with MX, the majority of the book is rehashing the older version of the book much of which are no longer relevent in MX. I would have really liked to see more on the new xml functions, use of web services and Java integration. I would suggest instead that you get O'Reillys Programming ColdFusion MX, 2nd Edition by Rob Brook-Bilson when it comes out, it covers the newer topics more in depth and is a better resource later as it is easier to find answers to your questions. If you just want to learn the newer features get Inside Coldfusion MX and for more advanced info get Java for Coldfusion Developers by Eben Hewitt (great book!) and Discovering CFCs: ColdFusion MX Components by Hal Helms.

I read the book on less then 2 hours
Last year I bought Macromedia Coldfusion 5 appliction Development for Ben Forta. I did like the book and I learned a lot from it. So with my order of Coldfusion MX software, I decided to order Coldfsuion MX Application Develpment for Ben Forta. I start reading and soon I am in the end of the book do you know why? because it is almust same as the first one. Even same example.There is chapters where is same on both edition word by word. Yes, there is few things new on coldfuion MX but not worth it.

My advice, if you have a book wrote by Ben Forta for Coldfusion 5 then don't buy the new one because you are buying same book but different cover. If it's your first time, then this book will be the one to start.

by the way, this is not only the mistake I did, I did buy Coldfusion MX Web Application Construction Kit, and Coldfusion MX Developer Study Guide.They are all same. in fact I did read same paragraph again, and again from different edition of Ben Forta.

I will say Ben Forta did it again and I did buy and waste my Money this time.

Great Book!
Ben does it again!I was very pleased with the book.The coverage of CFMX's advanced features was excellent!The book is designed to allow you to skip around, not requiring you to read it cover to cover.

The book also provides many ideas for integrating COM,CORBA,C++ and most importantly JAVA into your CFMX applications.There is also a section on integrating with popular applications (like MS Word, Excel, Outlook, Fax Service, and ADO).

The best part of the book was the information on Advanced Custom Tags and Java integration!

Great book for those who are interested in learning advanced techniques.

Reviews (10)

Outstanding! Very useful for FlashCom App development!
As a fcs app developer, i recommend this book to those who look for a good reference and practice of fcs apps. As most of you know, at the present time (2005/1/26) there are still little resources around on internet, and this book is a really good deal and start.

From the ground up, the authors of this book explored a lot of fcs app capabilities with very good examples that take the reader from the beginning to the end.

Although it doesn't go in depth with the fcs components, it showed general uses of them that are quite helpful, and other ways that u can do things without the components.

Nevertheless, other than the new book "Programming FlashCom" that will come up in Feb, this is a really good book to get on fcs development!

Never mind the beginning of this book, at my first look, i almost thought this book might be useless since it's just a lot of introductions, but the good stuff comes later :-)

From A Web Programmer And Teacher: it's worth looking at.
(Barry L Beattie is an ASP,ColdFusion and database programmer and teacher at a Multimedia training college)

This book covers building internet applications (more than just web pages) using some of the newest and most exciting technologies available for the web. While a large part of these Rich Internet Applications (RIA's) involve new Macromedia Flash functionality, the strength of RIA's (and this book) is how it integrates with other technologies: databases, streaming audio and video, and webservices.

First some background.

I was looking for a book like this for two reasons. The first was to build on my web programming skills and RIA theory. The book should assume I wasn't a Flash guru and use concise and practical examples with easy to understand explanations.

The other reason was for a "suggested reading" text for my students to integrate their flash skills with the internet programming I was teaching, especially ColdFusion. The aim was to equip try and "future-proof" students with some experience in cutting edge internet technologies.

This book has met these expectations nicely. It is well written and structured, with easy to read overviews of the technologies used (databases, server-side code, webservices, remoting, communication server, etc). It has sufficient explanations of protocols (like Flash remotings' AMF, XML and SOAP) and technologies without boring my students with too much detail or myself with stuff I already knew.

The use of notes, tips, sidebars and cross-references provide more than just a book about theory. Combined with screenshots and easy to understand diagrams, the book is broken up sufficiently to make reading - and understanding - easier. While it is not the last word in RIA's, it successfully covers almost all of the topics and technologies with a sufficient depth to get myself and my students up to speed quickly.

A special note should be made of the examples provided on the accompanying CD-ROM. Each example is built up slowly, having multiple versions to build up to the completed functionality. This includes both the source code and the final versions and work easily, showing in detail how the RIA's work. I was very surprised to get the examples to work as easily as they did, and they showcased the application of the technologies well.

The examples are used as talking points for design and implementation considerations. Sure it might feel like a cookbook at times, but that hand-holding is invaluable to first-time users and serves to demonstrate putting the theory in the book into practice.

So this book is suitable for both the internet programmer wanting a solid introduction into RIA's and Flash users wanting to extend their skills in a new facet of their chosen tool. Combined with practical examples, this book provides an excellent introduction into Rich Internet Applications.