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Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: Hello All. I purchased this book because I needed to learn coldfusion mx and the reviews said this was the book to purchase. And it is the book to purchase, it has completely everything there is to know about coldfusion. If you are going to buy one book one the subject, let it be this one. And not to mention, the support on the book is great also. Good work Rob!
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Summary: finally I got the book
Review: I had bought many other books and they didn't help me at all. this book is great, knows how to teach beginner. it helped a lot.
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Summary: O'Reilly - Again a must read
Review: I have never been disappointed by an O'Reilly book.
This book is no exception. Well written, clearly structured.
After using CF for a long time I am still discovering
some new details. Absolutely worth the money.
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Summary: Best reference book, but not a "how to" learning tool
Review: I love O'Reilly books when I know a language and need a desktop reference. I have owned the JavaScript Definitive Resource and the PERL "Camel" book for many years.
However, if you are just starting out with Cold Fusion programming, get ColdFusion MX Bible or ColdFusion Programming instead. But remember to come back for this book when you are ready for having a good reference book.
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Summary: Execellent Resource for Experienced Programmers
Review: In the early days of ColdFusion, there were a couple of beginner books, but once you gained some experience, you had to go online for help. Nowadays, there are several advanced books from which to choose. "Programming ColdFusion MX" by Rob Brooks-Bilson is a good choice as an all-around resource for experienced programmers. If you're using CF 4.5 or up, and plan to move up to the Java-based ColdFusion MX like a third of our user group members, this is the book for you. Skip the first five chapters and dive in. Every chapter contains usable code examples for complex data, maintaining state and form control. There are plenty of advanced topics, including a full chapter on Advanced Database Techniques. The book is updated to cover the latest release of CFMX 6.1. If you're interested in programming from CF to Flash using Flash Remoting, this book gets right to the meat of connecting and passing data back and forth. You won't learn how to layout your movie, but there are plenty of resources for Flash MX. This book is a worthwhile addition to your library! Lisa Wilson, Sacramento ColdFusion User Group Manager
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Summary: Excell Adv. technical content, not instructional or complete
Review: 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.
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Summary: The Defacto CFMX Reference Book
Review: The examples Rob uses are simple when possible and complex when necessary. The exercises he uses are explained in great details and contain many tips and techniques that will surely make you a better developer. This update brings you up to speed on the new features in CFMX and shows a few things using Flash MX remoting which was a big plus for me. The book also gives a great overview and reference guide for ColdFusion MX. In my opinion, now that ColdFusion is the defacto "Web Programming Language", this book is a vital purchase for all web professionals using CFMX and other Macromedia Web Technologies. I recommend this book without any reservation as it is one of the best technical books I have read so far.
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Summary: A well-structured, systematic reference
Review: There are more than a few valuable ColdFusion books on the market but, in my opinion, they suffer from their "hands down" approach that makes them very well suited for the beginners but, at the same time, often fails to deliver what experienced developers really need. So, if you already have some decent experience with ColdFusion or web developing in general (no matter the language), give yourself a favor and get a copy of Brooks-Bilson's book. The author delivers a well-structured, systematic reference to ColdFusion; just what a developer needs to get the job done, also a handy reference to keep near the keyboard. A special mention is due to the fact that this is the only book that covers version 6.1.
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Summary: Incredible Coldfusion book for Beginners or Pros
Review: 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!!!
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Summary: Great book
Review: This is a terrific book. Hands down, one of the best on the market. It feels a bit "fresher" than the Ben Forta CF bible books.
Well worth the purchase.
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