Rating: Summary: Great book for novice and mid level programmers Review: I went into CF 4.0 with no knowledge of CF and Forta does a really good job of moving you up the learning curve (BTW his SQL chapters also beef you up for ASP, Perl and other DB related languages). The first five chapters should actually be reference, but Forta really does cover all types of applications. Highly recommend it if you plan on going into database dev/web design integration.
Rating: Summary: Useful, but unrefined Review: Everyone below me has already pointed out the number of errors and typos in this book. I can deal with the occasional typo, but some -- such as a table of attributes for the CFGRID tag misspelling "ROWHEADERS" as "ROWHEADER", or code listing 28.5 replacing random letters with double-quotes -- are unforgivable and confusing to say the least. Some chapters are also placed apparently out-of-order, or present techniques without presenting any useful applications for them. Chapter 25 outlines how to build an online commerce application but does so entirely with custom tags, an advanced feature that goes entirely unexplained in this book. Similarly, Chapter 22 explains how arrays and structures are created in ColdFusion, but no examples of how these might be used effectively are given -- because until you read about application templates in Chapter 26, there are no such uses. Nevertheless, this is a great source of information for people getting started with ColdFusion and who want to learn how to use the various features as quickly as possible. Just be forewarned that if you use this book as your *only* source, you'll be undereducated at best and confused at worst. Allaire's online documentation, which comes installed with Studio 4.0, is essential for filling in the gaps this book leaves behind.
Rating: Summary: Web development made easy Review: I've used many Web development tools that supposedly do a lot of stuff. But after using ColdFusion and reading this well managed book I realized other companies are just trying to follow Allaire's foot step. This book is the best of breed in Web development with ColdFusion 4.0. I stongly recommend it to starters and advenced developers.
Rating: Summary: Great Book - Explains everything in great detail. Review: This book rocks! As it is, there are not that many books on Cold Fusion. Anyone who is just interested in learning cf basics to advanced syntax stuff, this books the one. This book explains odbc, it taught me SQL, and all kinds of stuff about odbc. Allaire's Cold Fusion is an incredible product, it puts Active Server Pages (ASP) to shame. Get this book!
Rating: Summary: Overall good, but too many errors Review: The begining of the book and examples helped greatly, but towards the end chapters things got a little messy. Too many typos, and example errors. For a beginner it took me a long time to sort through that mess.
Rating: Summary: The best book on ColdFusion, with noticeable weaknesses Review: The ColdFusion web application construction kit from Ben Forta is really an indispensable tool to master ColdFusion and learn all its features. It completes and goes beyond the scope of the documentation that comes with ColdFusion by giving you real-world examples of its features. From the beginning, you build and enrich a web application, using the exciting features of ColdFusion progressively. Paradoxically, the Online Commerce and other related functionality of ColdFusion (Lists, Arrays, Structures) are not well explained. The management of cookies, client variables, sessions are a bit confused. So, you'll still have questions after having read the whole book. Besides of that, if you're serious about ColdFusion development, buy this book and its companion: "Advanced ColdFusion" by the same author.
Rating: Summary: Easily the best, could be better though! Review: Ben Forta has written the best book on the subject by far, but he could have put more time on spellchecking though. For beginners and intermediate programmers, this is the book of choice. I would still like to see him to to more depth on the more advanced topics, wich is why I give this book four stars. On the whole, if you need a book to learn ColdFusion, or a good reference book, this book is for you!
Rating: Summary: Too many mistakes to be a credible resource Review: This hastily-written book is littered with typographical errors which make the tutorials frustrating to follow -- and therefore useless -- for beginners. Intermediate developers may find the typos tolerable, but the errors and omissions leave readers doubting the credibility of the material, the author, and ultimately the publisher. I liken this book to a bad beer -- you can get through it, but the aftertaste is enough to turn you away.
Rating: Summary: Excellent for beginners Review: Within a week of first starting Coldfusion I was making employee directories, project collaboration sites, etc. thanks to this book. It doesn't go into advanced application design, but if you're looking for a place to start with Coldfusion you won't regret getting this. It's also more advanced than typical beginner books (but still easy to follow).
Rating: Summary: Great Book But Lots of Minor Mistakes Review: This is a great book for anyone wanting to learn ColdFusion. Unfortunately, there are so many minor errors that it gets frustrating. Ben, if you are reading this, please contact me for a list of errors (JCherner@usa.net).
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