Rating: 
Summary: Another Great Ben Forta CF Reference
Review: Once again, Ben Forta and company have created a great reference for CF programmers everywhere. I've always counted on his CF books in the past to get me out of a bind, and this one is no different! The code examples in the book and on the CD are very helpful, to anyone who is trying to master CF. The complete appendices on all CF functions and statements are a god send, for those moments when you can't remember the proper syntax. And last, but not least, if you are like me, and you understand CF better than database design, the sections of MS Access and SQL will be a great help!
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Summary: Gets your feet wet but not your ankles
Review: When I first read this book I thought it was great. It really showed me everything I needed to do in order to build MS Access databases and to tie them into my website. But after I quickly mastered the bare essentials I took a closer look to see how some of Cold Fusions other commands work and quickly became disappointed. In some cases the only indication you get that a command exists is that you can see it being used in an example. Other examples simply don't work, however if you analyze the code and run numerous variations of the example you can sometimes figure it out for yourself. Not something I look for in a "how to" reference. Other examples list pages and pages of code mixing numerous examples all together in a very specific way such that you have to understand the entire code block in order to see how the small code fragment you're interested in works. Not very user friendly in my humble opinion. The index has a lot to be desired as well. That said, it wouldn't be fair not to mention some of the good things about this book. If you're just taking your first steps with Cold Fusion and want to use it in conjunction with your Microsoft solution (using Access) then this is a great book to get you started. The Cold Fusion development environment is EXCELLENT as well! The only complaints I have with the environment is that there are a couple bugs in the Code Sweeper tool and the code "snippets" are not intuitive. I am glad I bought this book but am looking forward to reading a more refined version which has small examples of each Cold Fusion command. Maybe the new Cold Fusion book by O'Reilly'
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Summary: Excellent Resource/Review for CF Developers
Review: As a ColdFusion developer, I found this book extremely helpfull in mastering ColdFusion. Especially usefull are the sections on SQL and and general database issues as well as the appendices on CF functions and tags. The book and CD also have many practical examples that actually work well. Most importantly, the writing is very clear and structured and for a technical book, it is easy to follow and understand. Now as an experienced ColdFusion developer, I occasionally use this book as a reference when I need help with a CF function or CF tag. I also highly recommend using this book in conjunction with the online help available in ColdFusion Studio.Because I really like this book, I am eagerly awaiting a ColdFusion 5 reference from Ben Forta et. al.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good book but...
Review: This was an excellent book for CF beginner. However, what I didn't like was the section on application.cfm, session and client variables. The explanations, or rather, the lack of explanation, were very superficial and did not cover in depth the purpose of these important variables. The example with the CF_pet would be a complete mess for many developers. Later as I had to develop more and more CF applications I realized that client and session vars are actually very important. Other than that and some other minor faults everything is pretty good. I especially liked the SQL query coverages that Forta has made.
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Summary: There is no better book.
Review: My only complaint is that I wished this book shipped with the product instead of Allaire's useless manual! Clearly written, well organized, there is no better reference on Cold Fusion. Includes sections on the end of CF tags, CF functions, and Verity functions. The best!
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Summary: The True Bible of ColdFusion Bibles!
Review: The Coldfusion 4.0 Web Application Construction Kit by Ben Forta is truly THE ColdFusion Bible! I purchased this book immediately after taking Allaire's Fast Track to ColdFusion course and not only did it help me get my first application started, but it guided me through the more advanced capabilities of ColdFusion that were necessary to complete it. Especially helpful was Chapter 29, Full-Text Searching with Verity. Mr. Forta offers clear, concise explanations in this book and code samples that are easily applied to whatever application you're working on. The ColdFusion Tag and Function references are put together wonderfully! Whether you're new to ColdFusion or a seasoned pro, you'll want to keep this book by your side. This one has never made it to my bookshelf - it's opened and on my desk at ALL times!
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Summary: Good for the neophyte, but...
Review: If you're new to the world of server-side programming, databases, and dynamic web pages in general, this can be a quite useful book. It not only covers ColdFusion, but also teaches you how server-side languages work, how a relational database works, and gives you a nice high-level approach to creating web-based applications. It's quite well written, explaining things clearly and giving you some fairly practical examples. (At least, for the first two-thirds of the book it does. Around chapter 25, as many people have noted, it starts to degenerate into a bunch of code that isn't particularly well documented and uses functions that haven't been covered or explained. But up until then, it's quite good.) All of this is great -- if you need to learn such things. If, however, you're an experienced developer already familiar with languages such as ASP or PHP and just need a fast intro to ColdFusion, it can be pretty cumbersome trying to scan through dozens of pages of how an HTML form works just so you can find the tidbit of information that tells you how ColdFusion deals with form submissions. Instead, I might recommend you take a look at the "Certified ColdFusion Developer Study Guide" which is probably the closest thing that exists right now to an O'Reilly "...in a Nutshell" book.
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Summary: Best book I ever read!
Review: Wow. I'm not sure if it is Cold Fusion, or if this is simply the best book I have ever read. Either way, I picked the book up and within a matter of 136 pages feel I am now an expert at Cold Fusion. The first 200 pages are about installing the software and overall administration. This section could be used without, as these tend to be easy and are not mission critical (for programming anyway.) After that, pages 200 to 336 are the heart of Cold Fusion. Ben Forta does exceptional at explaining the concepts, and puts 90% of what Cold Fusion is into these pages. I consider this the heart of the book. The extra pages in the book are just that. Extra. They are great for reference later on, but it is these 136 pages that make up the book! After this, pages 337 through 900 delve more into advanced templates, SQL, email, session variables, cffile and so on. (Don't get me wrong, these sections are great when you need them, but you won't need them immediately!) I found that the book was sectioned so well that I could flip to any section and get a good understanding of what it was talking about. No matter what, if this is your first time using Cold Fusion, you have to get this book!
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Summary: simply amazing
Review: ben forta is amazing... i learned more about database concepts from this book than some books dedicated to database concepts. ben forta is a genius... BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT
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Summary: It's worth it for a beginner
Review: I definetely recomend this book for anyone getting started writing Cold Fusion. However, if you already have a year or two of experience under your belt, think twice before shelling out the cash for this book. I'm not a big believer in having a book aimed at all skill levels and this one is a good example since most of the code examples and explanation for beginers take up a lot of the pages. If you're looking for tips on writing more effecient code, how to better write an application, or just looking for a book to deal with a wide variety of advanced CF applications, this book isn't going to do that for you. Yes, it does cover some key advanced topics but not all of them.
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