Rating: 
Summary: Book is good - Software is not
Review: Pros:
- If you're a beginner in web programming and would like to create dynamic websites, prepare for a little pain. This is not an easy development tool to learn and the author touches on things which would be useful to learn.
- Database design covered in great detail
- Usage of a FREE database system. Lets face it, NOT everybody may have MS Access installed on their computers
- Plenty of examples at the end if you want to create similar tools for your website.Cons:
- If you're an intermediate web programmer, stay far away from Ultradev. You'll save yourself more time by just using other editors to code your web applications.
- Most JSP developers would like to create WAR files for easy distribution and deployment. However, this application does not provide a tool for doing so and therefore is not best suited for JSP development.
- JSP development goes hand in hand with Servlet development. JSP development acts as a presentation layer whereas Servlets are a business layer. This is definitely overlooked by the creators of Ultradev.
- The author assumes you will remember how to do exactly what he wants you to do that was covered in 5+ chapters ago.
- The code developed is unbelievably disgusting. There is so much spaghetti code that debugging is a nightmare. Stay FAR FAR away from Ultradev. If you're a programmer and wanted to work with a WYSIWYG editor, then Ultradev might be good for developing ONLY the front-ends. It is not worth using if you can program in ASP/JSP/CFML. I found out that I spent more time correcting the mistakes that Ultradev created in the automatic code that was generated than if I recoded the entire thing by hand. My synopsis on this book and development tool is that the book shows you why Ultradev should not be used seriously by a serious web developer. Debugging is unbelievably horrible. KEEP IN MIND: I am looking from a web programmer's perspective. Not a web designer who wishes to learn a bit more about dynamic website generation.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable book on an unenjoyable topic
Review: I've been a strong dissenting voice against UltraDev in the design firm where I work. The users expect magic from the program without wanting to invest any time in learning the languages it supports. UltraDev isn't a simple application, and it requires skills above and beyond what most books (including the manual) want you to believe. I liked this book because it is more detailed about the whole system (database server, language) than the others. It shows that you need to know a bit more than pointing and clicking to be successful with UltraDev. The CD is pretty bad, but I really appreciate the approach of the author for the rest of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Projects
Review: Thankfully I knew some Dreamweaver before I started this book. It is a long and complicated text, but the final week of projects is really what I needed to do my job. It's something of a construction-kit approach, which may or may not suit your needs. If you like lots of code, you'll like this book. If you want a hand-held HTML walkthrough from day 1, you're not going to be happy. There's just too much to cover for it to be that kind of book.
Rating: 
Summary: Definately NOT as useful as I had hoped!!! VERY Disappointed
Review: I was very much looking forward to teaching myself UD in 21 days, but as soon as I opened the book I knew I had wasted my money! There are no clear instructions or step by steps....you don't know when you actually are supposed do what the book says or just read the information. I am not a beginner at Dreamweaver and I knew that if Day 1 and 2 were a little bit confusting for me, the real advanced stuff would be beyond comprehension. I got half way through with Day 2 and am already looking online for a different book.
Rating:
Summary: Old news, I know.
Review: I just started getting into UltraDev in the past few weeks, and I borrowed a copy of this book from a friend. While I agree that there are some issues with the title (it appears that it was hurried to be released alongside UltraDev itself), I was quite impressed with the scope. I started reading this book with essentially no knowledge of dynamic applications, and I finished being able to create working sites. I agree that the database information was quite helpful, but it's definitely going to be a bit beyond what most people are accustomed to. Probably the best part of the book is that it leads the users through a number of examples from start to finish. The author doesn't recommend that some of these examples (such as the shopping cart) be used in real-life, but it's a good start for anyone who wants to know how these sorts of things are built.
Rating:
Summary: Some odd choices and advices in the book
Review: I have been teaching an Ultradev recently and used this book (not my choice) as a teaching material. The book is decent and does cover most of Ultradev functionality but I was not fully satisfied for the following reason. - The book uses mySQL as the database for the examples. I certainly have nothing again mySQL which is an open source and well-respected database however, I wished more coverage of other databases had been included. In particular some example rely on mySQL functions are are not immediately transposable to other databases which is frustrating for the readers. ALso, although the author mention stored procedures (that are supported by Ultradev), some example would have been nice.
- The chapter on state management (users login) was unsatisfactory. The author talks at length about state management in general but fails to demonstrate the user of Ultradev in built server behavior to that effect. The author recommend using session id instead of cookies but practical examples (for instance a shopping basket) are lacking. In addition there is no coverage of each environment's specific state management capabilities (some mention of ColdFUsion's session and client variables that can use cookies or url parameters would have been nice). - I strongly disagree with some of the author's recommendations. For instance, even though he does discuss somewhat the security implications of doing so, there is an example where credit card numbers are saved into the database (admitedly encrypted with mysql's proprietary function - that does not exist on most other db systems). I find this very dangerous and think that it is dangerous to teach this to a beginning audience. In earlier chapter he also suggest using the SSN as file naming convention in order to save an image file for each employee. What a bad idea! Anybody looking at the code can see the SSN. But otherwise there are many examples that are quiet easy to follow. I also appreciated a large coverage of database design principle (even though some of his database design choices are a little odd as well).
Rating:
Summary: Worth it. (but the CD isn't)
Review: I really enjoyed TY UD in 21 days. I don't think any other books approach the topic this way (how the web works, how databases work, and so on), and I feel like I got more from reading it then just UltraDev knowledge alone. The included CD isn't that great, but maybe they'll fix that in another edition. It didn't really bug me though.
Rating:
Summary: Got my attention
Review: This book got my attention after leafing through a few pages and seeing the chapter on database normalization. I feel like I finally understand how to do something beyond the little "show stuff in a table" apps I was writing before. It's a good solid book on using UltraDev, but covers some ground that others may not be so interested in.
Rating:
Summary: Does anyone know where the source code is?
Review: The book itself is fine, delving not too far into the advanced technologies. My biggest question is "Where is the sample source code?" If anyone knows, please email me at epross@sabrewebdesign.com. I see only chapters 15-20 on the CD and those aren't even complete.
Rating:
Summary: Non M$ focus, bout darn time!
Review: I know the author used Windows as the platform for the screenshots, but the database system isn't Access (for me, that's a non-choice)! The inclusion of information for getting up and running on Linux is a big plus for some of us. It did seem kinda tough for beginners though. I'm fudged some ASP by hand before, so it worked pretty well for me.
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