ColdFusion 8 Developer Tutorial (Paperback)

by John Farrar (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In Detail

Adobe ColdFusion is an application server, renowned for rapid development of dynamic websites, with a straightforward language (CFML), powerful methods for packaging and reusing your code, and AJAX support that will get developers deep into powerful web applications quickly.

This book is the most intense guide to creating professional ColdFusion applications available. Packed with example code, and written in a friendly, easy-to-read style, this book is just want you need if you are serious about ColdFusion.

This book will give you clear, concise and, of course, practical guidance to take you from the basics of ColdFusion 8 to the skills that will make you a ColdFusion developer to be reckoned with.

ColdFusion expert John Farrar will teach you how about the basics of ColdFusion programming, application architecture, and object reuse, before showing you a range of topics including AJAX library integration, RESTful Web Services, PDF creation and manipulation, and dynamically generated presentation files that will make you the toast of your ColdFusion developer town.

This book digs deep with the basics, with real-world examples of the how and whys, to get more done faster with ColdFusion 8.

This book also covers the new features of ColdFusion 8 Update 1.

What you will learn from this book?

• The basics of ColdFusion
• Basic debugging and exception handling techniques, and conditional processing
• Making your ColdFusion Components (CFCs) come alive with methods, using object inheritance, connecting to a database through the internal methods of our object/CFCs
• Keeping your object/CFCs thread safe when multiple users are running the same code segments
• Managing multiple products through common forms for listing, editing, and adding data
• Passing information into a custom tag, different methods of storing and accessing tags and tag libraries
• Wrapping the ThickBox JavaScript gallery functions into a custom tag for simple functional reuse
• Wrapping a Google map library into our code with a custom tag for simplified interactive maps, and creating a multi-state form list wrapped in a custom tag
• Controlling site content based on current user permissions
• ColdFusion AJAX Layout features and ColdFusion widgets
• Enhancing the user interface with AJAX
• Searching with a database, features of Verity search solution, how to integrate a third-party search solution
• Managing files, emails, and images for a dynamic website
• Integrating Feed, REST, and SOAP web services for interacting with other sites
• Creating data-driven reports in ColdFusion with several styles and interactions
• Presenting dynamic contents on your site using CFPresentation

Approach

This book is a fast-paced tutorial to developing ColdFusion applications, with an emphasis on real-world skills. Packed with examples and careful explanations, the book leads you through all the topics relevant to today's ColdFusion developer.

Who this book is written for?

This book is for web developers working with ColdFusion 8.

If your goal is to get a good grounding in the basics of the language as quickly as possible and put a site together quickly, this book is ideal for you. If you want to learn more about professional programming of ColdFusion, this book is definitely for you.

No prior knowledge of ColdFusion is expected, but basic knowledge of general web and software development skills is assumed.

About the Author

John Farrar

John started working with computer programming around 1977. He has had the opportunity to work on projects used by Apple, Blue Cross, Brunswick Recreation, Casio, GVSU, Johnson Controls, Sprint, and many others. This history covers over 30 years of knowledge and experience in the industry.

He started doing web development over 10 years ago. In the early days of the Web ColdFusion stood out to him not just as a way to make web pages into web applications but as a maturing solid platform good for the developer, site owner, and end users. He started at version 4.5 and has been enjoying each version upgrade more and more.

John owns a company called SOSensible. His company does work for large companies but has a special focus on also making sure technology is approachable beyond the enterprise. They have developed a number of Open Source solutions including COOP. COOP is a mix of Custom Tags and CFCs that provides structure while keeping development simpler. It demonstrates his love for the things that make ColdFusion/CFML a delightful language to build websites.

He has spoken at national and regional conferences, online meetings, and area user group meetings. He is also an Adobe User Group manager. John knows that community is a viable and productive tool to build developers and the companies they serve. He has learned much from great resources in the community including bloggers, books, conferences, and resources to great in number to mention here. He blogs at sosensible.com for the community.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (July 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847194125
• ISBN-13: 978-1847194121
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #346,521 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #9 in

  Books > Computers & Internet > Web Development > Programming > Cold Fusion

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Content in This Book, July 13, 2008

By	Will Tomlinson Web Development (Greensboro, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I really enjoyed reading most of this book. I say most, because I haven't gotten through it all - there's a lot of content here!

I was surprised by the range of material covered in one book. The CFC's section is excellent, AJAX, and such.

It looks like John Farrar spent quite a bit of time developing his content, and he delivers it in an easy-to-read fashion.

Thanks for a great ColdFusion book!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great starting place, December 5, 2008

By	Jacob Munson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

John's book is a good place to start if you are new to ColdFusion. Personally I have been writing ColdFusion for years, so I was reading this book from a review perspective, but it seems like it would be great for beginners. He starts with the very basics, like creating and using variables, and works up to more advanced topics like Ajax. I did find a couple of editing errors, but nothing too serious.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars OK curriculum but grade school level writing, May 11, 2009

By	A. Reed - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Clarity of writing is vitally important in any sort of technical / instructional book. The material Farrar covers is fairly extensive, but the actual writing is atrocious. An example from the beginning of Chapter 2:

"This object will be a reflection of the common attributes and methods that we will use to model a product (object). Our product (object) has attributes and methods. Let us work through this whole chapter again before you form an opinion of CFCs in code."

Another example from a few pages earlier:

"Earlier, we forgot about the Boolean variable type. The conditional statements inside the 'if' statements evaluate to either true or false. These are the Boolean values. You will also find that you can use either a zero, or a non-zero number to represent a Boolean logical evaluation. Therefore, any expression that evaluates to either zero or false has the same results. The other non-zero numbers and values such as true, yes, and no are valid Boolean conditions. You can just take the same code and assign it to a variable. Then you could use the variable inside the 'if' statement instead of evaluating the logic inside the statement. Normally, place it inside the <cfIf> statement, which is more meaningful."

This is Sarah Palin level nonsense, three times longer than it needs to be, unnecessarily confusing, and neither concise nor clear. It sounds almost computer-generated. It's certainly not acceptable for a professional book at this price point.