ColdFusion MX Developer's Cookbook [Paperback]

Peter Freitag (Author), Brad Leupen (Author), Chris Reeves (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0672324628 | ISBN-13: 978-0672324628 | Edition: 1

ColdFusion is a rapid application development tool used to create Web sites throughout the Internet. The product's ease of use and capabilities allow even inexperienced developers to rapidly produce basic Web sites.

The ColdFusion MX Developer's Cookbook focuses upon teaching the use of ColdFusion's advanced features in the development of more complex Web sites -- Web sites that interact with other sites on the Internet, that are data-driven rather than static, and that are not necessarily confined to one server.

Though the basics of ColdFusion are easily picked up by even novice programmers, many encounter difficulties when they attempt to master more advanced features because they lack formal training. The ColdFusion MX Developer's Cookbook provides recipes and insights into ColdFusion, and along the way teaches some of the fundamentals of the development process.

The recipes serve as templates for database access, custom tags, scripting, generating charts and graphs, and linking into other resources on the Web using SOAP and .NET.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

ColdFusion is a rapid application development tool used to create Web sites throughout the Internet. The product's ease of use and capabilities allow even inexperienced developers to rapidly produce basic Web sites.

The ColdFusion MX Developer's Cookbook focuses upon teaching the use of ColdFusion's advanced features in the development of more complex Web sites -- Web sites that interact with other sites on the Internet, that are data-driven rather than static, and that are not necessarily confined to one server.

Though the basics of ColdFusion are easily picked up by even novice programmers, many encounter difficulties when they attempt to master more advanced features because they lack formal training. The ColdFusion MX Developer's Cookbook provides recipes and insights into ColdFusion, and along the way teaches some of the fundamentals of the development process.

The recipes serve as templates for database access, custom tags, scripting, generating charts and graphs, and linking into other resources on the Web using SOAP and .NET.

About the Author

Pete Freitag is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of CFDev, a company that builds Web components for ColdFusion and other languages. He has several years of experience developing database-driven Web applications, integrating with legacy systems, and product development. He contributes to the ColdFusion, Web development, and software development communities regularly, and holds a BS in Software Engineering from Clarkson University.

Brad Leupen is the Chief Technology Officer for the software company Noverant. He holds an AB in Computer Science from Harvard University, where he focused on operating systems and distributed systems research. He won the Derek Bok Award for Excellence in Teaching as a Teaching Fellow for several university undergraduate classes. He has closely followed the development of key Web technologies and standards, including J2EE, .NET, and XML.

Chris Reeves is a software developer for Religent, Inc. in Raleigh, NC, where he assists in development for the company's remote systems management software suite. He graduated with a BA in English from Appalachian State University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 1 edition (April 19, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672324628
• ISBN-13: 978-0672324628
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,917,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pete has been building web applications for over a decade, with expertise in ColdFusion, Java, and Web Application Security.

Pete currently owns a ColdFusion consulting and web products company called Foundeo Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great techniques you can use today!, October 29, 2003

By 

Lisa J Wilson (Rocklin, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ColdFusion MX Developer's Cookbook (Paperback)

Are you tired of all the Flash talk and ready to dive into improving your ColdFusion skills? This is the book for you then!

The authors waste no time diving into techniques for improving you skills. In the first couple of pages on string manipulation, I learned tips I could use today. They move quickly into arrays and structures (a challenge for most beginners!) If you're building an application for the first time, the techniques and advice offered throughout will give you working code to build and expand upon.

One section is devoted to database interaction including a simple SQL database you can build to run examples and separate coverage of stored procedures in both MS SQL Server and Oracle. Each recipe is described in a short sentence, making it easy to determine whether it's the one you're looking for, followed by the technique with one or more examples and further comments. There's no wasted text.

Especially interesting to me are the chapters detailing use of the new XML tags and functions and interoperability with JSPs and Servelets. An excellent list of resource websites is included as an appendix. This book is a great companion to your CFML Reference guide. The only improvement would be to make it a fatter, more detailed book!

The cookbook is one of Sams Developer's Library editions, specializing in providing practicing programmers with a core reference to assist them in common day-to-day programming tasks. Highly recommended for intermediate developers wanting to improve their skills quickly.

Lisa Wilson
Sacramento ColdFusion User Group Manager

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing reference for CFMX, April 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: ColdFusion MX Developer's Cookbook (Paperback)

This is the one. I've been looking forward to this book since I heard it was in production as I already owned the mod_perl developer's cookbook and loved the structure. So, being more a ColdFusion developer, I had high expectations for this edition in the cookbook series, and the authors certainly did not disappoint. First of all, I think SAMS has done a great job reviewing what texts are currently available and then finding a niche for this cookbook style reference. So many technical references, ColdFusion and other, tend to focus on model applications. As in, many books will say "ok, here's how you develop an intranet employee management application" or some such. Well, that's great, but what about 98% of readers who don't need that type of application. This is where the developers cookbook takes over - it does not build some app nobody needs and then explain it line by line - instead, it presents a very specific technical task (i.e. "Adding an LDAP entry"), shows the code necessary to complete the task, then explains what happened and why - all in very few pages. Indeed, a breath of fresh air among so many throw away tech books. I was also happy to see that this particular title covers more advanced topics such as the aforementioned LDAP integration, the new in MX ColdFusion Components and user authentication, etc. The authors did a commendable job in covering the basics as well for those who need an introduction to the language. Overall, another fantastic title in a great series.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Full of jewels, June 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: ColdFusion MX Developer's Cookbook (Paperback)

I found enough in the first chapter to make this book worth the price. I've read the online docs and like them, but find this book very helpful in getting directly to a task and getting to the nuts and bolts. This book is probably not geared toward the beginner, but would make a great side-by-side reference for the online documentation and or an introductory book.

I would have been disappointed if this book made me wade through chapters of language basics already covered in the documentation and applications that I'll never want to write. Instead, I found ample coverage on all common tasks and emphasis on important tasks. There was full coverage on Java CFX, for instance, but empahsis on the new and better ways of communicating with Java in CFMX.

Another reviewer questioned the coverage of Arrays, SQL and XML. I already have references for these topics on my bookshelf gathering dust. What I wanted from this book, was quick coverage of the basic tasks concerning XML, for instance, that I would use in any language, but specific to ColdFusion. I got that in 5 minutes. Assign a document to an object, parse the document, etc.

I found I was wanting to play with many of the examples, which is not generally the case with books that have example applications that span entire chapters(examples in this book are concise and to the point). And since building applications is simply a process of building small tasks, testing them and assembling them, I liked the approach. I tried the other way and ended up spending more time on troubleshooting than I did writing the application in the first place. The process of writing the test first really helps in productivity and reduces frustration. This book helps in this area and is why I would also recommend it for beginners.

This book will stay on my desk!