Customer Reviews

Drumbeat 2000 For Dummies

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I like the dummies books -- they help you get your foot in the door quickly, usually in an afternoon. I didn't find the book as bad as many other people here have, but many of the problems mentioned here (ie., especially those with the cd) are real and significant.

Before anyone buys this book, I'd strongly suggest they download the demo copy of Drumbeat if at all possible, and look at the docs that come with it. It's a big download (60MB), so that might not be possible for everyone. But the demo product comes with a quick start guide and a full manual, and both of them are very well done. I think they're much better than the Dummies book, they're official, and they're free. In any event, I've gotten more use from them than I have from this book.

If you compare the value of your time to the cost of these books, you'll find that you don't need much value from a book to make it worthwhile. So my feeling is that if you want to master Drumbeat, you might as well buy this book, even if it is flawed, since it's the only one out there, and another perspective on the subject is helpful. But I don't think it's the best way to learn the product from scratch.

Drumbeat 2000 is a great idea, but not a very mature product at the moment. Hopefully, Macromedia's acquisition will do good things - the support is already improved.

Domain knowledge of databases (Access & SQL or other ODBC-compliant), queries, etc., AND Active Server Pages (for Intermediate/Advanced Users) is required to effectively use DB2K. There are not many books/references available. This is what the Dummies book benefits from.

By the very fact that it is the first and only book (as of now) on a very powerful and complex tool, it deserves to be on every DB2K users bookshelf/desktop. It beats the manuals. There are a lot of visuals which really help in navigating through DB2K's extensive set of menus and dialog boxes.

Dummies books tend to oversimplify things, and this book is no different. However, The authors do try very hard to make DB as easy as possible for the newbie and cover a lot more ground than the documentation. The Dummies writing style and typography is just about tolerable, since we have nothing else to turn to.

Overall, a GOOD BOOK for BEGINNERS/INTERMEDIATE users. Advanced users should stay away. The CD does not contain any new Contracts/Interactions.

Why the 4 *? It's the first DB book. Goes further than the documentation.

Awaiting more Drumbeat books - well written, in-depth, well-designed books with lots of "How-To"s and case-studies from start to finish, step-by-step, which give complete details of constructing complex real-world web sites with Drumbeat & SQL Server.

Lesson 1. Drumbeat 2000 is NOT for Dummies. On the contrary, it is for tough guys. No weenies allowed. It is powerful, but commands respect. it works like nothing else, but you don't need nothing else to use it.

Lesson 2. Tough guys need documentation too. They just don't read it. Unless they have to.

Lesson 3. There are no other forms of documentation, just 60mbs of greek (the built-in doc.) Tough guys can read greek. But sometimes they like english too. This is english.

Lesson 4. Whilst you are pulling your hair to become a Jedi DB2K Master, you will consider the 30 bucks to airfreight this to your door, the best deal since Anakin pulled that fast one.

Lesson 5. Maybe you think you don't need this. Maybe you're a tough guy and a friggin genius too. Then go install SAP while me and the boys are getting down with DB 2000.

I would recommend reading the quick start manual that comes along with the trial version of DB2K, it's decently written and provides a lot of answers, however; true beginners will find that DB2K for dummies is a God-send in the fact that it provides a lot of reference, but keep in mind the book isn't written to well.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Those with even basic experience in web design can skip the first few chapters of the book-- however, after that the authors clearly outline how to easily create ASP pages. I would only recommend this book to a beginner. The CD is not useful-- it includes trial versions of drumbeat (would it not be a reasonable assumption that owners of this book have Drumbeat? )

This book is on par with many in the Dummie library. Too many times authors will rush to fill a need and forget the parameters of accurate reporting and authorship. I will not recommend this book to anyone unless you are prepared for a mountain of frustration especially when using the CD.

Since Macromedia bought Elemental Software, the creators of Drumbeat, I have been monitoring the Drumbeat forums. It seems that Macromedia has their hands full in supporting this product. There is no doubt that Drumbeat can be a killer application once the bugs are worked out and the product matures. ASP can be a complicated scripting language for which Drumbeat was meant to assist Web developers over the hurdles. The community is crying out for a first class book written on Drumbeat. You will not find it here.

MACROMEDIA HAS ANNOUNCED A NEW SOFTWARE RELEASE. DRUMBEAT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. THE NEW SOFTWARE CALLED DREAMWEAVER ULTRADEV, COMBINES DREAMWEAVER AND DRUMBEAT. SO THIS BOOK CAN GIVE YOU A GOOD IDEA BUT NOT ALL THE NECESSARY NOW.

As Macromedia have now announced how Drumbeat is going to evolve I understand the Teach Yourself book has been withdrawn. Having done the 'Getting Started' tutorial in Drumbeat and having read parts of the manual I was still unclear how the various Drumbeat concepts fit together - the contracts/activations/interactions. This book solved that quickly by walking me through sample applications, at first with the DataForm Wizard and then without. I did my first data-driven web application in a matter of hours!

As a new user of Drumbeat I welcome all the documentation I can find. This book does help to fill in some of the gaps in the documentation provided with the software. The book offers easy-to-follow examples and explains the Drumbeat components in a way that makes it easy to understand. Kudos to the authors.

I don't know if the book is perfect. I can't tell. I am one of the great unwashed that cannot write a pearl script. This book and this software (a complete trial version is included) consigns those possessing that knowledge to the great trash heaps of history; along with those possessing such other minutae as "Basic for the Commodore 64", who played 3rd base for the NY Mets in '61, how to calculate an integral, how to do square roots by hand, and well you get my drift.

This is the herald of a new age, and you better climb on if you know what's good for you. So what if you can write all this crap by hand (HTML code, ASP code)? Who is going to pay you to do it, if I can do it in one 20th the time? Oh you probably still think Fortran is the way to write statistics programs.

Now this book.... This book is the ONLY reference work for this masterpiece of a language. And a LANGUAGE it is. You can actually develop web based applications in it.

The authors should be academically praised as this book represents true scholarship in bringing this great program/language to light. The references are consise, the examples are illuminating, it is a thorough treatment, and did I mention that it is the only reference out there?

BTW, it does NOT read like one of the Dummies books. It must have been a labor of love. The CD is chocked with stuff even us uptodate folks might not have. How about; IE 5.0, Netscape 4.5, Acrobat 4.0, Paint shop pro 5.03, all kinds of other site examples, and documentation from the drumbeat site. Sure it's all out there if you've got the time and patience, but here it is on CD.

OK... Platitudes aside. Why should you buy this book?

1. It's shipping. 2. It allows you to do things that only nerds versed in MULITPLE arcane strategies can do. (Database, web design, cgi, active server pages, visual basic scripts.) 3. It cost $20 bucks. You'll feel guilty and probably have to write a review too! 4. Saves you the 4 hour download of the trial version. (What you WEREN'T going to download the trial version? Haven't you been listening?) 5. You know a good thing when you see one. 6. You understand that the first 4 reviewers are morons. 7. You ain't.

Now go do it!