Customer Reviews

Foundation Dreamweaver Ultradev 4

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This is an excellent book for beginners as well as for experienced UltraDev users. Users who are new to building dynamic websites will appreciate the clear and step-by-step instructions in the book regarding how to get started in building data-driven websites. Experienced users will find it a useful reference and a good source for time saving tips and techniques.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Stored Procedures; I think most SQL Server users will also find themselves referring to that chapter quite often. There are also two chapters that deal specifically with the shopping cart.

However, what I liked most about the book is that the authors take a real-word example of an e-commerce site, KoolKards, and gently guide the reader through the process of setting up such a site. In the process, the readers learn how to create various web applications that are needed to build secure and powerful dynamic websites.

The code examples in the book are very good. The screenshots are quite helpful. And the explanations are easy to understand. By the time you have read this book you should be able to create powerful e-commerce applications and dynamic, data-driven websites, using ASP/VBScript, like the vast majority of UltraDev users.

While this book is not for Mac users; for PC users it is a "must-have". A superb book, indeed!

This book is extremely wonderful for folks who want to learn UltraDev 4 and dive into dynamic web sites. It is also great for programmers who need to begin using UD's automated script features. The chapters are condense and to the point. The words revolve around the topic at hand.

There isnt a lot of small talk. You will learn from the chapter whatever the chapter is titled. It also introduces UD users to upgrading to sql from Access and building server side behaviors.

You will learn about stored procedures which other books have not covered. The shopping cart tutorial is easy and clear. The chapter is also a great reference.

The book also covers emailing the cart which many people have asked about.

The book teaches strictly from an ASP perspective and is great in not only introducing people to UltraDev and all of its capabilities but to programming and hand coding ASP.

There are a few minor errors in some of the text.

Overall this is one of the best books on UltraDev 4 thusfar.

I usually like the tutorial style of the Foundation Series. In this case, however, the authors didn't reveiw their tutorials as thoroughly as it is required so as to not confuse a novice. There are errors in the code, some of the completed files that can be downloaded don't work (Chapter 7 files are a good example) and sometimes, filenames are mixed up or not even mentioned so that one has to add a significant dose of imagination to figure out what the authors wanted to say but never quite got done saying. What a waste of my time!

In my opinion this book needs to be proof read, pre-tested, and a revised second edition released
ASAP.
There are too many typo errors and code errors to list. To get a reasonable idea of the problems the book is creating have a look at the tutorial forum "webboard" and note the comments at ...You will notice too that there are a lot of unanswered questions there. I found myself spending more time on the forum page looking for answers to the errors in the book than actually reading it.

This is so disappointing, I have bought the Flash books from friends of Ed, and they are superb, first class. I expected this book to be of the same calibre, but it was not to be.
As it stands now, I have struggled to reach chapter seven and I am unable to study the book any further, I am considering purchasing another similar book elsewhere.

This book is probably OK if you already have a good working knowledge of ASP and Access, then you can sort the mistakes out as you go along.

I can't remember the last time I actually read all the way through a computer book. The authors have a very readable style and do the best job I've seen in helping non-programmers use UD4. The explanations of ASP coding are very clear.

They really stick to their goal, which is to give you a good start in using the program and a sense of confidence that you can get UD4 to do what you want. Unlike some of the multi-author giant reference volumes, they don't get lost in some hundred page long section on how to write an entire web application in ASP (I'd buy an ASP book if that was what I wanted.)

The authors have obviously taken the time to think through what you would want to do with UD4, and then tell you what you need to know (now that's an idea!) Good sections are offered for using email, file uploading (! been looking for that one), as well as sections on some of the new version 4 features.

The book is complemented by a web site where you can submit questions to the authors. Now, that's customer service.

This book is a big disappointment. I was/am extremely excited at the idea of using UltraDev. My school had recommended the book (without going through it first) to the students for our classes in UltraDev. So far there have been only a few Chapters that are not plagued with problems.

I get the feeling that the folks who are recommending this book must truly be "Friends of Ed".

So far, my classmates & I are up to Chapter 8 and we've all experienced the same problems in the same areas. That hardly seems coincidental. The comments that I read earlier about 'only' Mac Users having difficulties do not apply as we have PCs. We are not novices to Dreamweaver or HTML, so I'm afraid, it's not a learning curve problem either.

In closing, I do not recommend this book for a beginner. The book looks great & gives some high expectations, but unfortunately it leaves folks stranded. If you do buy the book, you should expect to spend a fair amount of time reviewing the messages posted on the 'Foundation UltraDev' MessageBoards to get yourself out of jams.

PS. If anyone finds a good UltraDev book for beginners, then please email me!

after reading many reviews,I decided to pick this book for studying Ultradev in details. But after taking a look at and doing some few chapters, I feel terribly disappointed from unclear exercises and explainations about Ultradev. Finally, I think I will sell this book to others.

I am new to dynamic web sites and I have tried to find a books that focused on developing an e-commerce site with Ultradev. I have purchased all the Ultradev books in print to date and although helpful, just did not put all the pieces together for me. Foundation Dreamweaver UltraDev 4 takes off where the packged tutorial ends. It goes to the next level. I am finding this book to be the most practical and instructive. After a cursory review of the chapters and throughly reading the first five chapters, I believe it is the best "getting started book on the market." Finally, I believe I have found a puplication that will help me get that e-commerce site online. Once finised I can return to the other publications to better appreciate their techniques. I hope the Friends of Ed follow their training logic and actually move from developing a foundation with UltraDev to the Master level.

Thanks guys.

This book is one of the best tutorials on DWU out there. This book was my first book from FOED and I was so pleased with it that I ran and bought the Foundation Flash 5 and Foundation ActionScript too. And I am not dissapointed with them. Excellent book. Keep up the good work guys!
Cheers from LIMA, PERU.

The concept of this book is very good - explaining all the necessary functions of a retail web page by example. The authors are also intent on the reader learning the code to write and alter the web page functions. This would be great except for the fact that every single chapter I've worked in so far is full of errors. Some are small errors - like inconsistent cases in the naming of forms. Others, however, are huge errors like leaving out entire lines of code or code that just plain doesn't work. Unless you have the patience of a saint and a high speed internet connection, which you'll want to access their help page and example files (apparently a cd would have been too big of a commitment) as you struggle with the errors in every single chapter, then don't bother with this book.