Customer Reviews

Inside Coldfusion MX

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Over the last few years, I've worked with ColdFusion sporadically and without great success. Everyone said how easy it was to learn ColdFusion, but I just wasn't getting it. I got a copy of this book as soon as it came out and let me tell you, the first few chapters cleared up all of the confusion for me regarding CF.

This book explained ColdFusion and application development in a way that just makes sense. The authors don't numb you with ultra-techno lingo but explain each and every concept in a way that is clear and concise and they give relevant examples to back it all up.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn ColdFusion development, extend their existing knowledge of ColdFusion or even learn to administrate their CF servers.

Wow! I just started to work with MX from CF 5 and was worried about how well I would make the transition. Picked this book up and already I can see a marked improvement in my MX programming. Book was easy to follow and well thought out. I have read some articles and bought some code from author Neil Ross and he didn't disappoint here. Great book!!!!!!!

This book is not like other books that come with a cd where the code doesn't even work. The site had all the code from the book and real working examples. Why are you not buying this book this second?!?!?! Go...hurry before they are all gone.

"Inside ColdFusion MX" is an excellent starting point for anybody who wants to learn ColdFusion from scratch. The book uses simple language and illustrates the more complicated issues of programming with real life examples, which makes it very easy to read and understand.
Experienced programmers who have worked with previous versions of ColdFusion will find the book to be a great introduction to features of the new MX version such as XML and Flash MX integration, CFC's and more.
A well-organized index allows readers to quickly find any topic of interest. Chapters in the book are logically arranged and well cross-referenced. Task oriented readers will appreciate not having to plow through the book in contiguous order to be able to grasp required information.
Some of the chapters I would like to highlight as particularly useful are:
User Defined Functions; CF Components; Application Performance; Advanced Database Interaction; and very practical Tips and Tricks. Additionally, the appendices provides an invaluable resource for the novice and not-so-novice reader alike. Inside ColdFusion MX is a great book and I highly recommend it!

I was a bit sceptical about this book. I thought anyone would be hard pressed to compete with Ben Forta's classic book, but this book is really aimed at a different target. If you are fairly new to ColdFusion and are looking at taking that next step into intermediate/advanced use of ColdFusion, then this is the right book for you.

It introduces advanced concepts like using XML, new ColdFusion Components, Flash remoting, with clear easy to follow examples. Give it a look.

This is the first book I've seen that tries to go beyond ColdFusion syntax and is definitely geared toward the intermediate developer.
It does not focus on the basics like all the others but rather gives real-world examples and approaches. I liked this book a lot, though I can find no use for the tag reference (adds extra 200 pages).
The XML and Web-Services chapter was easy to understand and so was the application architecture chapter.
I did not like the caching chapter which I thought was missing some info about software like xcache.

I am new to ColdFusion although I have a background in Computer Science. I just started a project where I have to integrate ColdFusion MX , Flash MX, and XML. I found that this book provided a good overview of ColdFusion and was well written. My only complaint is that most of the chapters seemed not delve very deeply into more advanced concepts although there is an excellent and pretty deep coverage of how to work with XML and ColdFusion which was exactly what I needed.

This is the first book I've seen that tries to go beyond ColdFusion syntax and is definitely geared toward the intermediate developer.
It does not focus on the basics like all the others but rather gives real-world examples and approaches. I liked this book a lot, though I can find no use for the tag reference (adds extra 200 pages).
The XML and Web-Services chapter was easy to understand and so was the application architecture chapter.
I did not like the caching chapter which I thought was missing some info about software like xcache.

This book covers the planning, development and implementation of ColdFusion MX web applications from end-to-end. While I am expert in ColdFusion, my colleages are not; regardless, we are able to share this book and learn from it and use it as a reference to our conversion to the MX version of ColdFusion.

The good: This book is first to market with a lot of new information. If you are a speed-reading ColdFusion expert, you can glean some good information.

The bad: The book is terribly edited. This is inexcusable when you consider the credentials of the editors. This really hits neophytes worse than experienced users, who can ostensibly tell when an update query is missing the UPDATE statement. There are so many typos that it is hard to believe that the book was spell-checked, let alone proofread.

For me, the lowlight was the wacky, wrong-headed explanation of "n-tier" archatecture, but the worst part is that the explanations lack depth, so that someone learning MX from this book would not really be any further ahead when they finished than if they had read a more comprehesible albeit less ambitious book, like something from Visual Quickstart (their MX book isn't out yet, but, presumably, it will aspire to the series standard).

It is really disheartening and hardly unique to this book that lax standards and quick release seem to be the new norm. I should have waited for the new Programming ColdFusion MX book.

For beginners to advanced users alike, this book gives a good overview of all the new features of ColdFusion MX like CFCs, Flash remoting, and new tags like CFLOGIN and CFCHART. It also includes tips on migrating apps to MX. The book also covers all the basics like application planning, error handling, and syntax which new users will get the most use out of. I found the article on regular expressions to be very handy. For more advanced users, the book offers detailed information on leveraging ColdFusion MX to interact with fairly new technologies like web services and XML/XSL/XPath.

All in all, a worthwhile investment.