Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Databases [Paperback]

Sean R. Nicholson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735713707 | ISBN-13: 978-0735713703 | Publication Date: October 11, 2003 | Edition: 1

As a veteran Dreamweaver user, you've gone just about as far as you can go with static Web sites. Now you're ready to roll up your sleeves and get down to the real business: creating dynamic database-driven sites with your favorite authoring tool. You've come to the right place: As the only volume to cover the brand-new Dreamweaver MX 2004 from a purely database perspective, this guide provides just the combination of technical grounding and hands-on training you need to start building that e-commerce site you've been dreaming about. First, you'll learn about the technologies that fuel database-driven Web sites (so that you can select the correct tools). Then you'll begin the actual hands-on process of using Dreamweaver MX 2004, Access, and ASP.NET to build an intranet and, later, SQL Server and ColdFusion to build an organizational Web site. Author Sean Nicholson's companion Web site will include all of the code and other information necessary to build the book's demo applications.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sean R. Nicholson is the Network Administrator and Web Developer for the Career Services Center at the University of Missouri—Kansas City. He and his development team architect, develop, and manage foundation and back-end execution for programs such as the CareerExec Employment Database (http://www.careerexec.com), UMKC Career Services Web site (http://www.career.umkc.edu), and UMKC's Virtual Career Fair (http://www.umkc.edu/virtualfair). Sean also does private contract and consulting work on database and Web development for organizations and individuals.

Sean has a Juris Doctor from UMKC, but opted to follow a career path in technology rather than law. Sean has been working with computers since the day a shiny new Apple II computer showed up at his house when he was twelve (twenty years ago). Sean began building Web pages using Notepad and has been developing sites in Dreamweaver since version 1.0 was released. In addition, he has used DrumBeat, UltraDev, and now Dreamweaver MX 2004 extensively in both Web-based and intranet-based projects.

Sean's technical publications include Discover Excel 97 (Hungry Minds, Inc., 1997), Teach Yourself Outlook 98 in 24 hours (Sams, 1998), Inside Dreamweaver UltraDev 4 (New Riders, 2001), and Dreamweaver MX Magic New Riders, 2002). He has also written several legal articles ranging in topics from Canadian water rights to the protection of historic artifacts lost at sea.

During his free time, Sean can be found traveling with his family, riding his motorcycle to biker events nationwide, or continuing the development of his site at http://www.unitedbikers.com, with hope of building one of the largest motorcycle-related sites on the Web.

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Press; 1 edition (October 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735713707
• ISBN-13: 978-0735713703
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,771,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sean R. Nicholson has been working with Web Development, Intranet portals, document management, and content management systems for more than 10 years. He has worked with large and small companies, including independent consulting firms, non-profit organizations, and Fortune 500 & 100 companies. Sean has also worked in the public sector with boards or tourism, downtown improvement districts, and has served as both Alderman and Mayor of a Missouri city. His understanding of organizational behavior and its impact on technology has come from a combination of experience and analysis.

Sean has a Bachelor's of Art in Spanish from Pittsburg State University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. Although educated in languages and law, he is consistetly draw back to technology and its application in making for a better workplace.

Sean currently works for an Enterprise Content Management software development company and provides consulting services to the commercial and non-profit sector. In his "spare time", he blogs at www.intranetexperience.com, travels with his family, goes for long motorcycle rides, reads fiction, and writes books on Web Development.

You can contact Sean via his blog or on Twitter. Just look for @seanrnicholson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very limited, useless and shallow book, March 26, 2004

By 

L Rivera "L Rivera" (Missouri) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Databases (Paperback)

There are not enough words to express how dissapointed I am about this book. It doesn't show even basic database features like how to show a one to many relationship in the same web page using list boxes or drop down lists! Many chapters simply repeat the same material: how to run the wizard to create a page that manages a single (underscore single) table record. The author has been ironic enough to show a multiple table database layout (ERD), and then not creating a single page that is able to manage more than one table! The only list boxes used are filled by hand, not dynamically from a database! Was the name of the book Dreamweaver and Databases?

Save your money, go for the online help files in the macromedia web site. I got misled by the high ratings this book got here. Don't make the same mistake. Can I get my money back?

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!!!, April 29, 2004

By 

William Rosewarne (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Databases (Paperback)

Absolutely deplorable... this book will waste your time, money and brainpower. I am currently only about half way through the book and I have decided to abandon it entirely out of frustration.

Not only will you find extremely poor writing, you will be lead through examples that are inconsistent, difficult to understand and ultimately disfunctional. In other words, the examples will fail, and leave you blinking at your screen wondering why. If you have Dreamweaver experience, you will more than likely be able to go back through some of the failed exercises and do some troubleshooting of your own to make the applications work. If you are coming at this topic with little experience (which is what the book advertises to be targeted for) then expect a very bumpy ride.

This author offers no examples of troubleshooting your code, and uses verbage in his writting that seemingly is intended to confuse you and through you off.

I haven't yet found a good reference for this topic because I am just now looking for another after throwing this book in the trash.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not very well proofread..., January 23, 2004

By 

Dale L. Smith (Indianapolis, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Databases (Paperback)

I am a bit undecided about the book.... It does teach you some things, but at the same time you spend a lot of time trying to figure out whether your results are correct or not.

Its like the author wrote some of the book with the idea of a certain exercise resulting in 2 web pages(search page, and then result page), and then later he just shortcuts and has you make 1 web page(search and result on same page). Then he never cleans up the chapter that was talking about there being 2 pages. So you end up completing the exercise and your results do not match up with the out of exercise explanations. So very confusing. Also, references are made that you can contact a internet website to gather snippets/examples, and this information on the website is VERY incomplete... I kinda understand that stuff is offered as a service, but if you are going to offer it, then follow up on the offer... Worst case of this was for a snippets page to cut and paste text into your web pages(some of these are a paragraph in size, not that huge a deal, but still could be considered needless typing). You go to the snippets page and are greeted with a "this is where the snippets will go" greeting.. It reminded me of when I was a kid and had to type in word for word a program from a magazine to see pretty lights and music....

This book does give some decent information, it just takes a good deal of time to figure out if you are doing things correctly... Once you figure out you are doing things correctly you can go back and figure out what is being taught and how it affects the page(s) you created....