Reality ColdFusion: Intranets and Content Management [Paperback]

Ben Forta (Author)

Book Description

Series: Reality | Publication Date: September 25, 2002

Peachpit's new Reality series extends a very special invitation: join a development team as it works its way through real-world projects from start to finish. In Reality ColdFusion MX: Intranets and Content Management, author Ben Forta and his team take you behind the scenes of intranet design, from the initial planning and brainstorming sessions, all the way through implementation of the final products.

Forta, a ColdFusion expert and evangelist, talks to you as one professional developer to another as he explains design considerations, walks you through the decision-making process, and points out key development challenges and their solutions. His insider approach makes you an active, integral part of the virtual design team, not just a passive reader; he teaches best practices and good design implicitly, by example. Once you're ready to strike out on your own, turn to the companion Web site, which is loaded with full-fledged intranet and e-business applications (including a mail client, scheduling program, user directory, content-management system, and threaded discussions) that you can put to work immediately as standalone apps or as an integrated suite of programs. These highly configurable applications save you time and money, letting you start your projects with tested, high-quality code. Reality ColdFusion MX: Intranets and Content Management is a one-stop resource for intermediate-to-advanced Flash and ColdFusion developers who want to design professional-quality intranets from scratch.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Peachpit's new Reality series extends a very special invitation: join a development team as it works its way through real-world projects from start to finish. In Reality ColdFusion MX: Intranets and Content Management, author Ben Forta and his team take you behind the scenes of intranet design, from the initial planning and brainstorming sessions, all the way through implementation of the final products. Forta, a ColdFusion expert and evangelist, talks to you as one professional developer to another as he explains design considerations, walks you through the decision-making process, and points out key development challenges and their solutions. His insider approach makes you an active, integral part of the virtual design team, not just a passive reader; he teaches best practices and good design implicitly, by example. Once you're ready to strike out on your own, turn to the companion Web site, which is loaded with full-fledged intranet and e-business applications (including a mail client, scheduling program, user directory, content-management system, and threaded discussions) that you can put to work immediately as standalone apps or as an integrated suite of programs. These highly configurable applications save you time and money, letting you start your projects with tested, high-quality code. Reality ColdFusion MX: Intranets and Content Management is a one-stop resource for intermediate-to-advanced Flash and ColdFusion developers who want to design professional-quality intranets from scratch.

About the Author

Ben Forta is Macromedia Inc's product evangelist for the ColdFusion product line. Ben has two decades of experience in the computer industry, and is a much sought after speaker and lecturer. Ben is the author of the popular ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit, and it's sequel Advanced ColdFusion Application Development, as well as books on SQL, JSP (JavaServer Pages), WAP, and other technologies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Pearson Education (September 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321124146
• ISBN-13: 978-0321124142
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,749,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > Computers & Technology > Web Development > Content Management

More About the Author

Ben Forta is Adobe Inc.'s Senior Technical Evangelist, and has over two decades of experience in the computer industry in product development, support, training, and marketing. Ben is the author of the best-selling ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit and its sequel Advanced ColdFusion Application Development, as well as books on SQL, Regular Expressions, JavaServer Pages, WAP, Windows development, and more. Over 1/2 million Ben Forta books have been printed in a dozen languages worldwide. Ben co-authored the official ColdFusion training material, as well as the certification tests and official study guides for those tests, writes regular columns on ColdFusion and Internet development, and now spends a considerable amount of time lecturing and speaking on application development worldwide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Idea! Bad code!, January 28, 2003

By 

Mike Miller (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reality ColdFusion: Intranets and Content Management (Paperback)

So I'm going throught the book and decide to start in part IV "product requirements". After reading the whole section (several chapters), I decide to install the code on my own CFDev server so that I can see the app I've been reading about in action. Long story short, I can fill a phone book with the errors I've found and recieved.

Sure, I can spend 2 or 3 days going through the code and rewritting the application. But at that point, the book is no longer valid. So while it has been fun to read emails from Teo to the team about how to develop the application, the final product doesn't work.

I've been using ColdFusion for 5 years. I thought that I should point that out.

I haven't tried the other Apps in the book yet. Maybe they work. Maybe they don't!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real world example at its best., October 24, 2002

By 

Water Monkey "Marc B." (Santa Clarita, Ca.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reality ColdFusion: Intranets and Content Management (Paperback)

First. This is not your typical instructional book. Do not purchase this if you are just learning CF. For the advanced user who wants to learn CF project development (pertaining to intranets) grab this book.

I love the concept of this book. Currently my bookshelves are lined with books that give me snippets of code explaining the various tags in CFMX. This book assumes (requires) you know CFML and don't need an explanation of the tags or their attributes. You become part of the development team. As you read this book you will see how this team will build a content management system. Starting from an idea and ending with a working CMS (hopefully) you will learn the "big picture" of CFMX.

With most basic instructional books it can be difficult to see how all your .cfm modules will fit into one grand application. This book will help you.The book is filled with mock notes and memos from the team members discussing requirements and ideas for the CMS. Also the code used is written out for you. The code is divided into small coherent pieces and there are plenty of editorial comments to explain the team's methodology.

If you are looking for code you can cut-and-paste from a CD; look elsewhere. This book is to give you real-world experience coding a project. Simple pasting modules into you CFMX server would not teach you anything. Besides, if all the code for the CMS you are building was placed on a CD, it would be easy to just copy the files onto your intranet and have the worlds cheapest CMS available...

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disregard the previous reviewer., October 24, 2002

By 

Gianni D'Alerta (MIAMI, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reality ColdFusion: Intranets and Content Management (Paperback)

...

This is not about code... its about real life production experiences. Uniquely original in the genre of computer books. Most computer books, are technical, full with code. This book takes another approach, by selecting five of the most commonly built web apps and guides you through the process, down to the emails the clients send internally. I am half way through the book and have already learned some interesting techniques that utilize coldfusion mx's newest features. Each project is developed in different ways, so the reader gets a good mix of different styles of production and workflow methodolgies.

Great book... once finished going to get the other reality book about flash and coldfusion.