The Joy of Dreamweaver MX: Recipes for Data-Driven Web Sites (Paperback)

~ (Conductor) "In Part I of The Joy of Dreamweaver MX, we're going to focus on what you need to get cookin' with Dreamweaver MX..." (more)
Key Phrases: horizontal looper, cfoutput button, realty connection, Microsoft Access, Add Listing, Newman Zone (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Get cookin' with Dreamweaver MX using this unique and compelling cookbook filled with ready-to-use Web solutions. Featuring a full menu of extensions, commands, and applications -- including ASP and ColdFusion -- this book will help you deploy dynamic and sophisticated Web applications instantly and expertly.

From the Back Cover

Gather Your Ingredients and Start Cooking!

Roll up your sleeves and prepare to whip up some of the tastiest Web sites imaginable. The Joy of Dreamweaver MX: Recipes for Data-Driven Web Sites is chock full of recipes, solutions, and helpful advice on using Dreamweaver MX to create beautiful and practical Web sites. Learn to create database connections, bind and preview live data, and build complex and design-oriented Web applications. Author Paul Newman assembles all the essential Dreamweaver ingredients, then presents cookbook-style recipes for constructing actual Web solutions you can customize and use. From defining a site's goals, to design and production, to publishing and maintaining the active site, this book is an eight-course meal of insightful information.

• Follow recipes to create Web applications in a jiffy
• Spice up Web pages with data-driven solutions
• Stir in Microsoft Access and SQL Server databases
• Utilize the new integrated workspace and Multiple Document Interface (MDI)
• Cook up and serve dynamic ASP and ColdFusion applications for the Web
• Take advantage of Dreamweaver's support for the latest Internet technologies
• Master advanced techniques to take your Web cooking skills to the next level
• Fortify the book's information with working examples from the companion Web site
• Whet your appetite with plenty of sample code and third-party extensions

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Product Details

• Paperback: 452 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/OsborneMedia; 1st edition (July 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072224649
• ISBN-13: 978-0072224641
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #829,348 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed with examples that could NOT be followed, August 30, 2002

By	Robert Reid "romeovoid" (Wilmington, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book teaches Dreamweaver MX by using actual examples, by providing step by step instructions and finished code.

Unfortunately, there are tools (third party extensions) that are recommended and used in the tutorials but are not available for use. They are either available at additional cost or are just not compatible with this version of Dreamweaver.

This leads to nothing but frustration as key concepts cannot be explored. I am referring to concepts such as file uploads and adding records to table (with identity key). I purchased this book to bring me up to speed so that I could implement a project I'm currently working on and due to it's shortcomings I feel inclined to return it as I cannot follow the examples that I really need.

In an attempt to be fare I'll continue by saying that the author does state that the book is not for novices and that it's shortcomings can probably be worked around by reviewing the finished code. But that, I think, defeats Dreamweaver Mx's main purpose of providing server side behaviours without (much) coding. Also the code generated by MX is not the easiest thing to make sense of.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book to get a quick start in data-driven web sites, November 5, 2002

By	Thomas Hug - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As I developed a whole website with the receipes of this book, I cannot understand the negativ comments on this book. Either these people did not do what was written or they did not understand the concept. With me all examples worked and I got all needed extensions for free. It deals with ColdFusion and ASP, not with PHP or JSP. For this you need another book.
As I do webdesign for several years and wanted to start with data-driven websites, I needed a book with many good, practical examples. I found it with this book. All examples are explained that everybody can understand it, though I would say it is not for beginners in webdesign. Though the example website from a designers standpoint is not very inspiring, it has many good features which are essential for dynamic websites. It shows the whole concept of databases and the needed environment for development. It shows in a quick way the relational concept of the databases and then starts with the first examples for a very practical contact form and goes on with other easy examples, all with the functionality of ColdFusion or ASP. Then it shows extensively the use of a database for dynamic data on a website: Reading, writing, deleting records, creating overview and detail pages and so on.
In short, this book did teh job I bought it for: It helped me to get familiar with data-driven websites. Now I don't hesitate anymore to use the functionality ASP (I did not use ColdFusion) provides. On the contrary, now I always use these features to improve the usability of my websites.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You get more than just a book when you make this purchase., September 5, 2002

By	James McCarthy (Salisbury, NH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found this book to be exactly what I needed (and had been looking for for quite a while): information that capitalized on my UD4 experience and helped make the transition to DWMX, concrete examples that led to building two great sites, a side-by-side comparison of Cold Fusion MX to help me figure out what all the CF hullabaloo was about, and a sense of humor in the writing.
As mentioned by an earlier reviewer, there is one time where the book calls for an extension that must be purchased ... and a couple of times where extensions must be utilized which reportedly do not work with MX (they do work-the author's book support site tells you how to make very minor code tweaks). This should not be enough to make anyone decide not to purchase the book. The author's book support site ... is truly supportive and helped me with above issues very quickly.
Buy the book. It's absolutely essential.