Programming ColdFusion [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Rob Brooks-Bilson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
As one of the most powerful server-side languages for building dynamic Web applications, ColdFusion is a key technology for high-end Web development. Programming ColdFusion is a comprehensive tutorial to ColdFusion that puts all of the material necessary to master this scripting language between two covers.

This book is suitable for experienced Web developers with no background in ColdFusion to learn the development tool from scratch, but it's especially well suited to those with some prior exposure to ColdFusion who want to master the product. The early chapters move quickly through the basics of ColdFusion, leading up to more in-depth topics.

One of the key elements of ColdFusion is its ability to connect Web pages to databases for dynamic, data-driven solutions. Programming ColdFusion focuses on making the most of the database features, including drill-down queries, query caching, stored procedures, and transaction management. The text also deals with issues like state, security, directory services, and much more.

The material is presented in a straightforward, no-nonsense manner with an excellent balance of overview discussion, sample code, and screen shots. ColdFusion is a tag-based language and there are plenty of fine examples of how to make the most of it. An appendix also provides a reference to the entire dialect. This tutorial is a great tool for mastering ColdFusion. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:

• Language structure
• Passing data
• Database queries and updates
• Complex data types
• Maintaining state
• Security
• Error handling
• Dynamic form controls
• FTP
• File access
• E-mail
• Verity search engine
• Regular expressions
• Custom tags

Review
'An excellent book for the beginner to the experienced ColdFusion developer. With clear and concise chapters that take you through the learning process from introducing ColdFusion 5.0 to the Advanced Techniques in 24 chapters, with 916 pages of a well written book.' www.four-runner.com

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Product Details

• Paperback: 939 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly; 1 edition (August 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565926986
• ISBN-13: 978-1565926981
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #569,018 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My NEW ColdFusion bible, October 10, 2001

By A Customer

I received my copy of Programming ColdFusion about a week ago. I didn't even know O'Reilly had a ColdFusion book until I saw a ColdFusion article featured on their web site.

Anyhow, I just finished reading it from cover to cover today and have to say that it is absolutely hands down THE BEST ColdFusion book on the market. I have all of the Forta books. I have the Wrox book, and while they are all great in their own respects, the O'Reilly book completely rocks!

Every chapter is well written and the book flows nicely from one chapter to the next - the result of having a single author as opposed to 5-10 like most of the other ColdFusion books. Rob gives indepth coverage to several topics usually skimmed over by the other ColdFusion authors such as LDAP, Verity, and regular expressions. His coverage of user defined funcitons is excellent as is the cflib.org site he hosts. The tag reference and function reference are awesome. Much more convenient than the online docs and the examples actually work!

Programming ColdFusion has become my NEW ColdFusion bible!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must addition to you ColdFusion library!, August 21, 2001

By	Scott Varga (Gilbert, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

Front the first chapter, this book reads and flows easily. I find it, so far the best one out there for the reason it JUST covers straight programming CF. Not Studio or the server. Just straight 900 pages of pure CF programming. From basic to advanced, "LDAP, Verity (including the new K2-limited that comes in CF v5.0, CFSCRIPT, custom tags, WDDX, Graphing (new server side graphing and charting in CF 5) to name a few. I wholly recommend going out and adding this book to your collection.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better Than Forta, November 11, 2001

By	Dodd V. Attisani (Sea Cliff, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I used the Forta 4.0 books for 2 years, was happy with them and was prepared to purchase his 5.0 book. Upon looking through the O'Reilly book and the Forta 5.0 at the bookstore, however, I found the O'Reilly to be superior for an experienced CF programmer. First of all the Forta is too big. Picking it up and sifting through it is cumbersome. Also, Forta removed the extended appendix explanations of each tag and function (present in the 4.0 version). The O'Reilly book has the detailed appendix, which is essential for reference. The O'Reilly is strictly about programming and much of the super basic stuff is skipped. Overall, the explanations and writing style are very good. There are some good tips on advanced topics, too. If you have some CF experience, I would get this book. Otherwise go with the Forta. A major complaint I have about both books is that there is nothing on xml parsing.