Amazon.com Review
As the book exposes increasingly complicated aspects of Spectra, it diligently explains what's going on at a high level before presenting the reader with code listings. Both the text and the code help illuminate Spectra, with pieces of code adding to a very feature-rich Web-store application. (All the code, plus trial versions of Spectra and other Allaire products, appear on the companion CD-ROM.) Attribute tables document the most useful tags as they come up; an alphabetical tag reference shows up at the end of the book.
The approach to the subject here doesn't make Spectra any less complex, but careful study of the explanations and examples will flatten the learning curve a bit. You'll likely want to use this book in conjunction with Forta's earlier work on ColdFusion, The Coldfusion 4.0 Web Application Construction Kit, if you're not strong in that area. There's a section on general ColdFusion programming in Allaire Spectra, but you'll probably want more. With the proper ColdFusion background, you'll likely love this book. --David Wall
Topics covered: Using and understanding Allaire Spectra, presented for newcomers and more experienced developers alike. Explanations of basic terms and concepts are followed by sections on designing the structure of sites, Spectra programming with the ContentObject API (COAPI), creating and managing content, making content searchable (with emphasis on metadata), workflow, site security, reporting, and a tag reference.
