Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Dynamic Applications: Advanced Training from the Source (Paperback)

In the redesign of the static site you'll use ASP and ColdFusion, add CSS and add an invisible navigation to accessibility reasons. You'll see the pros and cons of the various server models as well as adding a web form and configuring a server for SMTP message service.

The book then moves into databases. A few basics but quickly move to displaying XHTML-formatted database content dynamically. You'll create a recordset to retrieve data to build a list of URLs dynamically. You'll also add images dynamically and generate the ALT attribute dynamically.

A search is done and a registration page. An administration section is built to manage the content using update pages.

If you are already familiar with Dreamweaver but want to learn how to use ASP and ColdFusion portions of the application, this is a great place to start. It's difficult for books that need to cover the entire application to go into this kind of detail. Plus I suspect that there are an awful lot of static sites out there that need to become dynamic (including mine). This book walks you though the process.

Whoa! Finally a tech book that was written by an educator who knows how to teach and proofed by an editor that actually took the time to read it. Other than a few minor typos, I don't think I found one code error or other significant mistake in this book. Take note Sams and Sybex and other publishers that don't care about making mistakes!!

If I had the ability and knowledge to write a book on this subject, this is exactly how I would do it. Bardzell is extremely knowledgable on the subject, and he writes in a way that anyone can understand, without making it too simple. It's possible that some may conclude there is too much handholding in this book, but for novices it's great, and for others, it's easy to skip the few sentences/paragraphs that reiterate basic procedures.

Bardzell starts with some basics that can be skipped if needed, but are useful to go through nonetheless. I found the XHTML chapter and CSS refresher useful and nicely succinct. But he quickly gets past that and right into the dynamic info that we bought the book for in the first place. The code and explanations are clear and easy to follow, and if you go through the book linearly (which I strongly suggest), it follows a smooth learning pattern, with each section building on the next. The example, a travel tour site, is very much a real-world exercise. Everything you learn can be transferred to other sites you're probably working on.

But back to the JSP & PHP/MySQL ommission: This book uses Cold Fusion and ASP as the server models. Both are covered very well, but if you can't afford CF, or you're one of those that prefers open source to the Microsoft All-conquering Domination Model, then be prepared to spend a lot more time on each lesson as you convert the provided code into JSP or PHP. It's do-able, and in a brief e-mail communication with the author, he mentioned that he had also built the example site in PHP, so you know it can be done. But hopefully you already know JSP or PHP, rather than doing what I did and try to learn it on the fly.

I would definately consider this a 5-star book if you're looking for CF or ASP instruction, and I've never given a 5-star rating before to anything. But for PHP or JSP users, plan on doubling the time estimates of each lesson.