Ben Forta's earlier Allaire-sanctioned books on ColdFusion set a standard for technical books about Web-development environments. In Allaire Spectra E-Business Construction Kit, Forta applies his typical care and skill to Allaire Spectra, the company's new environment for building secure and otherwise-commercial Web resources. Once again, he's done a great job, and fans of Allaire's development tools will be pleased.
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.
Product Description
Allaire Spectra E-Business Construction Kit teaches Allaire Spectra development from the ground up, primarily from the viewpoint of developers and administrators. This book is divided into multiple sections, starting with high-level concepts and moving on to planning and building an application. Throughout the book, you are presented with not just technical information but also the best practices and business methodologies and how to implement them. Learn more than feature and language use--learn how to use Spectra's power to build real-world secure, scalable, and flexible business Web applications built atop innovative world-class technologies.
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