Fusebox: Developing Coldfusion Applications

By Jeff Peters and Nat Papovich

Fusebox is a free web application standard that was created as a standard for writing web applications. (This methodology is supported and promoted by Allaire/Macromedia.) The aim of this methodology is to reduce the high failure rate of these applications. If a team of developers uses Fusebox to write ColdFusion applications, the applications will be written more quickly and effectively because they will all code according to the same standard. Nat and Jeffrey start the book by explaining the benefits of using Fusebox and then teach how to use Fusebox's features, demonstrated as they build an application throughout the book. The authors go on to explain concepts such as the Fusebox lifecycle process, testing, and deployment. The companion web site serves as a interactive tool while reading this book. The web site includes databases, files, and code from this book; current enhancements and revisions to the material in this book; links to other Fusebox resources; the latest updates to the core of Fusebox, for any version.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0735712697
• ISBN13: 9780735712690
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: New Riders Publishing
• Length: 450 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Fusebox 4 Is Not Overlooked

For those looking for a Fusebox 4 book that is similar to "Fusebox: Developing ColdFusion Applications", you can get "Fusebox 4 & FLiP: Master-Class ColdFusion Applications", by Jeff Peters, at www.protonarts.com

Excellent. A must read for anyone interested in Fusebox

Whether you want to learn about the intricacies of the Fusebox core files; or you want to understand how Fusebox can help you become a better ColdFusion® developer, the book Fusebox: Developing ColdFusion® Applications by Jeff Peters and Nat Papovich is well worth the read.This book covers the basics of the Fusebox framework and FLiP (Fusebox Lifecycle Process) methodology to the more advanced features of Fusebox such as nested circuits and layouts.Beginners will appreciate the authors' abilities to convey complex ideas through examples that relate to real-world development experiences. Through their examples, it is easy to see how using FLiP and Fusebox can ease and even eliminate the common pitfalls that developers go through when coding their applications.The book starts out by explaining why a framework and methodology are beneficial to creating successful applications, and will give the reader some insight into the relationship between the developer and the client. This is a recommended read for all managers.The expertise of the authors really shows in chapters 3 and 4 as they delve into the complexities of the Fusebox core files. This section may be overly complex for the Fusebox beginner, but is an insightful read for those who already have experience creating Fusebox applications. If you were ever curious about the functionality of the code that makes up the Fusebox core files, this section will give you greater understanding of how Fusebox works.Chapters 5-10 walk the reader through all of the parts that a developer is responsible for when creating a Fusebox application. The basics such as the fuses (ColdFusion templates) and XFA's (eXit FuseActions's or Triggers) are covered in chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 7 covers Fusedocs, a documentation standard developed by Hal Helms. Even if you are not going to adopt the Fusebox framework for application development, learning Fusedoc's is time well spent. The Fusedocs chapter is a great reference tool that should be kept near your keyboard as you learn the names and attributes of the elements that make up the documentation. Appendix C details the Fusedoc dtd for those interested in the nitty-gritty of how Fusedocs are structured.Chapters 8-10 detail the advanced features of Fusebox that make it such a powerful and useful framework. The chapter on nested circuits discusses how to set up an application to take advantage of the way in which circuits communicate with each other. With nesting comes inheritance, and nested layout which is the subject of Chapter 9.Nested layouts are one of the more difficult concepts for new Fusebox developers to grasp. The book walks step-by-step though the concept of nested layouts and shows code examples of how nested layouts could be applied to an application. Because nesting of both circuits and layouts can be difficult to put into practice, Chapter 10 looks at some of the issues that developers may encounter when utilizing these advanced features.Part 3 of t

You'll get a lot out of this book

This book covers developing web applications using Fusebox and ColdFusion. However, it covers much more than the coding fundamentals. The strength of this book, aside from being an complete reference for Fusebox, is that it also covers FLiP, the Fusebox Life Cycle. What this means to you is you will not only learn how to develop Fusebox applications, but also learn a tried and true development process from concept to launch. This is an invaluable feature and I'm very happy to have this reference on my desk. Even if you choose not to read the FLiP chapters, you'll get a lot out of this book.

Good book, if you want to know about Fusebox

This is a well written and easy to read book, with a somewhat evangelical tone about Fusebox methodology for writing Web applications in ColdFusion. For those who don't know about Fusebox, or want to find in detail about what it is, it is excellent. For those who have used Fusebox in the past, it is a good reference for Version 3 of Fusebox, with all of the major concepts explained in clear, English prose, with not too much techno-jargon. Whether the book succeeds in convincing everyone that Fusebox is the way to go is, however, questionable. Evangelism usually succeeds when the message is simple, or the results easily obtainable. Fusebox methodology is not the panacea that its proponents would have us believe. Its learning curve is steep, its benefits limited to certain types of applications and to sizable teams of developers. This book seems to address itself mostly to them, and it will have a hard time converting those developers who toil alone or in small teams. It is to be commended though for trying.

Excellent, well-written introduction to Fusebox and FLiP

I wrote the foreword to this book and was very impressed by how well-written the book is, as well as the excellent structure of the information Jeff and Nat present. The book uses a single project to introduce readers to the Fusebox method of discovering what the client wants, creating the right architecture, and implementing the code.The book is very accessible and readers will find their questions about Fusebox and FLiP answered thoroughly. Highly recommended.