Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 with ASP, Coldfusion, and PHP: Training from the Source

by Jeffrey Bardzell

By examining the Web authoring program - Dreamweaver MX 2004 - in the context of databases and the technology solutions that have grown out of them, this title offers 16 lessons (which include... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321241576
• ISBN13: 9780321241573
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Macromedia Press
• Length: 502 Pages
• Weight: 2.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 8.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

This book ties it all together

The purpose of this book (in my opinion) is to teach you how to use Dreamweaver MX 2004 to create dynamic (database-driven) web sites. It doesn't teach you all there is to know about Dreamweaver, about scripting languages, or about databases. Rather, it shows you how they all tie together. Yes, it will teach you a little about Dreamweaver, because you will be using it for all the lessons. Yes, it will teach you a little about scripting languages, and yes it will teach you a little about databases. You don't need to already know these things to do the exercises or understand the lessons, because the author clearly explains everything you do. However, these topics are covered more completely in more specialized books. What this book does is show you how you can use Dreamweaver to accomplish a complete database-driven web site. Keeping this in mind, I thought the book was excellent. The book takes you through the complete process of starting with a simple static site and converting it to a dynamic site (a challenge many web developers face). The first half of the book introduces you to the site and has you converting it from HTML to XHTML. This is a simple task, and Dreamweaver has a function to do that automatically, but the author here shows you exactly what needs to be done and how to do it manually by using search and replace. He then shows how to convert the site to use a simple CSS file. He shows how to use forms, how to pass data between pages, and how to use scripting languages to build a simple calculator. Okay, you say, that's pretty basic stuff, and I may skip those chapters. That's what I said, but I decided to read every word and do every exercise anyway. I'm glad I did, because there are many gems buried there. Dreamweaver can make even simple tasks more efficient with its built-in capabilities that I didn't know existed even though I've been using Dreamweaver for years. So, skip the first few lessons if you want, but I suggest you do it all. The last half of the book has you working with database functions and learning how Dreamweaver ties these together with forms and GET/POST value passing. Dreamweaver really has some fantastic capabilities in this area and it seems that you can create complete database-driven pages with just a few clicks of the mouse. Okay, that may be an exaggeration, but Dreamweaver does easily generate complex code and puts it into your page for you. The author shows you how to use those capabilities. Finally, in the last lesson, you generate the pages that update the database by just using the scripting language functions, and not using the Dreamweaver capabilities. Whatever you do, be sure to do this lesson, as it shows you all the work Dreamweaver is doing in the background for you. Armed with the knowledge from this book, and the books I already have on Dreamweaver, HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL, I feel I can now attack a dynamic site. When I get in trouble, I can refer to the snippets of code in the book t

A Must Have

This is a fantastic book that teaches you how to use Dreamweaver MX 2004 more effectively when coding dynamic database-driven Web sites in one of the 3 programming languages covered (ASP, ColdFusion or PHP). I thoroughly enjoyed Jeffery Bardzell's writing style, allowing me to build on the theories presented, repetition of code and Web standards best practices. There were a few errors throughout the book, but they were mostly typos. I did not have any trouble with the code presented in each lesson. Also, I was able to complete the entire book without referring to any of the code in the completed files folder. The author also takes the time to clearly list and explain the meaning of each step in technical terms without losing the reader. If you are new to building dynamic database-driven Web sites, then pick up a copy of this book. I guarantee you will have a better understanding and develop clear coding concepts while working through each lesson. As an added bonus, you will build several useful applications (i.e. search interface, authenticating users, basic content management system, etc.) that you can use as a template for building more complicated applications.

Awesome book!

This book is great for someone who has been teaching themselves web design. This book helped me go from using out-dated HTML 4.0 code to XHTML in a matter of a few days. A must have book for anyone learning web design.

I Expected the Worst and Found the Best

I bought this book because Macromedia didn't provide any manuals with their Studio MX 2004, other than some useless PDF files, and I wanted to know how to use the new MX 2004 version. I thought that this book would have the usual crud with a few pearls of information that in the end would probably make it worth the price. Instead, I found a book that is pure gold. It's well written and if you stay with it, it will teach you quite a bit. If I was to teach a course on Dreamweaver MX 2004, this would be my manual.

Great Book!

As a graphic artist with a severe case of left-brain subject-avoidance, I approached this book on building Dynamic Web Applications in Dreamweaver MX 2004 with a goodly amount of apprehension. Jeffery Bardzell's intelligent, engaging style allayed all of that in the first few paragraphs. His presentation is clear, direct, and sets you up to win. The book is a healthy, 16 lessons long, with each lesson progressing through short steps that are visually reinforced by screenshots. By the end of the book you will have upgraded a static HTML site filled with obsolete code, to a standard compliant, CSS formatted, dynamic, XHTML site, and will have mastered the fundamentals of dynamic application development. I can't wait to go out and develop my first database-driven site! Thank you, Jeffery.Linda Rathgeber