Programming Coldfusion MX

By Rob Brooks-Bilson

Book Overview

ColdFusion has enjoyed widespread use among developers as a powerful, easy-to-learn platform for creating and deploying dynamic web applications. ColdFusion's simple, tag-based language makes it easy to handle basic tasks, like processing form data and querying databases, but the language is also powerful enough to deliver highly scalable, robust applications. And now that Macromedia has integrated ColdFusion into its MX family of technologies, ColdFusion is capable of interacting with Flash MX applications, which opens up even more possibilities. The first edition of this book has been praised as "the best reference book available on the subject." This new edition, Programming ColdFusion MX, 2nd Edition, goes even further, documenting new techniques for using ColdFusion MX 6.1 to develop and serve dynamic web page content. This exhaustive guide covers everything from the basics to advanced topics, with numerous examples that you can use for your own applications. Contents include: Sharing application data using the web application framework and shared scope variables Accessing databases, maintaining database records, and advanced database techniques such as drill-down queries, query caching, and query of queries Integrating applications with ColdFusion MX's new security framework Interacting with other data sources, including LDAP directories, email servers, and other web servers Extending ColdFusion with user-defined functions (UDFs), custom tags, and ColdFusion Components (CFCs) Advanced topics such as working with XML, consuming and producing web services, and integrating ColdFusion with Flash via Flash Remoting Reference material for all the tags and functions that comprise CFML, the ColdFusion Markup Language Programming ColdFusion MX, 2nd Edition, covers ColdFusion MX 6.1, the latest release of ColdFusion, and is packed with advanced strategies, insider hints, tips, and tricks for creating effective web applications. If you are a ColdFusion developer, you need this book to help you make the most out of ColdFusion MX.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596003803
• ISBN13: 9780596003807
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 1115 Pages
• Weight: 3.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.6" x 7.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Incredible Coldfusion book for Beginners or Pros

This book seems to bring a whole new perspective on Coldfusion. I have been programming CF for approximately 2-3 years, and this just opened up more doors of CF functionality. For example it displays one of the best "homegrown" login examples I have ever seen. It also really goes into great detail on more advanced topics that other books seems to skate around. Once again, an incredible book for beginners and pros!!!

A well-structured, systematic reference

There are more than a few valuable ColdFusion books on the market but, in my opinion, they suffer from their "hands down" approach that makes them very well suited for the beginners but, at the same time, often fails to deliver what experienced developers really need. So, if you already have some decent experience with ColdFusion or web developing in general (no matter the language), give yourself a favor and get a copy of Brooks-Bilson's book. The author delivers a well-structured, systematic reference to ColdFusion; just what a developer needs to get the job done, also a handy reference to keep near the keyboard. A special mention is due to the fact that this is the only book that covers version 6.1.

The defacto CFMX Reference book on the market

The examples Rob uses are simple when possible and complex when necessary. The exercises he uses are explained in great details and contain many tips and techniques that will surely make you a better developer. This update brings you up to speed on the new features in CFMX and shows a few things using Flash MX remoting which was a big plus for me. The book also gives a great overview and reference guide for ColdFusion MX. In my opinion, now that ColdFusion is the defacto "Web Programming Language", this book is a vital purchase for all web professionals using CFMX and other Macromedia Web Technologies. I recommend this book without any reservation as it is one of the best technical books I have read so far.

Execellent Resource for Experienced Programmers

In the early days of ColdFusion, there were a couple of beginner books, but once you gained some experience, you had to go online for help. Nowadays, there are several advanced books from which to choose. "Programming ColdFusion MX" by Rob Brooks-Bilson is a good choice as an all-around resource for experienced programmers.If you're using CF 4.5 or up, and plan to move up to the Java-based ColdFusion MX like a third of our user group members, this is the book for you. Skip the first five chapters and dive in.Every chapter contains usable code examples for complex data, maintaining state and form control. There are plenty of advanced topics, including a full chapter on Advanced Database Techniques. The book is updated to cover the latest release of CFMX 6.1.If you're interested in programming from CF to Flash using Flash Remoting, this book gets right to the meat of connecting and passing data back and forth. You won't learn how to layout your movie, but there are plenty of resources for Flash MX. This book is a worthwhile addition to your library!Lisa Wilson, Sacramento ColdFusion User Group Manager

Don't bother buying any other CFMX book!

This is my fourth CFMX book. That isn't to say that the first three were all rubbish, although one of them was! (ISBN 0735712719, which I quickly sent back; read my review at www.compman.co.uk and you'll see why)I quickly moved on to ISBN 0321158024, which was a good, relatively cheap, get-you-started primer. However after a month or two I ran out of road with this as a CF reference work and I subsequently acquired ISBN 0072225564. Now there's nothing really wrong with this book, it's just that I still couldn't get the answers I wanted. After reading a load of reviews I acquired Rob's book the other day.Now it may have over 1100 pages and look rather anorak-y but, trust me, it's brilliant and the writing style makes it easy to read. The author is clearly evangelical about CF, and if you haven't yet decided on a web development tool, after reading the first Chapter or so of this you'll ignore ASP, PHP and the rest.I could give a dozen reasons why this is a book for beginners upwards, but just one example of how to do things quicker and simpler than the other books would be how to display a table of data with a header and alternately banded rows for greater legibility. Go to www.oreilly.com/catalog/coldfusion2/chapter/ch11.pdf and read example 11.2 on p314. If it looks like Greek to you, then it won't after you've read the early stuff or have played around with CFMX for longer than a week or three.The bad news about this book is that I now want to re-code ALL my earlier stuff. The good news is that the lines of code are shrinking before my eyes, they're more decipherable, and probably faster.OK, so I'll probably never use 30-50% of this book, but we're all different, and that 30-50% may well be the bits you need.