Rating: 
Summary: First CFMX reference I reach for...
Review: ...and usually the last. I've purchased a number of ColdFusion books in the past few years, and always loved the Mastering series for CF 4.5 and 5. When MX came out, I bought both Mastering and the Bible, but truthfully, I barely ever open the Mastering book. Everything I've ever needed to learn has been in the CFMX Bible.
Adam Churvis and crew really know their stuff. Clear, concise discussions on important topics, intelligible diagrams and an index that actually helps you find topics you're looking for quickly! How long has it been since a good technical manual had one of those?!?!
For me, CFCs were something that I was going to get around to eventually, but never seemed to get the time to mess with them, but when I finally did, the Bible taught me everything I needed to know to start building them. The discussion on Web Services finally explained to me what all the hype about them is, and I actually had fun building the sample web service application and learning about XSLT.
I recommend the ColdFusion MX Bible highly, and suggest you keep an eye out for anything else Adam and David Churvis author.
Rating:
Summary: The one Coldfusion MX book you need!
Review: Back in the day, the only CF books available were the WACKs by Ben Forta. They quickly became the 'must have' books for any serious CF developer, largely because Ben is...well, he's Ben...but also because there was very little competition. As CF has grown in popularity, other publishers have released CF books...but none have ever seriously challenged the WACKs......until now. The MX Bible will undoubtedly be regarded as the premiere CF reference. Unlike so many others, this is definitely NOT a simple regurgiation of the docs. The authors are all very well known, respected CF developers who are obviously teaching from their own (real world) experiences...not simply expanding on existing documentation. They explain what works and what doesn't...and why. This is not really a book for beginners (IMO)...but anybody who's been using CF for at least 6 months or so will find this to be an invaluable, ALL INCLUSIVE (cf, homesite/studio, XML, XSLT, SQL, triggers, stored procs, fusebox, etc) resource that should never be far from the keyboard. You won't find this much (quality) information anywhere else for close to this price. Do yourself a favor, and make a small investment that will yield huge returns.
Rating:
Summary: The MX Bible will easily become the new 'standard'...
Review: Back in the day, the only CF books available were the WACKs by Ben Forta. They quickly became the 'must have' books for any serious CF developer, largely because Ben is...well, he's Ben...but also because there was very little competition. As CF has grown in popularity, other publishers have released CF books...but none have ever seriously challenged the WACKs... ...until now. The MX Bible will undoubtedly be regarded as the premiere CF reference. Unlike so many others, this is definitely NOT a simple regurgiation of the docs. The authors are all very well known, respected CF developers who are obviously teaching from their own (real world) experiences...not simply expanding on existing documentation. They explain what works and what doesn't...and why. This is not really a book for beginners (IMO)...but anybody who's been using CF for at least 6 months or so will find this to be an invaluable, ALL INCLUSIVE (cf, homesite/studio, XML, XSLT, SQL, triggers, stored procs, fusebox, etc) resource that should never be far from the keyboard. You won't find this much (quality) information anywhere else for close to this price. Do yourself a favor, and make a small investment that will yield huge returns.
Rating:
Summary: Why you must own this book.
Review: I am a self-taught application programmer with 20 years of experience - starting with the AS/400 then PC's and finally coding applications in a web browser. I have so many books on programming I could start my own library. This is one of those rare books that moves from the realm of dispensing information into the world of teaching. This book is loaded not only with "how to" examples (learning comes through hands you know) but also with "why to" and "why not to". And the clear examples and guidance are not only given for the easy and obvious but also for the difficult and obscure. From the simple demonstration of creating a basic application (add, update, display delete) along with provided sample data to use to using web services, components, xml, and regular expressions - these guys cover it all. But wait - there's more. They teach you in context leading you not only through why and how but show you the whole picture, the application framework, proper documentation, testing, errors, and exception handling. They even include a language reference. If I could only have one book on ColdFusion - this is the one.
Rating: 
Summary: This is NOT the MX 'bible'
Review: I don't understand why this book has so many positive reviews. I have been a full-time coldfusion developer for 6 years. Our team of 4 coldfusion developers have the Ben Forta for CF 4.5 and this book.
We find this book fairly useless as a coldfusion reference. Sure it covers the procedures of web development in coldfusion, SQL, and related technologies, but you can't rely on it as a coldfusion reference once you've mastered the basics. Functions and Tags seem to either be poorly indexed, poorly detailed, or just plain missing from the book altogether. This would not be such a crime if the book had not been titled the 'bible'
We kept having to go back to our Ben Forta CF 4.5 book to look things up, even though we are running CF 6.1. We are going to have to go out and get another MX book for the newer coldfusion functions and features; this one doesn't cut it.
Save yourself time and money by getting a good reference on CF MX, and if you need help with SQL and other technologies buy a good SQL reference, etc.
Rating: 
Summary: The Bottom Line
Review: I have 2 books about ColdFusion. This one and Dreamweaver MX 2004 with ASP, ColdFusion and PHP: Training from the Source. This book: Great if you want to learn how to hand-code applications using ColdFusion MX. Very in-depth covering all aspects of ColdFusion. This book does not deal with dialog based apps like Dreamweaver. You can hand-code with DW, however. The other book (DW MX 2004 w/ASP, CF and PHP: TFTS): Wonderful if you want to learn how to create applications with DreamWeaver specifically as it goes through all the dialog based application development. Both books are excellent. I have both because I want to know the code behind my apps but I don't necessarily want to have to always type code.
Rating:
Summary: A No-Nonsense Approach to Mastering the Product:
Review: Of all the things I COULD say in praise of this book, the single most important feature is that you can actually LEARN from it. The book presents a consistent style and presentation, and is thus an excellent learning tool. There is no "wasted space", discussing irrelevant subjects; no "beating around the bush" getting to the true meat. Here, you know the authors care about the material, and imparting it to YOU, in the most straight-forward way possible. It also is immediately apparent that the authors live in the "trenches" of daily professional experience with all of the product lines.....CF coding, databases, performance issues, product nuances, and the like. There is no substitute for this level of insight; here, you are gaining REAL-WORLD perspective that is SO hard to obtain otherwise. I will stop here, but you get the point....Mr. Churvis, et al, have produced a publication that honors the learning experience. If you want/need to move your web development knowledge UP several notches, this book is one of the best investments you can make.
Rating:
Summary: A No-Nonsense Approach to Mastering the Product:
Review: Of all the things I COULD say in praise of this book, the single most important feature is that you can actually LEARN from it. The book presents a consistent style and presentation, and is thus an excellent learning tool. There is no "wasted space", discussing irrelevant subjects; no "beating around the bush" getting to the true meat. Here, you know the authors care about the material, and imparting it to YOU, in the most straight-forward way possible. It also is immediately apparent that the authors live in the "trenches" of daily professional experience with all of the product lines.....CF coding, databases, performance issues, product nuances, and the like. There is no substitute for this level of insight; here, you are gaining REAL-WORLD perspective that is SO hard to obtain otherwise. I will stop here, but you get the point....Mr. Churvis, et al, have produced a publication that honors the learning experience. If you want/need to move your web development knowledge UP several notches, this book is one of the best investments you can make.
Rating:
Summary: The one Coldfusion MX book you need!
Review: This book got it all. If you only want one book on Coldfusion MX, this is the one to get. It's also a great reference book, so it's nice to have in your collection even if you are seasoned developer. Comes highly recommended! cheers
Rating:
Summary: This book is the truth
Review: Yeah, I know all of the reviews of this book thus far are great, but there is a reason why...this book touches upon almost any type of information you need to use MX. I found the sections using CFCs especially helpful. The authors not only tell you how to create CFCs, but provide a very useful scenario (using CFCs to hide business logic). The book also gives some good examples of how to integrate Java, COM, XML, etc. into MX. The number of real world type coding examples as well as the step-by-step how to approach is what differentiates this book from a lot of the MX documentation re-make books I have seen (see Mastering ColdFusion MX). This book has a lot great information on everything from thre basics to creating Web Services. Overall, this book lives up to the hype, and is probably the best MX book I've seen.
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