Foundation Dreamweaver UltraDev 4

Rating:
Summary: Best Ultradev Book
Review: From what I've seen this is the only Ultradev book which actually takes you through a complete application using a real relational database and showing you how to insert and update fields based on passing form and URL values. Plus it integrates some email features as well. All important to an online app.

The stored procs section is nice to gt just flavor of whats possible there. Hooking it to SQL Server is very easy but converting between Access is a bite. Be sure and check your table names if you do. SQL writes it's table names as dbo.Table in Access it's just Table and UD (ASP/IIS actually) will choke on
this.

The Shopping Cart is a bit dated as there are now more powerful carts for UD.

Overall the best book for getting you up to speed with a real app, not just a simple single page insert, quickly.

Rating:
Summary: Too many errors in the book!
Review: I didn't know where to start when I first started using DreamWeaver UltraDev 4. This was one of the first books available with good reviews. There are some errors in the book, but if you check in with the website listed in the book, you should have smooth sailing. There is a frequently updated list of all known errors in the book. The authors have provided very prompt support and plenty of handholding whenever I have requested it.
The first Active Server Page you create may seem daunting but this book really helped my "get it". I am now creating very sophisticated ASP sites. I credit this success to this book. This is a must have book for anyone interested in bridging the gap between simple HTML sites to very advanced ASP (Dynamic) Sites. Even if you encounter problems getting each chapter project to work, just keep going. You will soon figure out the necessary steps to get any ASP page to work.
You can then go back and figure out what you did wrong in the chapters you had problems with. Most ASP errors are user errors trying to learn the process. Take my word for it. Finish the book and you will "get it".

Rating:
Summary: Maybe it helps if you use a PC.
Review: MAC USERS: One thing that should be pointed out before you buy this book. This book will do you no good whatsoever. Long about page 5 there is a disclaimer that the server applications used as examples in the manual are nor available for the Macintosh. So sorry. Thanks for the money. See ya! At least with most software, you are warned if it'll work for your platform. The Friends of Ed are no friends of mine.

Rating:
Summary: A book with full tech support!
Review: Rob and Spencer are awesome! This book will get you up and running fast. It's written for the reader that has computer experience but they don't assume you know too much. This book is ideal for the reader that wants to get started in ASP development.

As for the tech support...they have a Web site dedicated to the book. While most tech manuals do have sites these days, very few have a board where you post questions and often times get an answer right from the authors.

It's true that there are some typographical errors but just go the Web board to find out where the errors are and push through! It's really that simple. I'm sure that by the second printing...well...maybe the third, they'll have all the typos fixed. ...really no big deal.

Foundation Dreamweaver Ultradev 4 is a solid book with an impeccable writing style. Not only is this an excellent tool, it's an excellent read!

Congratulations to Rob and Spencer, you've written an extraordinary book!

Rating:
Summary: Some good ideas but confusing
Review: The things I like about this book is it touches on all the topics that you need to understand to build an ecommerce website and it has some good pratical ideas, although I don't think I would use much in a real ecommerce site.

The things I don't like about it is hard to follow. Sometimes the content is missing a step and you have to figure out how to get to where the author is. Second the author doesn't tell you where to save your completed files so as you go from chapter to chapter you could have a hard time finding them. There are also problems if you don't finish one chapter before doing the next, so it is best to go from chapter one until the end, and make sure everything works before going on to the next chapter (good luck).

The book is entirely based on ASP, which is fine because that is what I use. This book will not teach you much about coding, but it does teach you how to use some of the built in Dreamweaver components. Not much information on how to create templates and it is not nearly a complete reference of Dreamweaver. So you will have to buy another book after this one. I read that Dreamweaver 4 Bible by Lowery is good, so this will be my next read.

The topics on Shopping Cart uses a prebuilt shopping cart written for Dreamweaver 1(in the form of an extension) so it doesn't teach you how to create a shopping cart from scratch.

The book teaches you nothing about web page layout. All of the pages are pre-built using the authors templates.

The book uses Access as the database. Considering the book is based on ecommerce you would think the author would tell you how to prevent a browser from downloading your entire database, which is what would happen using his tutorial! Also I could not connect to the access database from a browser until I set up permissions for IUSER on my IIS 5.0 server. Author doesn't mention this. It seems that the author doesn't have a lot of experience writing computer books.

By the way I contacted the author about a problem I was having, just got a e-mail a few days later saying they were sorry about not getting back to me sooner, but they never answered my question.

Rating:
Summary: Concise and to the point the way a Tutorial book should be.
Review: This book is extremely wonderful for folks who want to learn UltraDev 4 and dive into dynamic web sites. It is also great for programmers who need to begin using UD's automated script features. The chapters are condense and to the point. The words revolve around the topic at hand.

There isnt a lot of small talk. You will learn from the chapter whatever the chapter is titled. It also introduces UD users to upgrading to sql from Access and building server side behaviors.

You will learn about stored procedures which other books have not covered. The shopping cart tutorial is easy and clear. The chapter is also a great reference.

The book also covers emailing the cart which many people have asked about.

The book teaches strictly from an ASP perspective and is great in not only introducing people to UltraDev and all of its capabilities but to programming and hand coding ASP.

There are a few minor errors in some of the text.

Overall this is one of the best books on UltraDev 4 thusfar.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent concise tutorial but lots of aggravating errors.
Review: This is a really excellent tutorial which takes you step-by-step through building a site just like this amazon.com one. It's like having someone quickly show you how to use the different features to get you up and running fast. Unfortunately, there are so many errors in the lessons, the message boards at friendsofed.com are jammed with frustrated readers just trying to make their pages work like in the lesson. It's a huge detractor, but luckily the book is still very worth getting.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book for UltraDev (ASP) users
Review: This is an excellent book for beginners as well as for experienced UltraDev users. Users who are new to building dynamic websites will appreciate the clear and step-by-step instructions in the book regarding how to get started in building data-driven websites. Experienced users will find it a useful reference and a good source for time saving tips and techniques.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Stored Procedures; I think most SQL Server users will also find themselves referring to that chapter quite often. There are also two chapters that deal specifically with the shopping cart.

However, what I liked most about the book is that the authors take a real-word example of an e-commerce site, KoolKards, and gently guide the reader through the process of setting up such a site. In the process, the readers learn how to create various web applications that are needed to build secure and powerful dynamic websites.

The code examples in the book are very good. The screenshots are quite helpful. And the explanations are easy to understand. By the time you have read this book you should be able to create powerful e-commerce applications and dynamic, data-driven websites, using ASP/VBScript, like the vast majority of UltraDev users.

While this book is not for Mac users; for PC users it is a "must-have". A superb book, indeed!

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Cool
Review: Very hands on...the only way to learn this stuff. I'd agree with others who say this is one of the best books they have on their shelf. That said, I'd say this book is good for those who already have a basic understanding of databases, ASP and Dreamweaver. Nothing in this book is very in depth but rather an overview of what UD can do and more importantly HOW to do it and WHY. I'd give it 5 stars if there weren't so many really STUPID errors (like missing ='s). There's tons of silliness like that which is another reason why I say the reader really should have some previous knowledge.