Dreamweaver UltraDev 4: The Complete Reference

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Summary: Required reading for UD developers and extensionologists
Review: 'Dreamweaver UltraDev 4: The Complete Reference' covers all of the technologies you need to understand in order to begin building interactive sites with UltraDev: beginning SQL, database design, web page layout, scripting, and application servers. ColdFusion, ASP, and JSP all receive equal time, and beginning developers should feel at ease with the introduction to app server and database concepts. Advanced developers will benefit from almost 200 pages (!) covering extension and object development.

My shop uses UD to build web applications and "The Complete Reference" is the best single resource I could recommend for UD developers of any skill level. This book takes a place on my shelf alongside Ben Forta's 'ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit' as a model of lucid, useful technical writing. Thanks, guys.

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Summary: Good reference but too code heavy...
Review: As a newbie to UltraDev I was glad to hear of this book as I found the Macromedia documentation to be a little thin. This book filled in some of the gaps but still left questions unanswered, some pretty common questions! The SQL chapter spent too much time on specifics like formatting responses and didn't touch on common useful queries like Union Select. I was also hoping to have more instruction on the graphical interface side of UltraDev, but unfortunatly the authors like to do much of their development in the code view. This is helpful for learning about ASP, CFML, etc. but doesn't really embrace the concept of UltraDev which is marketed as a graphical development environment. Some examples appeared useful at first glance, but then as you walk through it you discover at the end it won't work on your particular configuration. Large type and repeated, unnecessary graphics make the book appear to have more content than it actual does - also you almost have to rip the back cover off to get the CD envelope out of the book! I was also hoping to learn how to use Flash in UltraDev, but this didn't get touched on either. All that being said, this is still probably the best reference out there, and the authors write in a concise, lucid style. It's saved me on more than one occasion! If you want to learn more about UltraDev though I recommend picking up a Dreamweaver 4 book as well...

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Summary: Two years later I still use this book daily.
Review: Great book. I read every page front to back. As a result I am now the premier web application developer in our shop. Well written so that both beginners and advanced developers can benefit. I am looking forward to thier next book on Dreamweaver MX and will certainly buy it the day it is published.

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Summary: EXCELLENT BOOK
Review: I bought this book online and it didn't have a CD; someone had ripped it out of the sleeve in the back cover. I contacted the author and publisher listed in the jacket, and so it's been 2 months and I STILL DON'T HAVE THE CD. They seem to think that I'm trying to rip them off or something!

From what I have read in the book, it seems pretty good and informative, but so far I've attempted finding coding examples for several specific problems using the index and haven't found any answers yet.

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Summary: Most comprehensive Ultradev book you can get
Review: I had already bought ultradev for dummies as well as Foundation Ultradev, and while both of those books were good in their own way- this book covers all the topics they did plus some. Further, if you want to code in something other than ASP (JSP or CFL) this book IS A MUST!!! I also found it was a good reference to use in loading my pages to the web- something neither Foundation ultradev or the "dummies" book covered- at all. As a somewhat newbie to ultradev (I have been reading books and using for 6 months now) I found it was an excellent referenece book, and would probably be good for those just diving in.

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Summary: Another Reference
Review: I want to learn UltraDev so I picked this book up at the bookstore. I started flipping through it and it took a while before I found ANYTHING about UltraDev. Let's see there's a chapter on ASP (I already know that), then JSP (don't use it), then ColdFusion (don't use it), designing databases (been there, done that), then web site basics (boring...), blah, blah, blah. Somewhere after going through half the book I see a chapter that actually talks about UltraDev! Fantastic. I only had to go through hundreds of pages of information that is covered better in other books before I finally got to a chapter on UltraDev. For as much as this book costs, I would like to see it cover the material that it is named after.

Oh yeah, the chapters that do cover UltraDev had the same information in the help file.

Do yourself and your wallet a favor, buy another book.

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Summary: People are crazy
Review: It's funny that when you read the reviews of this book (which I thought was excellent, BTW) that one person says it was too code heavy and the next says it was too basic. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and that's what makes the whole of these reviews useful. The diversity probably means that the book hit its mark as a complete reference targeted at many levels of users.

To express your opinion about the book is one thing. To insult the authors and their website is uncalled for and petty. If you want to know how much these "kids" know, spend one day in the Macromedia newsgroups and see the help and support they offer and how respected they are. Their site offers some of the most advanced (and, I believe, award winning) extensions available for the product.

Listen to the multitude of other reviewers who have offered tremendous praise for this book and get it if you want to learn UltraDev front to back. Yes, it shows you the basics, but it contains material more advanced than is available anywhere else for this program. It is not perfect, but it is indeed a Complete Reference.

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Summary: More dreamweaver than ultradev
Review: Reading this book is a true waste of time and money if you already know the basics of dreamweaver and are looking for more substantial information and examples to harness the power of database connectivity. It is extremely lacking in its coverage of Ultradev so much so that a book I purchased as an intro guide covers far more relevant and useful topics than this one(not to mention costing alot less). If you are looking for a more indepth guide to Ultradev I suggest you keep on looking.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT BOOK
Review: This book is exactly what it claims to be, a Complete Reference. Not only does it cover just about everything you need to know relating to Ultradev 4 but it's written in a very readable style that is easy to follow. I was at first intimidated by it's size and content but I found that the writing style made it very easy to follow.

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Summary: Excellent book for learning UltraDev!! I Rate it 6 stars
Review: This book is one of a kind. My reference here is to the fact that it is actually a well written technical book. Usually these books are slapped together and thrown on the shelf. This book actually taught me scads. I am still reading it, but had to go to Amazon and let everyone know that this is the book to get if you want to understand Dreamweaver UltraDev.

I am a web designer and haven't any programming background. I was a bit frightened of getting into the data driven side of the web until I got Dreamweaver UltraDev. I found UltraDev hard to learn until I found this book. I bought two other books first, but they were not written in a way that put things together for me.

From the first page this book made sense! For me one of the best things were the tutorials on the CD. They did not assume I knew anything (smart!). I went through them without a hitch and gained an understanding of how UltraDev works, then I hit the book. I am learning like crazy. I have never bought a technical book that explained things in a way that was so accessible to me. This book deserves 6 stars not 5!

Raymond Fornsworth...