.I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to learn how to build dynamic web sites.
Rating: 
Summary: Many, many errors make this training book a real stinker!
Review: I am an IT masters student, and needed to do a project using Cold Fusion. I wanted to use Ultra Dev to do this project, so this book seemed perfect. While the opening chapters of the book talk about the ability of UltraDev to write in ASP, JSP and Cold Fusion, I became severely bogged down during the book project when hand coding was required, and the only syntax offered in the book was in ASP. No Cold Fusion equivalent was offered (or JSP either, for that matter). To make matters worse, the instructions offered by the book while using the Ultra-Dev querie builder were riddled with errors in more than one occasion. Input instuctions for many of the other necesary Ultra Dev tools used in the project were in error. Since Utra Dev creates so much code behind the scenes, it is next to impossible to debug, especially when the project gets into advanced concepts. I spent no less than 40 - 60 hours on the project, and after overcoming many errors caused by shoddy authoring, finally had to give up. Upon e-mailing the author about several obvious errors, I received one reply, where he apologized, and promised to get me some answers. After several more days, I have never heard back. Save your self a big headace and DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Learning Tool!
Review: I was in a time crunch to finish a school project and I wanted to use UltraDev to make my site dynamic. This book was exactly what I was looking for. The lessons are clear and well written. The only thing that I must warn you all about is that there is a chapter with some errors. On the book's web site (...) there is the errata for that chapter where the errors are explained and corrected. I just didn't know about it for 2 weeks and I went crazy trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Finally I wrote to the author and he wrote me back within 2 minutes informing me of the errata.
The author even took the time to write me a detailed email when I asked him a few questions about UltraDev (not pretaining to the book).
Because of this book, I now have an advanced site with e-commerce capabilities. I would definately recommend the book to anyone interested in learning UltraDev.
Rating:
Summary: Great reference book, taught me a lot
Review: I'm in the middle of creating an .ASP site, using Dreamweaver UltraDev, but not to its full extent. I'm LOST! But once I started reading Sean's book, I began to understand. I knew what I wanted to do, this book showed me how to do it.
When needing a quick refreshing of my memory, it was easy to find my topics, the screen shots were very accurate and I didn't have to re-read much before my memory was refreshed.
I'm constantly updating my site, and Inside Dreamweaver UltraDev 4 doesn't leave my desk. This is a great book for beginners to learn what they need and for others as a great reference.
Great job Sean!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Dynamic Web Tool
Review: I'm not kidding this book is best one I've ever found on the web site.
If you are planning to build a database-driven website from the ground using UD4 then I'll say you just found the right book. As matter of fact, this is my first time to build a dynamic web site and have no idea how to get start. Especially, when I, first time, used UD4 I was confused by the UD4's tutorial such as define a site, local Info, Remote Info etc I have no idea what they are and how they work.
This book troubleshoots all my problems after I finished the chapter exercises. The beginner should start from the first chapter, trust me you will learn alot step-by-step. You can also jump to any chapter you want, the author has the guide for the skipers i.e. the exercise files, by charter but each chapter's files will cover previous chapter's so you'll never get lost.
Best of all, Sean Nicholson, althor, help me out for the web server database, SQL Server 2000 on the web, connection via IP address problem from email. Note I had been struggled for the connection for weeks, and I spent days by searching the solution from forums.macromedia.com and other places with no success. Finally I gave it a try see if the author can help me out or not so I sent email, sean@insideultradev.com, to him(I don't expect he would answer me). Thank God, he just did.
So appreciate for Sean's support.
Jee Fong
IRI Consultants to Management
440 E. Congress, Suite 400
Detroit, MI 48226 USA
(Pho) 313-965-0350 Ext: 366
(Fax) 313-965-7545
fongjee@irisolutions.com
www.irisolutions.com
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Idea, Interesting Site, but too many problems
Review: Sean Nicholson had a great idea for this book, and I wish they would have allowed him another chance to fix it in the updated Inside Dreamweaver MX (which I don't recommend), but the update was assigned to other authors.
I use this book for a college class...along with dozens of pages of workaround documentation. There are obvious oversights in the methodology of web development, such as using absolute rather than relative URL references--so, that the menus don't function when you publish to a server, which is how web development works in reality.
There are Dreamweaver issues that the author ignores, such as the fact that you can't put Server Behaviors in both the site template and individual pages--you have to choose one or the other. If you blindly follow the instructions in the book, you'll reach several points where you blow away the work of previous chapters due to the template issue.
There are page elements constructed as placeholders in early chapters that don't work in later chapters, and then are problematic to update.
Overall, I'd have to guess that the actual sample site on the web was hacked at the code level, as it can't actually be created with Dreamweaver tools as demonstrated by the book.
Unfortunately, there aren't many choices for advanced site tutorials using Dreamweaver for ASP/JSP/PHP. Most books cover basic web development and Flash. So, while this book is flawed, it is useful...but be prepared to ... your way through it.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Concise Hands-On Tutorial for Ultradev
Review: This book is a great companion to New Riders' other Dreamweaver text, Inside Dreamweaver 4. (Buy that one, too!) While it devotes a chapter to basic page design in case the reader doesn't own a book on design, it doesn't retread the contents of the other volume. Nor does it attempt to be everything to everyone.
Instead, this text focuses on what sets Dreamweaver Ultradev apart from the basic version of Dreamweaver (and from other web page design tools): its ability to create data-driven web pages. Author Nicholson takes the reader through the base foundation one needs to undertake the building of a "live" web site, and then guides us step by step through a practical tutorial that builds upon each acquired skill.
The tips in this book are worth the price alone. I find myself making big read asterisks in the margin next to most of them. Like its companion volume, and other New Riders books, this book does not take a "cookie cutter" approach. Mr. Nicholson is not afraid to say that a certain feature doesn't always work well and may require a workaround (which he gives you). Both books present Dreamweaver in the context of best practices in web page design and application development, so you not only learn the tool you're reading about; you learn solid principles of good design.
Yes, the book has some minor mistakes, for which the author has courteously provided errata on the companion website.... Frankly, I know of NO computer book that doesn't have some mistakes, and the problems I encountered in Chapter 8 of this book only made my troubleshooting skills stronger.
Of course, if you don't have the time to create the files from scratch (or simply don't want to), you can download the files from the web site. But you're short-changing yourself if you don't try creating the pages yourself, because you will learn some good design tips and Dreamweaver shortcuts.
Don't be mislead to think that you won't need to touch any code if you use Dreamweaver Ultradev, or even the regular version of Dreamweaver. The product is not designed to shield you from coding completely. A little (or a lot of) scripting knowledge can never hurt.
I can't say enough good things about this book. I have seen other, more voluminous texts that aren't nearly as useful or direct in their approach.
Rating: 
Summary: Basic - Very, Very Basic !
Review: This book is well laid out and clearly written. But if you are looking for anything other than the very basic information which you can garner from the excellent Dreamweaver/Ultradev manual that is supplied by Macromedia than you will be extremely disappointed.
There's just nothing in this book beyond the very basics. I was able to get through it in two sittings, after which I felt very empty.
My suggestion is that if you need to get a web page/site up with more than just the basics is that you get the following:
Dreamweaver Magic, also by NR Press
Inside Dreamweaver, also by NR Press
The stuff on Ultradev you can get from the manual that comes with the product.
Also Mr. Nicholson misses some very crucial points on Web Servers specifically with regards to the Mac-side. But also on the Windows end of things.
This book feels like a Dummies book. You buy it, read it, then after you get through it feel like you have learnt nothing. Zippo.
Get the other books that I recommended above, they are what you need to get the job done.
Rating: 
Summary: Good UltraDev 4 Tutorial
Review: This is a very well written and easy to understand book. I hate to not give it five stars, but there are two problems that prevent me from giving it more than four. This book is a tutorial that walks the reader through the construction of a fictional company that uses the web to display and sell their wares. The books focus is on using UltraDev 4 along with ASP and VBScript to create a database-driven website. If you are new to doing this, then this book will be great for you. If you have done this in the past and hand coded the project using ASP and VBScript, then you should consider using UltraDev to simplify and speed up your development time. Overall "Inside Dreamweaver UltraDev 4" lives up to its promise and I am pleased with the book.
One major problem with the book comes to the reader in Chapter Eight. There are some steps that are misprinted and you will not be able to progress until you check the book's web site for a correction. My advice is to do this before you reach it in the book. The site is on the back cover and a link is on the first web page labeled "click here to download the book's exercise files and view errata."
The other problem is not really a problem with the book, but more so with the style the book is presented in. As a tutorial you are exposed to every thing needed in order to get the site up and running, but the core concepts are not taught in such a way that you will find easy to remember and duplicate on your own. Once you set out to build your own database-driven site, you will most likely not take the route that the authors did to create theirs. This is when a good reference book on UltraDev may be useful. Personally, I enjoy tutorials as a learning tool with the addition of reference books as help in the development process. Overall this is a very good tutorial on using Dreamweaver UltraDev to build database-driven web pages with Microsoft Access, ASP and VBScript.
Rating:
Summary: NOT EXACTLY ULTRADEV...
Review: Well, I bought this book and has anxious to see what it looked like. Unifortunately, I bought it to learn about Ultra Dev and had to reach the half of it and still be on how I define a site on Dreamweaver.
It's a good begginer book for those that have no clue what Web Development is..If you are already into it you will have to pass the middle of it to start reading about UD. The author is practical and surely knows his lesson but by selling a book on ultradev I would have expected more on it. Even some practical examples on e-learning are so limiting as he speaks only for quizes and that's it..
So if you want something great this book will disappoint you. But if you want something to start with dynamic pages is easy to start. For its money though I would buy something better that covers everything. See..UD-The Complete Reference..
Good luck..
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