Good beginner's book for ColdFusion?

February 26, 2005 11:16 AM

I'm taking a pretty intensive ColdFusion class next quarter and I'm not sure if the book for the class is going to cut it for me. I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good ColdFusion book for beginners that is tutorial based.

I have had a lot of luck with the Hands on Training series from lynda.com in the past if that gives you any idea of the way I learn. I have some programming background (ActionScript, some JavaScript), but not a whole lot so I need a book that doesn't take too much for granted.

Thanks!

posted by Kimberly to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Honestly, no snark, but if you're a developer, you really don't need any tutorials. Use the class book, but the O'Riley version is still king. Everything is so tag based and so obvious that, apart from the index listing virtually everything under "CF...", you'll pick up almost all the significant functionality from it very quickly.

As a guide, as for almost any language on the web, think of the things you'd most usually do (emails, shopping cart, date manipulation, input checking, database access) and use the book to see how you'd do them. It's super-simple if you've even written HTML to your blog.

Matt will vouch for it, CF is a really simple way to make things happen.

But as a number of my friends say, ColdFusion makes complicated things simple and simple things complicated.

Good luck.
posted by NinjaPirate at 11:59 AM on February 26, 2005

There are (to me) a surprising number of free ColdFusion resources, including tutorials, on the Web. Here's a good starting place (list links to a number of sites with tutorials), including names and links to six (not free) books. That list isn't comprehensive - for example, easycfm.com isn't listed, nor is applyit.com , both of which seem to have a lot of good materials (tutorials).
posted by WestCoaster at 7:49 PM on February 26, 2005

The Ben Forta book should cover anything.
posted by yerfatma at 8:55 AM on February 27, 2005

NinjaPirate: Good saying re: complication, I'll have to remember that.

Kimberly: From what you've written, you'll be fine (until, of course, you get into web services or XML parsing with CF, which is a bit of a kicker). My ColdFusion bible is ColdFusion MX Web Application Construction Kit by Ben Forta (Macromedia's "ColdFusion Evangelist"). It's chock-full of examples and such. They come out with a new one of these for every version of CF that comes out, and CF7 was just released in the past month, so maybe ask your instructor if you're going to be playing with the new features.

Also, the Macromedia ColdFusion site is ok for a 1000-feet overview. (Warning, it's flash-heavy, naturally).

Good luck!
posted by chota at 3:47 PM on February 27, 2005

Thanks everyone! The Forta book is in the mail as I type.
posted by Kimberly at 12:43 PM on February 28, 2005