Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev Fast & Easy Web Development W/CD [With CDROM]

This is definitely a beginners book. It is just like one of those visual guides. It has screen grabs, steps and lines that connect the steps to where you should click. The instructions are straight and to the point. This book only has essential tech info . I think the other readers are expecting too much from UltraDev. It reaches its limits very quickly and then you are left to either find a new server behavior or write code. I don't think that this should be blamed on the author. I've had a look at the other UltraDev books and even though they cover more complex applications, sadly they are all explaining scripting languages (ASP, JSP, CFML). I bought UltraDev because I did not want to code, but I guess I have too. At least this book gave me a sound intro to ASP. :-)

Bakharia has written a book for beginner's in the world of creating web pages using Dreamweaver Ultradev. The author assumes the reader has a very basic understanding of what is required and leads one by the hand (with nice graphics I might add) through some rough areas that the "Using Dreamweaver UltraDev" manual lacks. Now, down to business. The books format is a bit unusual. Full screen snapshots of each step are included to demonstrate what the author is doing. Each step is carefully spelled out and explained, with no assumed pre-knowledge. The book is billed as beginner to intermediate level and I agree. However, I am a long time user of the Front Page/Interdev world and have used Dreamweaver for some time now. I found this book to be very useful for the final transition. I found the examples easy to follow making my ramp time very rapid. Even though I am advanced in this realm I highly recommend the book. Ok, now with all of that aside, what does the author cover? Here are some of the chapters I found useful.The author starts with the basics of Ultradev and HTML development. She covers managing websites and planning a database-driven website. Server behaviors are given a chapter as are creating HTML forms. The basics of ASP, displaying user friendly results, designing a database are also covered.Now the good stuff:Validating and Retrieving Form Data Retrieving Data from a Database Advanced Database Queries (I guess this got it the intermediated rating) Creating a Search Interface Creating Dynamic Form Objects (a fancy way of saying how to display your returned result sets) Messing with the database (i.e. Insert, Update, Delete) Creating Interactive Web Pages Sending Email Messages (using CDO)Chapters that I questioned the need for were: Working with Files and Folders (i.e. writing to/from)Finally there are several appendicies: Installing Dreamweaver UltraDev Installing Personal Web Server JSP and CFML Quick Reference (very useful) Additional ResourcesIf you are looking for examples of underlying ASP code there isn't much. This book shows you how to create database interactive websites using the tools, with very few examples of under-the-hood tweaking. A very useful beginner's book.

Ms. Bakharia does and outstanding job making UltraDev clear and concise. It is very well laid out and easy to understand. This is one of the better computer books I have ever purchased on any computer language.

This book presents everything in a simple and easy to follow manner. It helped me learn UltraDev quickly and without much confusion. It does not rush off into complex details and sticks to the basics. I know this is not for everybody but this book was just what I needed. I'm not a programmer but after reading this book I can build a database in Access, create a system dsn and web-enable it. It covers all the Server Behaviors in UltraDev and some ASP as well. If your starting out and want a simple introduction to UltraDev - BUY THIS BOOK.

I bought this book because I really found most of the other books in the Fast and Easy Series to be helpful. I love the Fast and Easy style - very visual with lots of instructions. They present everything so that it can be easily understood and are a great to get you started. I've learn't ColdFusion, Dreamweaver and ASP from this series. I was pleased to find the latest addition just as helpful. Make no mistake, Fast and Easy Dreamweaver UltraDev is excellent for beginners.