• CJCFUG members get 25% off regular Apress and friends of ED titles. To get this discount, place your order with 1-800-SPRINGER or sales@apress.com and make sure to mention the promotion code APRESSUG.

• Don't forget, you also get 20% off any O'Reilly book they purchase directly from O'Reilly. Just use code DSUG when ordering from http://www.oreilly.com

• Peachpit Press is offering an additional 20% to CJCFUG members. Go to http://www.peachpit.com to purchase books from Peachpit, New Riders, Macromedia Press, Adobe Press, lynda.com. At checkout, enter coupon code UE-23AA-PEUFto get the 20% discount.

Recent and noteworthy books on ColdFusion and related topics:

• ColdFusion Web Development with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004, by Jen deHaan, et al, Apress, Berkeley, CA, 2004.

  This book starts out slowly if you already know ColdFusion, but then it jumps quickly into dynamic Web development using ColdFusion MX 6.1 in conjunction with Dreamweaver MX 2004. Most other Dreamweaver books usually try to do too much by also covering ASP, PHP, or JSP. Such books have failed where this one succeeds in giving the reader a comprehensive and well illustrated guide to one technology, rather than gloss over several at the same time. In addition to the bread and butter things you can or should do in ColdFusion for a Web site, the book devotes two whole chapters to XML and Web Services, and the last chapter gives a case study of a complete ColdFusion-based Web site. Yet, despite having six authors, it comes in below 500 pages and does not look at all like those bloated volumes which try to explain everything under the information technology sun. If you are looking for a reference book covering all the details on ColdFusion or Dreamweaver, look elsewhere. If you want a book you can read and use in your day to day work, this is definitely it. Reviewed by Hien Nguyen

  View a sample chapter here.

• Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Hands-On Training, by Rosanna Yeung, Peachpit Press, Indianapolis, IN, 2004.

  This hands-on book is a must-read for anybody starting out with Flash MX 2004. It is concise but filled with actual screen shots, and the step by step instructions are clear and easy to follow. All of the examples that you are asked to work through actually ... work, and there is no annoying disconnect between what the book describes and what really happens with your own Flash environment on your computer. Interspersed here and there are valuable tips and explanations about Flash's features. I have read half a dozen books on Flash, and so far this is the best and most enjoyable. Reviewed by Hien Nguyen

• ColdFusion Lists, Arrays, and Structures, by Jeff Peters, Proton Arts, 2004.

• Defensive Design for the Web, by Matthew Linderman and Jason Fried, New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2004.

  This book is a short, easy and must-read book for all Web developers. It does not cover any particular technology or language, but offers a host of tips and advices on how to make a Web site user-friendly and effective. To an experienced Web surfer, the advice is often obvious and based on common sense, but some tips are derived from actual observations of the Internet experience in such matters as site navigation, form filling, and shopping. The authors are members of 37signals, a team of Web design and usability experts with clients as Microsoft, quest, and Monster.com. Their book is loaded with examples of good and bad examples of Web pages or features. It ends with a Contingency Design checklist that can be used to evaluate a site and to plan for change should it be needed.Reviewed by Hien Nguyen

• ColdFusion MX Bible, by Adam Churvis, Hal Helms, Charlie Arehart, and David Churvis, John Wiley & Sons, Book and CD edition, 2003.

• ColdFusion MX Developer's Cookbook, by Peter Freitag, Brad Leupen, and Chris Reeves, Sams Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2003.

  It's not very often that I find myself reading a cookbook from beginning to end, but I did on this one. Despite having three authors, it's very well organized and easy to read, with a simple and consistent presentation for each of the recipes or topics. It makes a good reference companion book for ColdFusion developers, whether mere beginners or more experienced experts. Only some 300 pages long, it is definitely concise but thorough, in contrast to some other weightier, but not necessarily better, books on ColdFusion. I wish it had appeared years ago for previous versions of ColdFusion. Reviewed by Hien Nguyen

• Programming ColdFusion MX, 2nd Edition, by Rob Brooks-Bilson, O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, CA, 2003. View a sample chapter at:

  http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coldfusion2/chapter/ch11.pdf

• ActionScript Cookbook, by Joey Lott, O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, CA, 2003.

For a technical cookbook, this book is a pleasure to read and easily qualifies as best in its genre. It is published as Flash MX is being replaced with its 2004 version, but it should be a good reference for a long time, at least until another edition updates it to Flash MX 2004. Its 28 chapters are well organized with clear titles and well defined sections, a big help when one is looking for the right recipe to an every day coding problem. Joey Lott is a teacher of ActionScript, among other subjects, and that experience comes through in his lucid writing and straight forward examples. I will always keep this handy on my desk to refer to when the need arises. Reviewed by Hien Nguyen, August 29, 2003.

• Java for ColdFusion Developers by Eben Hewitt, Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2003.

A common experience for someone who wants to learn Java is to end up buying too many books, each covering a different aspect (servlet, JSP, Jakarta Struts, ad nauseum), with overlapping topics, and at times even contradicting one another. Eben Hewitt, who has written extensively about ColdFusion and also authored a ColdFusion training course on CD-ROM, has probably written the only book on Java that you'll need if you are a ColdFusion developer.

His writing is clear, concise, and he tries everywhere possible to relate Java to some aspect of what a ColdFusion developer does in CFML. His coverage of Java may not be as thorough as a Java purist (or fanatic) would want, but everything you need to know is really there within one book, instead of maybe ten. It is enough to wet your appetite, and if you then are still a glutton for punishment, you should seek more detailed and specific reference for the particular platform that you are working in, be it SUN's, IBM's, BEA's, or whatever vendor software your company happens to be using. But, Java is platform-independent, you say! Well, there is this bridge in Brooklyn...Reviewed by Hien Nguyen

• Macromedia MX eLearning: Advanced Training from the Source by Jeffrey Bardzell, Macromedia Press, Berkeley, CA, 2003.

  This is an excellent book where you learn how to integrate ColdFusion MX, Dreamweaver MX, and Flash MX by building interactive learning applications. The exercises are explained in great details and contain many tips and techniques especially for Dreamweaver and Flash. The newer aspects of interacting ColdFusion MX with Flash MX are not covered, but for those of us still using ColdFusion 5 there is a good coverage of LoadVars. I recommend this book without any reservation as it is one of the best technical books I have read so far. Reviewed by Hien Nguyen

• JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook by Danny Goodman, O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, CA, 2003.

Danny Goodman is the author of "JavaScript Bible", probably the most popular book on JavaScript as it went through 5 editions, the last one being the Gold edition published in 2001. I have used JavaScript Bible extensively and intensively, often longing for a cross-index of recipes for solving problems. This new book by the author addresses that need in the form of a cookbook, one carefully written and eminently readable. Not only does he give clear recipes, he also discusses some history and background, lists which browser version is required, both for Netscape and Internet Explorer, then weighs the pros and cons of different approaches.

The recipes range from the mundane, like opening a window, to the more esoteric for positioning page elements or creating dynamic contents. Even if one does not plan to use a recipe, it is still enlightening to see how JavaScript or some feature of it is brought to bear on solving a particular problem. Most cookbooks assume you already know the subject quite well, then launch on intricate discussions often discouraging to neophytes. Here, the way Danny Goodman writes, the clarity of his style, and the completeness of his coverage, make this book well suited to every reader level. If your JavaScript knowledge is only nascent, you will be enlightened with this book. If you are a JavaScript "expert", be surprised that you will still learn many new techniques. Reviewed by Hien Nguyen

View a sample chapter at: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/jvdhtmlckbk/

• ColdFusion MX Developer's Cookbook by Peter Freitag, et al., Sams Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2003.
• Dreamweaver MX Killer Tips by Joseph Lowery and Angela C. Buraglia, New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2003.
• ColdFusion MX Web Application Construction Kit, Fifth Edition, by Ben Forta and Nate Weiss, Macromedia Press, Berkeley, CA, 2003.
• Certified Macromedia ColdFusion MX Developer Study Guide, by Ben Forta, Macromedia Press, Berkeley, CA, 2003.
• Macromedia Flash MX Unleashed, by Matthew Pizzi, et al., Sams Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2003.
• XSLT Cookbook by Sal Mangano, O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, CA, 2002.
View a sample chapter at: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/xsltckbk/chapter/index.html
• Reality Macromedia ColdFusion MX: J2EE Integration by Ben Forta, et al., Macromedia Press, Berkeley, CA, 2002.
• Reality ColdFusion MX: Flash MX Integration by Ben Forta, et al., Macromedia Press, Berkeley, CA, 2002.
• Mastering ColdFusion MX by Arman Danesh, et al., Sybex, 2002.
• Inside ColdFusion MX by John Cummings, et al., New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2002.
• Coldfusion MX Development with Dreamweaver MX: Visual Quickpro Guide by Sue Hove, et al., PeachPit Press, Berkeley, CA, 2002.
• Programming Macromedia Flash MX by Robert Penner, McGraw-Hill Osborne, Berkeley, CA, 2002.
• Macromedia Flash MX: the Complete Reference by William B. Sanders, McGraw-Hill Osborne, Berkeley, CA, 2002.
• Dynamic Publishing with ColdFusion MX by Benjamin Elmore et. al., New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2002.
• Inside JavaScript by Steven Holzner, New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2002: an up-to-date and excellent reference book for JavaScript. It is a must for every Web developer.
• ColdFusion MX: the Complete Reference by Jeffry Houser, McGraw-Hill Osborne, Berkeley, CA, 2002.
• Inside XML by Steven Holzner, New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2002: if you don't yet know XML, this is the book to get. If you already know XML, it's an excellent reference book on your desk. Very readable, detailed, with many examples.
• Dreamweaver MX: the Complete Reference by Ray West & Tom Muck, McGraw-Hill Osborne, Berkeley, CA, 2002.
• Macromedia Flash MX Advanced by Russell Chun, Peachpit Press, Berkeley, CA, 2002.
• Fusebox: Developing ColdFusion Applications by Jeff Peters, Nat Papovich, New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2002. An excellent book on Fusebox methodology for developing Web sites and applications.

Also take a look at Rob Brooks-Bilson's Top Ten Programming ColdFusion Tips:

http://web.oreilly.com/news/coldfusion_0701.html