I can't say enough good things about this book. I have taken a Cold Fusion class about 2 years ago. This book was so much more helpful than that $2000 class! Ben Forte and Sue Hove ease you into building your application, step by step. It is such an easy process. This is the best way to learn ColdFusion, by using ColdFusion Express for free! I was able to implement the form I needed on my website using Coldfusion Express and MS Access. You can view my pages at kdrdesigns.com/contact.html. Click on the Get Started link. I'm ready to purchase a copy of ColdFusion. I will now look for a book by Ben or Sue to move me to the next level. Good Luck!

The author Ben Forta has done a wonderful job in presenting ColdFusion thru the Express version. Just the right amount of stuff for a beginner. I could not put this book down until i finished reading it! Now I am confident of learning more advance topics and look forward to reading more titles by Mr. Forta.

I picked up the book over a weekend & was coding on a project the following Monday. My background is in Java application server development & CGI, so web programming isn't new to me. However, I believe this would be a great jumpstart for beginners & more advanced developers alike.

The book is a good tutorial & a lightweight reference. Download the cold fusion server documentation for a more complete reference set ....

My only complaint is about installing Cold Fusion Express - it doesn't seem to recognize iPlanet or Apache webservers without a bunch of tinkering (I never got it to work) - so you may just want to stick with MS IIS for this version. Cold Fusion 5 is available for evaluation & works great with iPlanet. I would recommend the later if you are just using it as a single developer in a development environment.

As a professional ColdFusion programmer, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book from beginning to end. Ben Forta clearly describes all aspects of the ColdFusion Express application server from installation, CFML (Coldfusion markup language) to administration and security. I have really learned quite a few tricks from reading this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who is considering using ColdFusion platform.

I'm new to Cold Fusion and I spent a couple of hours at B&N yesturday evaluating all the books they had (the Dummies and Quick and Easy books specifically). Forta's book is hand's down the best of the bunch. I agree with the previous reviewer that there are some typos, but when you consider how easy he is to understand - especially compared to what else is out there - this is the book I bought.