Object-Orientated Programming in ColdFusion Book Review

I’ve just finished reading Object-Orientated Programming in ColdFusion by Matt Gifford, which is published by Packt Publishing. I’ve known Matt through his involvement in organising the Scotch on the Rocks conferences, which I’ve been lucky enough to speak at, and did chat a few times about this book whilst he was writing it, however this is the first time I’ve actually read any of it.

Delving into the world of OOP, in any language, is a daunting prospect, particularly for a lot of ColdFusion developers who have been used to writing procedural code. Up until now there really hasn’t been any published material which helps ColdFusion developers make the leap. It is this gap that this book aims to fill.

Starting with the basics, the book covers a lot in just under 200 pages. The fundamentals of OOP are all covered such as classes, Encapsulation, Inheritance, Composition, Aggregation and Polymorphism. In addition to this, Matt also covers, with practical real world examples, the often confusing use of DAOs, Gateways and Services. There are plenty of code examples and relationships between objects are shown with the aid of UML diagrams.

I found the writing style to be clear, almost conversational, and also manages to avoid getting too bogged down in detail. As such, Matt has done a great job of guiding developers through the jargon and concepts which you need to know before you can start to really understand how to write your own OO code.

The copy I read is a first edition and does contain a few formatting issues with some of the code samples, however these are really just cosmetic and do not devalue the book. If I do have a criticism, then it would be that it doesn’t cover the new ORM functionality, which ships with ColdFusion 9, which I feel really makes writing OOP code in ColdFusion much more accessible. There are also a couple of bits of code that I would write slightly differently, but that is a personal choice as there are often more than one way to develop applications and there is nothing wring with the approaches used in this book.

By the time you’ve finished reading this book you will have a good level of knowledge, although if you expect this book to turn you into a guru overnight, then you’ll be disappointed, as this is a huge subject to master and you will need to practice the art. This is not a criticism, as no book or class (excuse the pun!) can substitute for the experience you get from a little bit of trial and error.

Overall, I think that Matt has done a great job of tackling this complex subject and I’d urge anyone wanting to improve their skills or even just need a handy reference guide to grab a copy.

You can buy, download a sample chapter or find out more from the publisher's website at:

https://www.packtpub.com/object-oriented-programming-in-coldfusion/book

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5 comments

1. I'm about half way thought it and I wish I had this book 2 years ago would have made my life easier. Your right anyone learning this will get alot from this book. I'll post a review on the book when I'm done but so far so good.
   
   Comment by John Ramon – November 25, 2010
2. Just like writing any book, new stuff comes out and things change, and ORM was one of them, so it unfortunately never made it into the book.
   
   I'm pretty sure that if Matt decides to do a 2nd edition, ORM will be included.
   
   Comment by Andy Allan – November 25, 2010
3. Thank you. This review pretty sums it up. When I unpacked the book, my first impression was: "WOW, what a thin book!". But you're absolutely right, it covers a lot and compactness turns out to be an advantage.
   
   On only 50 pages within the last 3 chapters, Matt explains DAOs, Gateways and Services in a very modern way. It's my favorite part of the book, because I can give it to coworkers or skilled customer staff and can watch them getting the idea and a better understanding of modern CFML programming.
   
   In the acknowledgement I found that you discussed "paradigms, patterns and the intricacies of using cars as code examples" with Matt. As we all know, cars examples have a long tradition in the history of ColdFusion books since ColdFusion MX. So who of you both is responsible for that one that can be found in the book? ;-)
   
   Thanks for the write up.
   
   Comment by Andreas Schuldhaus – November 26, 2010
4. @John - absolutely! It would've saved me a lot of 'WTF' moments if I'd read this book a few years back.
   
   @Andy - well I had to find something so that Matt is forced to write a second edition :) Also, there isn't a single mention of readarounds...
   
   @Andreas - all the good bits were me :) I think the whole DAO/Gateway/Services thing is the single most confusing thing I encountered when starting out on the OO path, so it's great that Matt has done such a good job of explaining it.
   
   Comment by John Whish – November 26, 2010
5. I can only affirm the wish that this book were available two years ago. It would have made OOP a lot less confusing for me.
   
   Comment by Lola LB – November 26, 2010