Coldfusion Project

I have been working on a web application for my company for a while. The web based application resides on the company's intranet and is slowly integrating all areas of the company's management information systems so that a single interface can be used to access operational info.

Originally the system started out using MySQL and PHP but then I started to favour Coldfusion and MySQL since it allowed me to get more done quickly... not neccessarily because I thought Coldfusion was intrinsically better or anything.

However, following the release of Coldfusion 7 I have found myself messing about with Flash Forms and the Report Builder to the point I now have a system that partly uses Flash Forms and partly uses HTML forms.

The reason is that I find certain things can be rapidly developed using standard HTML forms and data binding facilities in Dreamweaver and other things can be done at the flick of a switch, so to speak, using Flash Forms.

What I would really like to do is get to know Flash Forms more to see if they are up to the challenges of the whole job and how easily maintained they are in comparison.

I understand that there are trade offs either way but what I am really looking for is a suitable textbook that examines data driven application development using Coldfusion and Flash Forms, more from a Dreamweaver direction - hand coding certain elements, since I don't really want to get involved in using Flash much fore this project.

Are there any books that examine the use of the new version of Coldfusion with emphasis on DataGrids and Flash Forms in the kind of applied detail I want. I do not want a technical reference for CFML, and nor do I want a book on how to make Flash games. Neither am I looking for a book about Dreamweaver to develop web apps. I have trawled the shelves of Borders and find nothing that seems to fit the bill.

What are the Macromedia Coldfusion Developer Guides like?

I would think (though I haven't read it) that the new Web Application Construction Kit by Ben Forta will cover Flash forms in a detail. The Advanced WACK (also by Fota) may offer even more advanced info. You might look at those two.

I second that notion, basically look for books by Ben Forta, I keep my next to my desk at all times. He writes good books, i am sure that it helps that he is on the developement team for ColdFusion at Macromedia, so he has a really good insight.

-Matt