ColdFusion is a rapid application development tool used to create Web sites throughout the Internet. The product's ease of use and capabilities allow even inexperienced developers to rapidly produce basic Web sites.

The ColdFusion MX Developer's Cookbook focuses upon teaching the use of ColdFusion's advanced features in the development of more complex Web sites -- Web sites that interact with other sites on the Internet, that are data-driven rather than static, and that are not necessarily confined to one server.

Though the basics of ColdFusion are easily picked up by even novice programmers, many encounter difficulties when they attempt to master more advanced features because they lack formal training. The ColdFusion MX Developer's Cookbook provides recipes and insights into ColdFusion, and along the way teaches some of the fundamentals of the development process.

The recipes serve as templates for database access, custom tags, scripting, generating charts and graphs, and linking into other resources on the Web using SOAP and .NET.