Book excerpt: ColdFusion is an extremely powerful web-development tool. Despite its short initial learning curve, attributed to its accessible HTML-like, tag-based syntax, it provides sophisticated content-management solutions for large-scale enterprises. This has never been truer than it is now, since the release of ColdFusion MX. To take advantage of this power, you must step outside the box to learn skills as diverse as application design and Web Services development--topics addressed only briefly, if at all, in standard ColdFusion tutorials and reference books. ColdFusion MX Developer's Handbook teaches you what you need to broaden your ColdFusion skills and become a fully capable enterprise developer. Inside, 13 ColdFusion experts provide highly detailed, advanced instruction that will save you countless headaches and let you squeeze every last drop of functionality from the newest release. You'll master database integration techniques involving advanced SQL queries, stored procedures, and database upsizing. You'll take advantage of MX's improved integration with other technologies, incorporating Flash using Flash Remoting, and capitalizing on full XML support to create Web Services. In your custom coding, you'll build and deploy Java and C++ extensions and wirelessly extend ColdFusion's reach with components that talk to WAP and WML clients. All this comes wrapped in practical, hard-to-find advice for managing your content and applications and optimizing performance. Large applications with heavy traffic need speed and efficiency, and you get that with performance turning, load balancing, and caching. If you're working in a clustered environment, you need to understand state management. No matter what your situation, you'll benefit from in-depth coverage of application security, debugging, and coding methodology using Fusebox. Every chapter is packed with the technical knowledge to give you what you need to create serious solutions. You might find that one particular chapter alone is worth the cost of the book because of the time and frustration it will save you. Most readers, however, will use various parts of this book at different times, depending on the constantly changing challenges faced by enterprise programmers. The mission of this book is to provide the extra skills you need to be a successful ColdFusion developer in today's demanding and expanding environment.