MariaDB is a fork (offshoot) of MySQL, one of the most popular database management systems in the world. MariaDB was created by the creator of MySQL to address some of the limitations and shortcomings in MySQL, and is intended to be a drop in replacement for MySQL as well. At the request of Monty Widenius, creator of MySQL and MariaDB, I ported my best-selling MySQL Crash Course to focus specifically on MariaDB. The new book, MariaDB Crash Course, was just released and is now available for purchase.

Note: As already noted, MariaDB is based on MySQL. Indeed, it can be thought of as MySQL plus new features and improvements. In other words, if you have used MySQL then you already know how to use MariaDB. As such, if you have a copy of my MySQL Crash Course or my Sams Teach Yourself SQL In 10 Minutes, then you'll likely NOT want a copy of this new title.

At the request of Monty Widenius, creator of MySQL and now MariaDB, I ported my MySQL Crash Course to create a new book entitled MariaDB Crash Course. The book won't be out for a couple of months, but it is now available for pre-order.

Fellow Adobe evangelist Paul Trani is an author! He has just published his first book (co-authored with three other developers) on building Android applications using Flash, Flex, and AIR. Pro Android Flash is available for purchase now on Amazon.com.

Community member Joseph Labrecque has announced that his upcoming book Flash Development for Android Cookbook is available for pre-order, and that content will be available pre-release via the RAW program. With the huge growth and interest in using Flash (and AIR) to develop for Android, I'm really pleased to see this book about to become available. Congratulations, Joseph!

The Korean edition of my Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions was published a while ago, but my copies just arrived today, and thus this post. I've been writing since the mid 90s, and have dozens of translations neatly organized on my shelves. But, it's still quite a thrill every time I get my hands on a new translation. And this Korean translation is no exception. The book is beautiful and of particularly high quality, the printing is crisp and clear, the paper is a high-end off-white that is highly readable, the text shading I use to highlight matches in the Regular Expression examples was implemented really well, there is a nice pull out reference card in the back ... as I said, just beautiful. Any Korean readers out there? I'd love to hear what you think of this one.

HostelBookers is running a survey about ColdFusion development and perceptions. Fill in the survey you'll get the chance to win all 3 volumes of our recently completed ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit.

That was quicker than expected. Adobe ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit, Volume 3: Advanced Application Development has shipped, I received my copies over the weekend.

And with that, the ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit series is complete! Yeah!

Adobe ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit, Volume 2: Application Development started shipping last week and is now in stores.

Included in this volume is Ray Camden's superb introduction to ColdFusion ORM. All the details you need are on the book page (including three free chapters in PDF form).

Volume 3 is done, being printed, and will be available within the next few weeks.

A reader just pointed out to me that my my Sams Teach Yourself SQL In 10 Minutes is in Amazon.com's Top 10 lists in the databases, SQL, DBMSs, and databases categories. It's also #1 in the Relational Databases category! Cool! :-)

I received this e-mail from a Norwegian reader of our recently released Adobe ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit, Volume 1: Getting Started:

Dear Mr. Forta,

I just finished the first seven chapters of the Adobe ColdFusion 9 Volume 1 and I am absolutely thrilled. After trying to learn PHP, ASP.NET and ASP (years ago) I have finally found the language for me. It just makes sense. But not only is ColdFusion something that gives me hope in creating my own dynamic website, your book and way of teaching is exceptional and understandable. Was never satisfied with the other books I found, so to finally find one which is so enjoyable is a great gift.

Needless to say I will finish Volume 1 and get Volume 2 and 3! Thank you for giving me hope in my own personal project!

Best, Roar Lochar Ramberg Norway

Thanks, Roar. We're glad you are enjoying ColdFusion, welcome aboard!

And thank Ray Camden and all of the contributing authors for once again turning out an incredible series.

At the request of a reader, I created an OpenOffice Base version of the example database used in my Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes. The file can be downloaded from the book page.

To use this, you'll obviously need OpenOffice. And as it turns out, Base is actually a really nice database to experiment with, as it features a built-in screen that lets you simply enter and execute SQL. So, once you have OpenOffice installed, here's what you need to do:

• Open the book database with OpenOffice Base
• Select the Query tab on the left
• Click the "Create Query in SQL View" task to display the Query Design screen
• Type your SQL in the window
• Click the Run Query button (it has an image of a green check mark on top of 2 documents) to execute your SQL, you can also just press F5 to run
• Your results will be shown above your SQL code (unless you generate an error)

Thank you Roy (no last name provided) for the inspiration.

My Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes is now available in Korean. Thanks to Jaehoon Jung for sending me the URL.

Here's the full list of translations of all of my books.

I meant to mention this a couple of weeks ago, but was buried, and it just slipped my mind. So ...

Adobe ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit, Volume 1: Getting Started is shipping and in stores. All the details you need are on the book page (including the very first errata entry, just received, which is what reminded me to make this post).

The books did not ship with ColdFusion 9 and we wanted to wait until ColdFusion Builder was releases so we could include coverage of this important new tool. So, later than we'd have liked, but Volume 1 is finally available, and Volumes 2 and 3 are due out shortly.

O'Reilly Safari Rough Cuts are manuscripts that are developed but not yet published, available through Safari Books Online - essentially a way to get access to books before they actually hit the shelves. The Rough Cut version of my upcoming Adobe ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit, Volume 1: Getting Started is now online. Volumes 2 and 3 should be posted there shortly.

I just received three new translations of my books, two into Simplified Chinese and one into Korean:

• Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server T-SQL In 10 Minutes is now available in Simplified Chinese
• MySQL Crash Course is now available in Simplified Chinese
• Sams Teach Yourself SQL In 10 Minutes is now available in Korean

Links to the new translated versions, as well as all other translations, are on the specific book pages.

I am particularity excited about the Korean translation, as this is my first book in Korean, bringing the number of languages that my books have been translated into to 16. Here is a full list of all the translations (that I am aware of).

The 2009 Community Achievement Awards were announced today at CFUnited, and the ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit series won in the Best Book category. Here is the full slide deck of nominees and awards.

My Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes has proven to be a very popular book, and tens of thousands of developers have used it to get started with Regular Expressions. The book teaches RegEx incrementally, and for each example a block of text is used, and matching text is shaded to clearly demonstrate what the Regular Expression is doing.

Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes has apparently now been released for the Amazon Kindle. I've not seen the Kindle version yet (as I don't have a Kindle yet), but readers are reporting to me that the Kindle version is missing the shading, making all of the examples rather useless!

I've contacted the publisher about this problem, and hope they'll correct it quickly. But for now, I suggest you avoid the Kindle version of the book, and stick with the print version.

My Sams Teach Yourself SQL In 10 Minutes and Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions In 10 Minutes have both been published in Chinese by Turing Book. Links are on the books pages. And here is a full list of all book translations.

It's been two and a half years since I published my MySQL Crash Course (a MySQL specific adaptation of my Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes), and during this time the book has proven to be incredibly popular, especially with MySQL beginners. And today I was informed that MySQL Crash Course is now in its seventh printing! Seven printings in two and a half years, I think that's my new personal record.

(BTW, it's the same edition, so no need to buy another copy if you have one already).

Several years ago I noted that each time I release a new book, my publisher sends boxes of copies for my own use. I hang on to several, and send copies to some folks, but the rest sit in boxes in my office. I had lots of books stacked away, copies of my ColdFusion books, SQL books, and more. Back then I offered to get them in to the hands of teachers and students and school libraries, making them available to those who might otherwise not have access to copies, individuals who (hopefully) could benefit from them. All in all I gave away over 250 books back then, and I hope the recipients found them useful.

And now the books have piled up again, and so it's time for round 2. If you work for (or attend) a school or college or educational institution, and can use copies of my books on ColdFusion, SQL, MySQL, SQL Server, CF/Flash, CF/J2EE, and more, please e-mail me.

Please note that I can't promise to honor requests for specific books. Also note that some of these books are on older versions of products (I won't send books on CF4 and CF5, for example, as they are not that useful anymore, but books on CFMX and CF7 are indeed useful even to CF8 users, and so I will send those). And finally, it's first come first served.

Oh, and please share this post with others who you think may be interested, thanks!

Long time ColdFusion developer and community member John Farrar has written ColdFusion 8 Developer Tutorial which is due to be published in August 2008. Congratulations John, it's great to see another ColdFusion title, and I can't wait to see a copy.

My Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes has been a top seller on Amazon.com for a long time, consistently in the top few hundred computer books and in the top couple of thousand across all books. But I was just informed that is #3 in the Databases category on Amazon.com, and #1 in Database Management Systems, Relational Databases, and MySQL categories. The MySQL version of the book, and the Kindle edition (I didn't even know there was a Kindle edition!) are also in the top 100 database books.

Get started with ColdFusion 8 and join Adobe Evangelist Adam Lehman for a FREE 2-hour training webinar on new ColdFusion 8 features. You'll also get the chance to win one of 10 copies of my ColdFusion 8 Web Application Construction Kit - Volume 1. Details posted online.

The ColdFusion 8 edition of the ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit is now 1800 pages in 3 volumes. And that was not enough space for all we had cover. So, an additional 678 pages of content were published electronically in PDF form, and may be freely downloaded (whether or not you buy the books). You'll find Chapters 21-23 on the Volume 1 page, and Chapters 41-54 and Appendixes C and D on the Volume 2 page. Enjoy!

CFWACK 8 Volume 3 - Advanced Application Development is now shipping (I received my copies a few days ago). Some of the new content includes server monitoring, .NET integration, working with data feeds, and more. More details on the book page.