This book is an introductory text on building dynamically generated Web sites using PHP: hypertext preprocessor (PHP), a scripting language that can be embedded within Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) files. When such a Web page is accessed, these scripts are executed and used to populate a page with content, such as current news, weather, or information from a database.

The author demonstrates how to build PHP-enabled Web pages, and shows how PHP can be used in conjunction with a MySQL database. While almost any database software could be used with PHP, MySQL is a good choice for this kind of application, because it is freely available for personal use (or at a low-cost for commercial users), fairly easy to administer, and available for both Windows and Unix/Linux.

Developed from university teaching notes, the book is a good introduction to general programming concepts. For example, chapter 4 discusses the concept of variables, and explains the differences between passing by value and passing by reference, concepts that can be confusing to beginning programmers. Other chapters cover strings (chapter 5), arithmetic operators (chapter 7), flow-of-control (chapter 8), arrays (chapter 10), and functions (chapter 13). The author provides short, concrete examples in PHP that eliminate any guesswork on the part of the reader.

Intermediate and advanced programmers can simply skip to the core chapters, which cover accessing environment variables (chapter 6), form handling (chapter 9), managing MySQL (chapter 11), how to access MySQL from PHP (chapter 12), dealing with cookies, (chapter 14), and file handling (chapter 15). The book is not intended to be a tutorial for structured query language (SQL), however. While chapter 12 provides examples of common queries, the reader should either consult the MySQL documentation, or refer to a separate text dedicated to SQL for more information.

The text is written in a style that is easy to read and understand. The book has a clean layout, and code examples are concise and well marked with a gray background. The author leaves little to chance, such as how to install a Web server or MySQL. He provides ample explanations, and includes screen shots of what the user should expect to see.

In conclusion, the book lives up to its title. It is a good means of getting up to speed on building dynamically generated Web sites with PHP and MySQL. Beginning Web developers should find the text an excellent resource.