Hi there, some questions about MySQL

pakmannen

Hello, I am a complete newbie in server side scripting languages, but i finally decided to learn php. And MySQL.

Okey, first of all, I have a webhost that supports both php and MySQL. I don't have my own server. (This is what my questions is about actually.)

I've done some searches on google, but i still can't figure out how MySQL really works. I know it's a database of some sort. But everywere it says i should download binaries and install it on my server and such. But i don't have a server! I only have a webhost, but it supports MySQL! (And probably have it installed.) So how do I create a database? And how do I upload it?

Php seems fine enough, but I really don't get this..
Would be great if someone could answer! Thanks! 🙂

stolzyboy

you may want to contact your host on this question, they will most likely have a special way of creating the databases and tables, be it thru telnet/ssh or with a mysql utility like phpMyAdmin, but that is different with each seperate hosting company, again ASK THEM

pakmannen

Okey, I have mailed them. But I probably wont get an answer untill friday with this christmas thing coming up and everything.. 😃

Thanks!

stolzyboy

who exactly is your hosting company

mzanimephp

I am completely in the dark about MySQL as well. Does the program always have to be open/active on your local drive inorder for users to be able to pull data from it?

Also, what exactly is the difference between a MySQL ".sql" and a ".dmp" (dump) file???

yelvington

mysql is a client/server database system. On the server (which CAN be your own computer, or it might be somewhere else) a daemon manages the database. On the client (which CAN be your computer, or perhaps a Web server running PHP) a client program or client library accepts SQL commands, communicates with the server, and does something useful with the results (generally displaying them).

If you are using a Web hosting company that supports mysql, then you probably will be using PHP with mysql client libraries, interacting with mysqld (the server daemon) running on the same machine. You don't need to download any binaries and install anything unless you want to play around with mysql on your desktop machine.

Most Web hosting companies provide a Web-based "control panel" tool such as phpMyAdmin for creating and manipulating database tables. A Web hosting company probably will limit you to a single database.

Try doing a Google search for "mysql tutorial" for some introductory lessons in using a relational database manager.

fleabay

http://sourceforge.net/projects/phptriad/

you want the file dated February 15, 2002

download it and you have apache/php/mysql for windows ready to go, I recommend this for testing/learning only. You should do a search on 'mysql windows tutorial' on google to get u started

Wayne

pakmannen

I got a reply today actually. And yes, you only get one database. Is that a problem? Can you have many "small" databases inside a big one? (Or something)

My host is linux.se (The official swedish linux homepage.)
Here's their info page, I don't understand anything, but maby you do:

http://www.linux.se/shell/phpinfo.php

stolzyboy

you really only need one database, then inside that database you can have as many databases as you wish, it is just when you write a php page you will have to connect to the database with php (mysql_connect) then you can manipulate the tables as wanted, also the phpinfo just tells you a punch of php server settings, not too much that a newb would need to know all that you should need to know is that php is compiled as the api, not the cgi, and yes mysql is already on the server

mzanimephp

API??

reidme

http://webopaedia.com/TERM/A/API.html
Don't worry about API's.
Goto http://www.sqlcourse.com/ and do the tutorials for SQL Query syntax. You will need to use this language to interact with your database.
The fact that you only have one database will not be a problem if you are only installing and running your own scripts, you just make sure you don't use the same Table name twice - prefixing tables names is a good habit: test_table, cd_table etc.
For PHP try this tutorial:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/phpmysql/phpmysql1.htm
God speed 😃

stolzyboy

the last post is a good suggestion, however anything you find there you can find on these boards as well, and everyone is always willing to help as much as possible, whatever the question, just ask, you can't see anyone laughing at you anyway

reidme

HAPPY HUMUG!

Has this site got an interactive SQL tutorial that lets you make your own table in the db and enter sql tatements into form box and give the results back in realtime?

pakmannen

Well, I saw another page on the same server, and they had a PhpBB installed. (www.phpbb.com)

So it should be possible to install you own AND other scripts too. Right?

reidme

When you install PHPBB it asks you for your preferred table preifx:
so if you put 'myforum' ALL the phpBB tables will be prefixed with myforum_
So if you wanted, you could install another phpBB using the same database but with a different table prefix: 'myotherforum', and their would be no conflict. You cannot have two tables of the same name in the same database, that is the only rule u have to consider. Hope that clears it up.

pakmannen

Okey, thanks.

miesemer

I was a complete beginner with PHP and MySQL and this book was a big help.

"PHP and MySQL Web Development" by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson

I also learned a lot here at phpbuilder by searching the forums.