This is part two of the article “Database management with phpMyAdmin” a review of the book “Mastering phpMyAdmin” and the open source software phpMyAdmin.

The PMA relational system

In MySQL there is no native function to create relations between several database tables. Using the InnoDB database type makes it possible to link with foreign keys and in the latest versions there are stored procedures available to create or handle relations (and other intelligence) inside the database. PMA has great features to create relations while working on data within the system, Yes the limit is for transactions within PMA, if you need relations within your own application you need to create them by yourself, all relational data created by PMA is stored as PMA meta data. The relational system is not enabled by default, setup scripts (table creation statements) are located in the scripts sub-directory. Execute them within PMA and change your configuration file to fit your database structure:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb'] = 'phpmyadmin';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['bookmarktable'] = 'pma_bookmark';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['relation'] = 'pma_relation';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_info'] = 'pma_table_info';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_coords'] = 'pma_table_coords';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pdf_pages'] = 'pma_pdf_pages';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['column_info'] = 'pma_column_info';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['history'] = 'pma_history';

After the configurations are done, you get new features in your PMA installation. Note there is also a better support for relations using the foreign key feature while using the InnoDB database type.

SQL validator

I used PMA with the MySQL errors for debugging in the past, that was for me some easy way to test SQL statement and find SQL errors very fast. In PMA its also possible to use the “Mimer SQL validator“, using this validator your SQL statement is test again the Core SQL-99 rules and gives a report. Note that you need your server needs support for XML, PCRE and PEAR.

Multi table query generator

I tried this generator a few years ago and never used it really. Using the book it’s very easy to understand and maybe you like to play with that feature for a while. I don’t advice this kind of query generators because of risk of loosing your knowledge in SQL programming. A beginner could use that the generator to learn basic JOIN statements.

Bookmark successful queries

You know the situation that you have to execute a SQL statement once a in period and you save that code in your own file of often used SQL statements. PMA has some nice feature to store these queries in a kind of bookmark file. Note that you need to install the relational feature to store the bookmarks (meta information). The following extras are available with the bookmark feature:

• Storing bookmarks before sending a query
• multi query bookmarks
• bookmark manipulation using variables
• default query for each table

Building relational schemas in PDF

After building relations in MySQL it’s very useful to print these linked database table structure on paper. PMA has a compete editor interface to show the table structure using your own positions.

MIME-Based transformations

for those people using PMA to maintain the full database (like a CMS) is this feature: MIME-Based Transformations. With this feature its possible to create some “Intelligence” for table columns to transform BLOB data into images, text into clickable URLs, date formatting… Note that the GD library is required to show Images with this feature.

Character Sets and Collations

Since MySQL version 4.1.x and later it’s possible to store data with collations in a database table. This way data with special characters like “á” or “ö” are comparable with “normal” characters. PMA has full support for collations since version 2.6.

If you use data which includes special characters you should use the right “effective” character set otherwise the data is not displayed the right way.

There are many more feature in PMA like described here. If you read the book “Mastering phpMyAdmin for Effective MySQL Management” you get a better idea on all of them.Similar Posts:

• Database Management with phpMyAdmin
• Upload images for usage in TinyMCE
• Save bandwidth with PHProxy and ip2nation

This is part one of the quick review of the book “Mastering phpMyAdmin for Effective MySQL Management” and the phpMyAdmin software.

This article/review is not just another review about phpMyAdmin, but more some information about features I haven’t used during the last years of PHP/MySQL web development.

About phpMyAdmin

PMA is a full featured tool to administrate your MySQL database server via a web browser. While the functions are almost unlimited, it’s also a powerful tool to maintain the database content even for less experienced users.

It’s already a year ago (or more) that I got the book “Mastering phpMyAdmin” as a present/reward for contributing some snippets on weberdev.com. Finally I found the time to read (most of) the book during a vacation. The book is great for webmasters using phpMyAdmin (PMA) the first time and also more advanced users. The book covers the installation, basic database interactions using PMA like simple INSERT or SELECT commands and also advanced features like the relational system provided by the phpMyAdmin software.

More advanced user should read the book to learn more about:

• Changing the configuration fies to customize your current installation
• how to handle binary data inside phpMyAdmin
• saving export files on the server
• better understanding on how-to import CSV files
• complete database search
• the PMA relational system
• using the Mimer SQL validator
• better understanding of the multi table query generator
• using bookmarks for frequent used queries
• building relational schema in PDF
• mime based transformations
• character sets and collations

While the book is published in 2004 (I see it was time for me to read), the descriptions and screen-shot are actual enough to translate the book information into the users work with the current version of phpMyAdmin.

The Installation part

I remember me my first installation of phpMyAdmin, the hardest part was to enter some configuration of paths and database connection parameters. The book shows clear information about
basic installation (one user with one database)

• Multi server installation
• Multiuser installation
• restricting access to phpMyAdmin by IP and/or user

Sure over the years an experienced user will discover all types of installations, but using this book the user gets a better understanding of features like authentication types or Multi use/server configuration. I must say that the user restriction function in PMA are new to me, sure I didn’t needed them before. Restrict the access by IP address to allow access only in your companies network, this way a .htaccess user protection is more safe because you are able to control the access from outside of your network!

The Interface and basic database interactions

The PMA interface is very self-describing, I found a nice feature for people working with multiple databases accessed by the same user. The nested display will show tables for each database without selecting a different database.
Do you know the vertical mode for editing multiple records? with setting the configuration value $cfg['DefaultPropDisplay'] to “vertical” the records are arranged in vertical order. A great feature if you edit 2-3 records the same time.
While contributing to PHP forums I noticed often question about database fields from the “Blob” type. Sure it’s not a really good idea to store binary data inside a database, this book will give some useful guidance to store and read this type of content.

Import and export of data

Exporting content or complete database tables is a very common function in PMA, but do you noticed the export function even for results based on queries? I got this question very often: “could you send me just these data from that table?”, most of the time they got the whole table because it was much faster to export, Or better why not exporting single records from a complete result set?
Another useful feature is to export to the server, this function is available if you configure the safe_dir in your PMA configuration.

For all users on shared hosting platforms is this following feature very useful: By default the upload size and memory limit are very limited. Uploading data import files bigger than 2MB (compressed) could be a problem. The option “upload_dir” will help. Create one central folder and upload your import files via FTP, after then select the file from the select box on the import screen.

Searching and selecting data

Do you ever noticed the feature “database search”? Just access the search tab (without selecting a database table) and search for data using wild cards, an exact phrase or regular expressions get results from your whole database.

This was part one of the PMA / book review, if you like to read more about the relational system, bookmarks and MIME-based transformations subscribe to this blog post.Similar Posts:

• More advanced features in phpMyAdmin
• Save bandwidth with PHProxy and ip2nation
• Create custom website backups using CRON