You usually do not need to know PHP or MySQL if you download and install an application like WordPress. But if you want to start developing your own applications, or modifying existing ones, then you need to know the ins and outs of SQL database commands.

Head first SQL: Hands On is a free service by O’Reilly that can be used to learn and execute MySQL queries online. when you open the Head First Labs site for the first time you see a form near the top that you can use to run MySQL commands.

The service provides access to several tables that are listed above the form. All you need to do is to enter a SQL query in the form to execute it. The core benefit of testing SQL commands here is that you do not have to create your own database first and fill it with data. Plus, you cannot really damage the database or tables this way.

The results are displayed right beneath the for.  But the site offers more than just an option to run your own MySQL queries, which is especially useful for users who are just getting started and do not know anything about SQL.

The Get Started section of the page lists 33 MySQL lessons. The majority of lessons teach a specific command or command sets. This ranges from basic queries such as SELECT or INSERT to more complex operations. Not all lessons make sense, which can be attributed that some require that you have read the Head First SQL: Hands On book.

Some on the other hand can be used without having the book in reach. MySQL beginners will probably like the form on the start page the most, as it allows them to run custom SQL queries on sample database tables.

MySQL Workbench replaces all of the MySQL GUI tools, adds numerous power-user features, and wraps them up into a tool that any DBA (data base administrator) will be drooling over. This tool is not just about power, it’s also about being one of the best cross-platform, visual database design tools around. And even in beta release, the MySQL Workbench shows it might well succeed in that quest.

In this article I will introduce you to this tool. You will see how MySQL Workbench is install as well as how to connect to a server and create a database.

Installation

You will not find the beta version of MySQL Workbench in your repositories. Instead you will have to download the necessary installation package from the Workbench download page. From that page you can select from the following platforms:

• Windows
• Fedora
• Ubuntu
• Mac OSX

You can also download the source code and install from that method. Download your preferred file and install the package. Be careful. If you are installing on Ubuntu 9.10 you will want to click on the Development Releases tab and download the latest version. I installed version 5.2.11 and had great success on 9.10. The stable release, however, wasn’t so successful (it would install but couldn’t connect to the necessary mysqlclient libraries).  You might also find that, to install the development release on Ubuntu 9.10, you will have to also install python-paramiko and python-pexpect. Both of these can be found within Synaptic.

Starting the workbench

Figure 1

Once installed, you will find the MySQL Workbench located  (at least in GNOME) in the Programming sub-menu of the Applications menu.  When you first start the workbench you will see the very well laid out home screen (see Figure 1). From the first look it is obvious we are dealing with a serious dba tool.

The first thing that you must do is open a connection to your database server. For simplicity’s sake I am going to demonstrate connecting to localhost.

Figure 2

To do this click the New Connection link, which will bring up a the DB Connections Manager (see Figure 2). Since this will be a localhost connection, the only thing you should have to edit is your root user password. Remember, this is the MySQL administrator password (not your system admin password). Before you click OK it is best to click the Test Connection button. This way you will know, immediately, if your connection is successful.  When you see that it is successful, click the OK button to make the connection and dismiss the window.

Figure 3

The next step is to double-click on the new connection you just made (listed  in the Open Connection… window in the main window). When you double click the target connection the SQL Editor will open in a new tab (see Figure 3). When this tab opens you will see all of the current databases listed in the tabs in the lower pane. If you click on a database (Schema) you will see all tables included on that database.

To create a new database all you have to do is click on the “+” symble in the upper right corner of the lower left pane. When you click this a new window will open where you have to enter the following information:

• Name: Give the db a name.
• Default Collation: What is the default character set used. For example: A Drupal database uses utf8_general_ci.
• Comments: (Optional) Any comments you want to add to the db.

When you finish entering the information click Apply which will then open yet another window. This next window displays the SQL statement to be executed. You can review that statement and make changes if necessary. If the statement is correct click Apply Changes to create the database.

You might not see the database appear in the lower pane immediately. You might have to close the SQL Editor tab and then re-open the connection to see your new database.

Final thoughts

We’ve just scratched the surface on a tool that will serve all of your MySQL database needs from now until this tool sees its EOL (which hopefully won’t be for a long, long time). The MySQL developers have really scored big with this tool.

A quick Google search revealed the software Mysql Structure Compare which could help in the process. The software basically allows a webmaster to compare two MySQL databases with each other.

This can be a very effective way of comparing snapshots of the same database, e.g. a current version and a backup. This is exactly what we did to check for changes between the hacked database and a database backup that was created the other day.

Mysql Structure Compare required two running databases that can either be hosted locally or remotely. The database name, user, password, host and port need to be specified in the application. The easiest way to setup the second database is to use a local AMP installation as the database host, this can be done with XAMPP or WAMPserver for instance.

It is also possible to run both databases locally. Mysql Structure Compare is a portable software program for the Windows and Linux operating system that can effectively compare two MySQL databases with each other.

The software is available at the developer’s website where it can be downloaded for all supported operating systems.

And, to make matters even easier, MySQL Administrator is found in the standard distribution repositories, so installation is a breeze. And MySQL Administrator is available for both Linux and Windows, so even the non-Linux crowd can enjoy this fantastic tool. In this article you will see how to install MySQL Administrator as well as create a schema (aka database) and a table for your database.

Installation

As you would expect, all you need to do is fire up your software installation tool (such as Synaptic or the Ubuntu Software Center), do a search for “mysql administrator”, select the results, and install. You should already have a running MySQL installation, but if you do not the software installer should pick up all of the dependencies.

Once installed you will find this tool located in the Programming sub-menu of the Applications menu.

Using MySQL Administrator

Figure 1

When you first start up the MySQL Administrator tool the login window will appear (see Figure 1). From this window you can create a local or a remote login. If you go for a remote login you have to make sure your remote MySQL server will allow for remote connections.

For this article we will focus on a local connection. So the information you need to enter will be similar to what you see in Figure 1. Once you enter the information click the Connect button to establish your connection. When the connection is made you will find yourself in the MySQL Administrator main window (see Figure 2). This window will immediately give you plenty of information about your MySQL connection as well as all the tools you need to work with MySQL.

Figure 2

In order to create a new schemata you need to first open up the Catalogs window. The catalogs window is a listing of your current schemata (database collection). To open up the catalogs window double click on the Catalogs listing in the left pane.

Figure 3

When the catalogs listing opens (see Figure 3) take a look at the lower left pane. In this pane you will see a listing of your current schemata. In order to create a new schema right-click inside of that pane and select Create Schema. When you select this a small window will appear asking you to enter a name for your new schema. Do this and click OK and you will have an empty schema ready for you to add tables.

Figure 4

In order to create a table in your schema you need to click the Create Table button after you have selected the schema you want to work with (see Figure 4).  The first thing you need to do is give your table a name.  Once that is done click in the Colun and Indices area and you will then be able to start building the fields for your table.

A couple of notes about fields:

• You will want to have one field with a primary key.
• A primary key’s Data Type should be Integer.

When you finish filling out the data for the first table click the Apply Changes button which will then bring up a window showing you the MySQL command to be executed. Click the Execute button and the command should go off smoothly. Once the command is finished you will see your new field in the Columns and Indices window. In order to create a new field click below the newly created field and start all over.

When you are finished working with your table click Close to dismiss this window. You have now added fields to your table in your schema. When you are finished with that scheme click Close and you are done.

Final thoughts

Don’t think this is all you can do with the MySQL Administrator tool. This tool can handle nearly every aspect of MySQL administration. After you become familiar with creating schema, tables, and fields, start poking around the rest of the tool and see if it will take care of all of your MySQL needs.

When you are looking to manage a local database, and you’re looking for a good GUI tool, look no further than MySQL Navigator for all your MySQL administrative needs. This tool makes for simple database creation, administration, and does so (for most tasks) with a simple to use GUI. That doesn’t mean you can get completely away from understanding the MySQL syntax – you may need it. But for much of the functioning, MySQL Navigator can handle the task.

In this tutorial you will see how to install MySQL Navigator and create a database with this simple GUI tool.

Installation

The MySQL Navigator tool should be found in your distributions’ repository. So all you will need to do is fire up your software installation tool (such as the Ubuntu Software Center or Synaptic), search for “mysql navigator”, select the results, and install. Naturally you will need to have MySQL installed. If you do not, the installation tool should pick up these dependencies for you.

Once installed, you will find the MySQL Navigator executable in the Accessories sub-menu of the Applications menu in GNOME. Now let’s start using this tool.

NOTE: I am going to assume you already have your MySQL root user password handy. You will need it in order to connect to your databases.

Usage

Figure 1

When you fire up MySQL Navigator two windows will appear (see Figure 1). What you have to do is select the database you want to manage. You can manage remote databases if you like, but for the purposes of this article, we will stick with local machines. In order to connect to the default server you need to right click the root@localhost listing and select modify. In this new window you will need to enter the MySQL administrator username (probably root) and password.

NOTE: If you do not see the smaller window when you first fire up the tool you will need to go to the File menu and select New.

Figure 2

After you enter the proper information, dismiss the settings window and double click the root@localhost entry to open up the listing of databases (see Figure 2).

In order to create a new database, right-click the Database entry and select Create Database. This will open up a simple window with only a text area where you give the new database a name. Enter that name and click OK. I am going to create a sample database called “ghacks”.

Let’s create a table on our “ghacks” database. From the MySQL menu select the “Tables” entry to open up the Table tool (see Figure 3). In this new window you will first want to select the newly created “ghacks” database from the Database drop-down. Once you have the correct database selected you can go through and fill out the necessary information for the table.

Figure 3

You can create more than one field for your table by adding the field information (in the right pane) and clicking the Save button. When the table info is complete click the Fire button to add your table. NOTE: You must at least create one set of fields or you will get an error when you click the Fire button.

You will also want to click on the Key tab and make sure you create a Primary Key for your table.

When you are finished creating your table, click the Close button to dismiss this window.

You can continue getting more and more granular with this tool. If you go back to the main window you will see the listing of the new database. Expand that database and you will see your newly created table. If you double-click the newly created table a new window will open where you can add data for values in the fields of your table. This isn’t as intuitive as the other functions. To insert a value right click inside of the new window and select “Insert”. This new window will list your data as a MySQL statement tat looks like:

INSERT INTO categories

(

linux,

windows

)

VALUES

(

"",

""

In this instance you have to actually add your values in the text. So let’s say we want to add the following values for the fields:

linux – Ubuntu

windows – Windows 7

To do this the MySQL syntax would look like:

INSERT INTO categories

(

linux,

windows

)

VALUES

(

"Ubunutu",

"Windows 7"

)

When you have made these edits click the File menu and select Fire to execute.

Final thoughts

If you are looking for a simple to use GUI for the management of your MySQL databases, look no further than MySQL Navigator. Although you will need to have a cursory understanding of MySQL, it will make the administration of your databases much easier.

We have dealt with several services in the past including the network monitoring software Open Monitor or the online service Livewatch.

The database monitoring software dv2rss is different from these solutions. The main difference is that it can – as the title implies – monitor databases but also because it can only be run from the command line or a script. That’s not as bad as it sounds and it could be welcome in certain situations where no graphical user interface is needed or wanted.

Db2rss supports MySQL, Interbase and Blackfish SQL databases at the moment and can monitor them in a computer network or on the Internet. It comes with several command line parameters that define important information such as the database’s host name, the username and password. There are quite a few additional parameter that include running an SQL command on the database, comparing the results to a local copy and defining templates and title of the resulting RSS feed. The RSS feed is another aspect of this database monitoring software that is usually not found in other monitoring software programs.

It is then possible to subscribe to the RSS feed to receive the database monitoring information after the script’s execution. The software developer suggests to use the Windows task scheduler to run the database monitoring software regularly.

We start by creating the bash script first and continue with the cron job after the bash script has been tested to work as intended. All commands in the following paragraphs are executed from the command line.

vi backup.sh

This will create an empty text file in the vi editor. This will be the script that will be executed by the cron job on a daily basis.

bin/sh
/usr/bin/mysqldump -A -u [Username] -p[Password] | gzip > /backups/mysqldump`date +%m_%d_%y`.gz


Press i to enter insert mode and copy and paste the two lines above in the editor. What the script does is to use the mysqldump function to create a mysql backup and store it gzipped in the backups directory using mysqldumpDate.gz as the name with data being the day the backup was created.

The two variables [Username] and [Password] have to be edited and the username and password of a user with sufficient rights entered. It might also be necessary to change the location of the backup folder.

Press ESC to enter command mode and :x to save the file.

./backup.sh

Execute the script to see if it is working correctly. It should create the dump of the MySQL database in the defined directory. It might be necessary to change the permission level of the backup.sh file if you get a permission error during execution.

chmod 755 backup.sh

If the script is working as intended it can be added as a cron job. The following command will open the user crontab list.

crontab -e

If you are in the vi editor you press i to enter insert mode again and add the following line

0 7 * * * /path/to/backup.sh

Please refer to the tutorial for a detailed instruction on how to set the cron job up to suite your needs. This one will execute the script every day on 7am.

It is a good idea to check back after the next execution to verify that everything is working as intended.

Convert is a data conversion software that can convert the data formats dBase, csv and sdf. One of the more interesting features for webmasters is the option to create MySQL database import information on top of csv or sdf output files which make it possible to convert one of the data formats into a file that can be imported into a MySQL database.

The software displays all options in the main interface which might be a bit intimidating for inexperienced users. Most of the settings however do not need to be edited to work with the application. The minimum is to select the input file format and load it into the data conversion software.

The second step is to select the output format and click on the write output file button in the lower left corner. It might be necessary to change the character set, decimal separator, csv separator or csv field frame if these do not match.

This is however easy to check as the data sets are displayed in the main interface once the input file has been loaded.

Interesting are the hierarchical sorting conditions which are completely optional as well as the record filter. The data conversion software convert can also concatenate files.