Preface

phpMyAdmin is an open source web interface that handles the administration of MySQL. It can perform various tasks such as creating, modifying, or deleting databases, tables, columns, or rows. It can also execute SQL statements or manage users and their permissions. When it comes to exploiting phpMyAdmin to its full potential, even experienced developers and system administrators search for tutorials to accomplish their tasks.

Mastering phpMyAdmin 3.4 for Effective MySQL Management is an easy-to-read, step-by-step practical guide that walks you through every facet of this legendary tool—phpMyAdmin—and takes you a step ahead in taking full advantage of its potential. This book is filled with illustrative examples that will help you understand every phpMyAdmin feature in detail.

This book jump starts with installing and configuring phpMyAdmin, and then looks into phpMyAdmin's features. This is followed by configuring authentication in phpMyAdmin and setting parameters that influence the interface as a whole, including the new user preferences feature. You will first create two basic tables and then edit, delete data, tables, and databases. As backups are crucial to a project, you will create up-to-date backups and then look into importing the data that you have exported. You will also explore the various search mechanisms and query across multiple tables.

Now you will learn some advanced features such as defining inter-table relations, both with relation view and the Designer panel. Some queries are out of the scope of the interface; you will enter SQL command to accomplish these tasks.

You will also learn about synchronizing databases on different servers and managing MySQL replication to improve performance and data security. You will also store queries as bookmarks for their quick retrieval. Towards the end of the book you will learn to document your database, track changes made to the database, and manage user accounts using phpMyAdmin server management features.

This book is an upgrade from the previous version that covered phpMyAdmin version 3.3. Version 3.4.x introduced features such as a user preferences module, relation schema export to multiple formats, an ENUM/SET column editor, a simplified interface for export and import, AJAX interface on some pages, charts generation, and a visual query builder.