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If Your Web Host Provides PHP and MySQL
If the host that provides you with Web space has already installed and set up
MySQL and PHP for you and you just want to learn how to use them, there
really isn't a lot you need to do. Now would be a good time to get in touch with
your host and request any information you may need to access these services.
Specifically, you'll need a user name and password to access the MySQL server
they've set up for you. They'll probably have provided an empty database for you
to use as well, which prevents you from interfering with the databases of other
users who share the same MySQL server, and you'll want to know the name of
your database.
There are two ways you can access the MySQL server directly. Firstly, you can
use telnet or secure shell (SSH) to log in to the host. You can then use the MySQL
client programs (mysql, mysqladmin, mysqldump) installed there to interact with
the MySQL server directly. The second method is to install those client programs
onto your own computer, and have them connect to the MySQL server. Your
Web host may support one, both, or neither of these methods, so you'll need to
ask.
If your host allows you to log in by telnet or SSH to do your work, you'll need a
user name and password for the login, in addition to those you'll use to access
5The "root document folder" of a Web server is the folder on the server computer where you must
place a file to make it available in the root of your Website. On IIS servers, this is usually c:\inetpub\
wwwroot, unless you have specifically set it to something else. On Apache servers, this is often
the htdocs folder in the Apache installation directory unless you set it to something else yourself.
Many Unix distributions use other locations when installing their packaged version of Apache; examples
include /var/www and /home/httpd.
6Usually c:\php on Windows, and /usr/local/php on Unix.
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If Your Web Host Provides PHP and MySQL
the MySQL server (they can be different). Be sure to ask for both sets of information.
If they support remote access to the MySQL server, you'll want to download a
program that lets you connect to, and interact with, the server. This book assumes
you've downloaded from http://www.mysql.com/ a binary distribution of MySQL
that includes the three client programs (mysql, mysqladmin, and mysqldump).
Free packages are available for Windows, Linux and other operating systems.
Installation basically consists of finding the three programs and putting them in
a convenient place. The rest of the package, which includes the MySQL server,
can be freely discarded. If you prefer a more graphical interface, download
something like MySQLGUIxxii. I'd really recommend getting comfortable with
the basic client programs first, though, as the commands you use with them will
be similar to those you'll include in your PHP scripts to access MySQL databases.
Many less expensive Web hosts these days support neither telnet/SSH access,
nor direct access to their MySQL servers. Instead, they normally provide a management
console that allows you to browse and edit your database through your
Web browser (though some actually expect you to install one yourself, which I'll
cover briefly in Chapter 2). Although this is a fairly convenient and not overly
restrictive solution, it doesn't help you learn. Instead, I'd recommend you install
a MySQL server on your own system to experiment with, especially in the next
chapter. Once you're comfortable working with your learning server, you can start
using the server provided by your Web host with the Web-based management
console. See the previous sections for instructions on installing MySQL under
Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
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