MySQL is an open-source database engine that uses Structured Query Language (hence the SQL in the name) to store and retrieve information from tables stored on a server. MySQL is a robust and stable application and has become the most widely used database for web applications. It serves as the foundation for applications such as YouTube, Flickr, and Wikipedia. Although it can handle the massive amount of information that these web sites deal with, you can also download, install, and run it on your personal computer for the cost of $0.00.
A database is nothing more than an organized method of storing information so that you can retrieve it quickly. This information is stored in tables. Most modern databases follow a "relational model" which is a particular method of storing the information in multiple tables where the tables are conceptually linked to each other through key fields. Database design, rules of normalization, table joins, table relationship types, referential integrity, are the exciting topics that arise when you start using multiple tables, and most of these are advanced topics for a computer science class. So for our purposes we will be dealing with a simple example with all our data stored in one table.
SQL is an acronym for Structured Query Language and is a common language used to interact with databases. This interaction can include storing information, retrieving information, creating tables, modifying tables, and more. A full understanding of SQL is, again, an advanced topic for a computer science class, so we will be examining an extremely small subset of the language-- setting up queries to store, retrieve, and update information from our single database table.
Another open-source application that we will be using is phpMyAdmin. This is a browser-based application, written in PHP, for interacting with and administering MySQL databases. Steve has set up the phpMyAdmin on the intermedia3 server for our use at: http://intermedia3.art.uiowa.edu/phpmyadmin. Since we are currently looking at an open web site, I will give you the username and password in class. You should write the username and password down.
When you are working on a PHP/MySQL project, you will be using several technologies simultaneously, and will usually find yourself with many windows open at the same time. These might include:
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