A few years ago I made a blog website with Wordpress. It
required that I use the MySQL database to store all the information such as
blog posts and comments. “The MySQL database has become the world's most
popular open source database because of its high performance, high reliability
and ease of use.” [1] I had no idea what MySQL is and how it worked. To setup
MySQL to use with Wordpress, I followed my hosting provider’s instructions and
through their graphical interface I made a MySQL username and password.
After making a few posts in Wordpress and clicking around, I
was curious how MySQL stored its information. I did some research on MySQL and
ran the phpMyAdmin application that my hosting provider had installed. “phpMyAdmin
is a free and open source tool written in PHP intended to handle the
administration of MySQL with the use of a Web browser.” [2] phpMyAdmin intimidated
me and I had no idea what to do. I did click on the tables used for Wordpress
and saw that the data was stored similar to a spreadsheet.
Although I eventually lost interest in my website and
deleted it, I learned for the first time what a database was and I Iearned
about some MySQL basics. When researching MySQL I found many tutorials on it
and it seems like the most popular database for simple websites. I was shocked
to find out that “Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today announced it has
entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MySQL AB, an open source icon
and developer of one of the world's fastest growing open source databases for
approximately $1 billion in total consideration.” [3] I didn’t know that an
open source program could be worth that much money.
Answers to Questions:
1. Although MySQL is considered the easiest full-featured RDBMS,
if there was any database error inside of software like Wordpress then I’d be
clueless on how to manually fix it. I didn’t have a problem with MySQL, but I’ve
been to websites that aren’t working and just display a MySQL error. I would
have no clue how to fix an error unless I restored a backup of my database or
contacted my hosting provider.
2. MySQL is open source and free. It has many books and
training classes that also include other subjects like programming. Oracle owns
it and they have the resources to improve it greatly. It can be used with not
only small websites but for big websites. “MySQL is also used in many
high-profile, large-scale World Wide Web products, including Wikipedia, Google
(though not for searches), Facebook, and Twitter.” [4]
3. I suggest that MySQL makes a built in visual editor of
tables and a point and click way of making search queries. For beginners like
me, typing in queries to search through tables in a command line is
intimidating. Third party applications that make MySQL tables visual such as phpMyAdmin
are too complex for me.
Sources:
2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phpmyadmin
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