[kman42]

I'm looking to learn about MySQL for some bioinformatics applications. I have never used MySQL before, but am fairly handy with Terminal, etc and am not afraid to get my hands dirty. Can someone offer advice on tutorials, GUIs, getting started tips, security, etc? Also, any practical advice from someone who has recently made the plunge would also be helpful.

kman

[Macola]

I'm assuming you'll want to learn some PHP as well. You can get started with one of the yellow "Dummies" books but for a good reference, pick up PHP and MySQL Web Development by Luke Welling and Laura Thompson.

[CatOne]

Originally posted by kman42:
I'm looking to learn about MySQL for some bioinformatics applications. I have never used MySQL before, but am fairly handy with Terminal, etc and am not afraid to get my hands dirty. Can someone offer advice on tutorials, GUIs, getting started tips, security, etc? Also, any practical advice from someone who has recently made the plunge would also be helpful.

kman

Get the O'Reilly book "Managing & Using MySQL." REALLY.

[DeathMan]

http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/mysql/
That site will gives you every thing you need to install it. You can also learn how to install PHP from this dude's site.

http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/18290.html
That class is a super cool wrapper for the mysql API in PHP, so you don't have to necessarily use mysql if you write your app, and decide you want to use MSSQL (Heaven forbid) or Postgress, or even Oracle, I think, or any DB that uses SQL. I highly reccomend using this rather than the built in PHP API, you'll save hours of coding time, debugging time, etc.

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/...tutorial4.html
That article also runs you through the installation process, and discusses a bit about SQL as a language.

[mitchell_pgh]

I've tried on a few systems... I get it to install, but for some reason it doesn't work properly... VERY annoying...

[CatOne]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
I've tried on a few systems... I get it to install, but for some reason it doesn't work properly... VERY annoying...

It works fine for me, in every case. Not sure what you're installing, nor how carefully you're reading the docs. It's pretty straightfoward, just use mysqld_safe with the relevant parameters.

[mitchell_pgh]

I usually have issues with permissions. I haven't seen some of these documents, they seem much strait forward as I was using a pure Unix doc.

[DeathMan]

mitchell,

What kind of errors are you getting? On one install, I was having trouble with permissions where mysql was trying to create its db files, so that was a problem. And my PHP/ini file was sort of messed up, cause it was looking for mysql in the wrong dir. So those might be two issues to look out for.

Look in the Unix forum, or a more techincal message board for more help, as I wasn't able to fix the problem myself, but it was an easy matter for my BSD-capable friend.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by DeathMan:
mitchell,

What kind of errors are you getting? On one install, I was having trouble with permissions where mysql was trying to create its db files, so that was a problem. And my PHP/ini file was sort of messed up, cause it was looking for mysql in the wrong dir. So those might be two issues to look out for.

Look in the Unix forum, or a more techincal message board for more help, as I wasn't able to fix the problem myself, but it was an easy matter for my BSD-capable friend.

Yep, that's what I was having problems with... Perhaps I'll give it another go in a few weeks.

[mitchell_pgh]

I'm very interested because I'm going to be working on a program that requires MySQL and PHP... we are currently working on Dell servers, but I've been trying to get them to consider Apple hardware.

It's not even an option now, but if I show them that we could strip down an older server and run it (with an exact backup sitting next to it for NOTHING... who knows.

[Love Calm Quiet]

And for ease of admin (either on the server or remotely) you can't beat the donation-ware CocoaMySQL !