Mastering Dreamweaver MX Databases
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Overview
MySQL is, arguably, the most popular open-source database system available. The official MySQL website (www.mysql.com) notes that companies using MySQL as a production database include, among others, Yahoo!, MP3.com, and NASA. It's true that MySQL is not as full featured as some of the proprietary database systems we're looking at in this book; it doesn't have traditional stored procedures, triggers, or views, for example. But if your database-driven web application is on a tight budget, and you cannot sacrifice speed or performance, MySQL might just save the day for you. In this chapter, our objective is to get you up to speed on the basic functionality of MySQL and show you how to harness its capabilities for use in your web application.
MySQL Versions
MySQL is developed and primarily supported by MySQL AB, a Sweden-based company founded in 1995. Like most other projects in the open-source community, MySQL exists in a couple of different forms: the production (or stable) version and the development version. The production version (currently 3.23.x) is the one you will most likely be using if MySQL is your database platform. It is unlikely that MySQL AB will release any new features or improvements for the production version, but the company will continue to release bug fixes as needed. The development team is focused on the next release, which for now is the development version and includes the latest features.
MySQL is available for download from www.mysql.com in both source-code form and precom- piled binary (ready-to-run) form. There are server versions for Windows, MacOS X, Linux, and MYSQL AND THE WEBvarious flavors of Unix (FreeBSD, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, BSDi, and others). At the time of this writing, the available releases of MySQL are:
| MySQL 3.23 | Production |
| MySQL Max 3.23 | Production |
| MySQL 4.x | Development |
| Note | Open-source software projects typically follow at least a couple of lines of development. One line is the stable branch of the code base. This is the version of the application that is recommended for use in production environments. It has typically undergone more extensive testing, is in wider use, and therefore is less prone to bugs and other problems. Another standard line is known as the development or current branch. This branch of the application normally contains "bleeding-edge" features and is rapidly changing as developers submit new code, sometimes daily. The MySQL team recommends that production users stick with the most recent version that they have labeled "stable," which at the time of this writing is 3.23. The next version, MySQL 4.0, is considered beta at this point. |
MySQL 3.23
This production version of MySQL supports many features you have come to expect in a DBMS. MySQL utilizes a client/server architecture, which makes it more like Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle than a desktop system such as Microsoft Access. A wide range of datatypes are available within it. Additionally, MySQL supports full-text search and one-way data replication from a single master server to multiple slave servers.
MySQL Max 3.23
This version of MySQL is the same as the standard version, but includes built-in support for InnoDB and Berkeley DB table types. Either of these table types enables MySQL to handle full SQL transaction support, using the familiar SQL commands COMMIT and ROLLBACK.
MySQL 4.x
The current development line for MySQL is largely a rewrite of the source to provide a better foundation on which to build in SQL features missing from the current implementation. New features promised or talked about for forthcoming releases include direct support for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), support for traditional UNION statements (which allows two SQL queries with the same column structure to appear to the client as a single result set), nested subqueries, stored procedures, and additional foreign key support (database-enforced data-integrity rules).
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