Managing your database

To view and manage your database, select it in the drop-down on the left-hand side. You will get an overview of your database and nine tabs for carrying out certain actions. Below is a description of the different tabs.

|> Structure: displays the different tables in the database and allows you to create a new table. A small drop-down menu, lets you perform the following on table/s you have selected; empty, drop, print view, check, optimise, repair and analyse. The Action section provides the following options: browse, search, display the structure, insert a record, empty or drop a table.
|> SQL: lets you execute SQL queries on the database.
|> Search: lets you search for words and phrases in the database.
|> Query: allows queries to be executed using the interface components and manual SQL queries to be run.
|> Export: allows you to save your database into a file format of your choice. CSV, Excel, Word, LaTex, PDF, SQL and XML are some of the formats available.
|> Import: import an SQL file.
|> Operation allows you to create a new table, rename and copy the database.
|> Privileges: shows what users have access to the current database and their rights. You also have an edit option next to each user.
|> Drop: lets you delete the database if you need to.

phpMyAdmin is a handy, graphical tool for creating and managing MySQL databases. The interface is straight-forward and easy to learn and it allows users to execute SQL queries manually. It is also open source, so you can download and use it for free.