Managing Your Mambo Database Using phpMyAdmin

Mambo is a dynamic CMS, which means that all the data is stored in a database. phpMyAdmin makes managing your database relatively easy.

There are many ways to backup and restore databases. All have advantages and disadvantages. The focus of this tutorial is on using a graphical web based interface called phpMyAdmin, a system that comes as a standard feature with most of today's web hosting packages.

phpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web. Currently it can create and drop databases, create/drop/alter tables, delete/edit/add fields, execute any SQL statement, manage keys on fields, manage privileges, export data into various formats, and is available in 55 languages.

Detailed information and manuals on how to use all the powerful features of phpMyAdmin can be found at: http://www.phpmyadmin.net/

Advantages of phpMyAdmin

• Simple
• Visual (no need to remember line commands)
• Browser based (no need for extra software)
• Widely available
• Free

Disadvantages of phpMyAdmin

• Some limitations in handling very large databases (this should not affect you unless you have tens of thousands of records).
• Somewhat slower than other systems such as Shell.

Process overview

When working with your Mambo database, there are three major areas you need to become familiar with, the first is backing up the database, the second is how to restore it, and lastly, you need to know how to run SQL queries.

• To backup the database
  Start phpMyAdmin, select the tables you want to backup, adjust the backup settings, and let the system do its job.
• To restore the database
  Start phpMyAdmin, drop the existing tables, select the backup file, and let the system do its job.
• Running SQL Queries to Update Your Database
  Start phpMyAdmin, enter the SQL query, and select "Go".

I have written a document that explains each of these processes. It uses images and a real-life Mambo upgrade as examples of how to run SQL queries in phpMyAdmin to upgrade your database, and how to backup and restore your database. I hope you find it useful.