What is phpMyAdmin?

phpMyAdmin is a tool that is used for the purpose of managing and administering the databases such as the MariaDB& MySQL database application systems. This tool can be downloaded from the phpMyAdmin website directly, without getting through any payment process, as it is accessible in the form of open source application software programmed using the PHP scripting language, instigated by the Microsoft tool ‘MySQL –WebAdmin’. This tool is exerted for employing more than one database systems or database management systems, along with their connected servers and node units. It was originally developed by Tobias Ratschiller, and later ended up with GitHub.

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Why do we Need phpMyAdmin?

phpMyAdmin is chosen over any other database administering tool due to below reasons,

• phpMyAdminadministration tool contains an uncomplicated graphical user interface that can enable the user with a convenient query editing facility, in order to create, update, delete and manipulate various operations on any SQL query. It also allows the users to copy and paste queries from other systems, to open or import a file containing the query, execution of current or all queries, monitor the run time of each and every query ran in the tool, display to view the output fetched from the queries being run, etc.
• phpMyAdmin can be defined as a service-based tool, where the services play a role of establishing communication between the database systems and the corresponding server entities. This tool is created using the PHP program, to function with a well equipped web-based interface as the front end application, so as to connect and work on database systems.
• One of the notable functional qualities of phpMyAdmin is that the queries can be edited or manipulated using the flexible web-supported medium that the application holds with it. The application also has a provision to setup the server details of the database, which can be used to connect to the database that needs to be managed.
• phpMyAdmin allows the database admin to fetch the results from this application, after performing the necessary database operations, to be stored separately or to export the same to the desired file format such as the CSV, CSQL, PDF, Excel, Word, XML, etc. This tool shows an outstanding quality when it comes to retrieving and storing the results after the administrative operations are carried out.
• Unlike any other database management tools, phpMyAdmin includes storage engines, and a provision to access the same. When the user clicks on the Engines option, present in the top of the application’s interface, the system navigates to the show the Engine details. It shows a list of all the storage systems capable of connecting to the phpMyAdmin, along with the corresponding servers. As a preset option, the storage engine connected will be shown as the MyISAM with the Memory as Hash-based for temporary table storage.
• Along with administrative jobs, this application lets the users to create tables, add or update columns & rows, add or update contents to the cells of the table, etc. It is necessary to enter the table name, table type, length/ values, attributes, indexes, comments, etc. to create tables, and insert, go, browse tabs, etc. to add data and elements to the table.

Features of phpMyAdmin

The below are the well –known special features of PHPMyAdmin database management tool:

1. The vigilant application interface is the most wanted characteristic of the phpMyAdmin tool, as it plays the role of letting the user interact with the application system. The tool consists of properties similar to MySQL, and a few such properties are options to browse through the databases already available in the network, to create new connection and enable the databases in the application, icons/ menu items to create tables, access tables, fetch the tables using the queries, retrieve the already created views, indexes, tables, etc.

2. It also allows to copy data/ tables from one location to another, delete the table contents, drop/ truncate the tables, update the tables and alter the data from the fields of the table, etc.

3. In terms of query management, phpMyAdmin lets the users to create the query using the query editing interface, space to copy paste queries from different locations into the query editor, the frequently used & important queries can be bookmarked for later usage, handle the remotely stored procedures, triggers& functions of the databases on the query editing interfaces, generating intricate queries in the form of Query-by-example, which are commonly known as QBE’s.

4. Another, most significant feature of the phpMyAdmin tool is the ‘Search’option. It aids the user to go through the whole database system and the connected nodes when the user prompts for a search operation using a key with respect to the content that needs to be found.

5. Any data obtained using this database management tool can be made over to store the results into the required format of the output file, including the SQL, XML, PDF, Excel, Word, CSV, and even the BLOB data(Binary Large Object data) in the form of an image or a downloadable hyperlink.

Advantages & Disadvantages of phpMyAdmin

Below are the advantages and disadvantages of phpMyAdmin:

Advantages

Some of the advantages of using the phpMyAdminsystem application as a database administration tool are as below,

• Graceful maintenance operations, with no additional cost other than what will be spent for owning the database management systems itself.
• Supports and acts flexible for majority of the commonly used file formats, which comes in handy for documentation purposes while working on the database management systems.
• Separate panels for database manipulation, SQL query editing, status tracking, etc.
• Assists in displaying all the active plugins from the connected databases.

Disadvantages

Some of the disadvantages of using the phpMyAdmin system application as a database administration tool are as below:

• It cannot be used for any and all databases, as it supports only MySQL and MariaDB.
• Though it supports the classic servers and systems, its growth is not parallel to the technological growth of the current industry standards.

Conclusion

phpMyAdmin is an efficient tool that offers provisions for the database related processes like database management, database maintenance, and database administration, in addition to the other user interface related preferences. When an application uses MySQL, phpMyAdmin is the most resourceful method for enabling accessibility to the connected databases and their respective nodes.

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