The unexpected pleasure of reading books about databases is that they are often written by authors with highly organized minds. Paul DuBois and his editors at New Riders have assembled MySQL with a clarity and lucidity that inspires confidence in the subject matter: a (nearly) freely redistributable SQL-interpreting database client/server primarily geared for Unix systems but maintained for Windows platforms as well. Designed as a handy resource when you need quick solutions or techniques, the book offers dozens of short, focused pieces of code and hundreds of worked-out examples for programmers of all levels who don't have the time (or expertise) to solve MySQL problems from scratch.

Soon you will know just how easy it is to build dynamic web pages using PHP and MySQL. Really, PHP and MySQL is easy to learn, and I hope this will help you realise that
I'm sure that by the end of this you will have enough knowledge to build your own database driven website using PHP & MySQL. Of course this is not perfect. So if you have any critiques, question, problem or suggestion please let me know.

For a fast start just go straight to the fourth section where you can learn how to connect to MySQL using PHP. However, if you haven't installed PHP and MySQL go visit the first section. It explains how to install PHP, MySQL and Apache. And if you are a newcomer in PHP go to the second section to learn the basics of PHP.

LINUXWORLD EXPO - (August 13, 2002) - MySQL AB, developer of the world's most popular Open Source database, today announced that it has added a new JDBC driver, "MySQLTM Connector/J" to the company's line of supported technologies. The driver, which was originally developed by Mark Matthews in 1998 as the Open Source "MM.MySQL" driver, debuts as a MySQL product with significant performance and feature enhancements that will help maintain its position as the leading driver for Java connectivity to the MySQL database. "Mark Matthews has joined the MySQL team and has brought with him an extremely valuable technology that we are proud to offer as an official MySQL API," said David Axmark, MySQL co-founder and vice president of Open Source relations. "Drivers have a huge impact on performance, and with MySQL Connector/J, Java developers have a solution that will take the built-for-speed MySQL database to new performance highs."

A database is a structure that comes in two flavors: a flat database and a relational database. A relational database is much more oriented to the human mind and is often preferred over the gabble-de-gook flat database. MySQL is a relational database.

In a relational structured database there are tables that store data. Each table is made up of columns and rows. A table's columns define what kind of information is going to be stored. You need an individual column for each type of information you wished to store

MySQL is one of the most popular databases on the Internet and it is often used in conjunction with PHP. Besides its undoubted advantages such as easy of use and relatively high performance, MySQL offers simple but very effective security mechanisms. Unfortunately, the default installation of MySQL, and in particular the empty root password and the potential vulnerability to buffer overflow attacks, makes the database an easy target for attacks.

This article describes the basic steps which should be performed in order to secure a MySQL database against both local and remote attacks. This is the third and last of the series of articles devoted to securing Apache, PHP and MySQL.