Installing phpMyAdmin On Linux
phpMyAdmin is a popular, powerful web-based interface for administering
MySQL databases. It is open source web application, written in PHP and
published under the GNU General Public License. It is among the better
tools available for administering MySQL databases.
Some History
Tobias Ratschiller started to work on a PHP3-based web front end to
MySQL in 1998, inspired by Peter Kuppelwieser's MySQL-Webadmin.
When he gave up the project in 2000 because of the lack of time,
phpMyAdmin had already become the most popular PHP based MySQL
administration tool with, a large community of users and contributors.
In order to coordinate the growing number of patches, a group of three
developers, Olivier Müller, Marc Delisle and Loic Chapeaux, registered the
phpMyAdmin Project at SourceForge and took over the development in
2001.
phpMyAdmin can be used to manage a single MySQL database or a whole
dedicated MySQL Db server.
phpMyAdmin can:
Create and Drop databases
Create, Copy, Drop, Rename and Alter tables
Do table maintenance
Delete, Edit and Add fields
Execute any SQL-statement
Manage keys on fields
Load text files into tables
Create and read dumps of tables
Manage MySQL users and privileges
Using Query-by-example (QBE), create complex queries automatically
connecting the required tables
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Create the graphical representation of Database layout as PDF file
Support InnoDB tables and foreign keys
Works in 50 different languages
Installation Process
Once the file, phpMyAdmin-2.7.0-pl2.zip is downloaded to the HDD, do
the following to install phpMyAdmin:
phpMyAdmin requires Apache, PHP and MySQL. It is assumed
that Apache, PHP and MySQL are already installed.
Unzip the contents from the downloaded file using an unzip utility,
(Winzip being an example). This will create a folder named
phpMyAdmin-2.7.0-pl1 with the files extracted held within it
Create a folder phpmyadmin (all one word written in lowercase)
under <DirectoryName>\Apache2\htdocs\. Refer to diagram 1.1
According to this material the path where the phpmyadmin folder was
created is:
/usr/local/apache2/htdocs/phpmyadmin
Diagram 1.1: Directory Structure of the phpmyadmin folder
INSTALLING phpMyAdmin ON LINUX
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Copy/Move the files extracted earlier from the folder phpMyAdmin-
2.7.0-pl2 to the folder phpmyadmin created under
/usr/local/apache2/htdocs/. Refer to diagram 1.2. The
phpMyAdmin-2.7.0-pl2 folder can now be deleted to regain HDD
space.
Diagram 1.2: Copied contents of phpMyAdmin 2.7.0-pl2 folder to phpmyadmin folder
Open a browser and enter http://localhost/phpmyadmin/index.php in
its address bar. Refer to diagram 1.3
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Diagram 1.3: Welcome Screen for phpMyAdmin 2.7.0-pl2
If PHP was installed and bound to Apache correctly then the
phpMyAdmin login page will appear, but with an error. Refer to
diagram 1.3
Create file config.inc.php under the directory
/usr/local/apache2/htdocs/phpMyAdmin/ and fill in the values
for host, user, password and authentication mode to fit the appropriate
environment. Therefore the file will finally the following code:
<?php
$cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] = 'http://localhost/phpmyadmin/';
$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = 'holla';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = 'localhost';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] = 'root';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = 'sct2306';
?>
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Open the file config.default.php file available under C:\Program
Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs\phpMyAdmin\ and copy the
definition of each of the field like the host, user, password,
authentication mode, the path of phpMyAdmin installation directory
and blowfish algorithm to encrypt the password. Then give the
values for each of the field as shown in the above code.
Now save and close the file config.inc.php.
Changes required in php.ini file
phpMyadmin requires the php_mbstring.dll extension to be enabled to
run smoothly.
The php-mbstring module contains a dynamic shared object that
will add support for multi-byte string handling to PHP, which is
required by phpMyAdmin.
The mbstring module can only be enabled at the time of configuring
PHP (usually the case when PHP was setup from a Source File and not
.rpm file) on Linux.
If PHP is being installed from a source file enable the mbstring module
as: (Refer to diagram 24.3.13.2)
<System Prompt> ./configure --with-mysql --enable-mbstring
--with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs
--with-mysql i.e. This specifies that PHP should be build with MySQL
support.
--enable-mbstring i.e. This enables the mbstring module required by
PHPMyAdmin.
--with-apxs2 i.e. This specifies the path to apache Web server's apxs
script.
The --with-apxs2 path will differ depending on the location
where Apache2 was installed using the source files.
If PHP was setup using an .rpm file, the mbstring module is usually
enabled based on the existence of the php-mbstring .rpm file. Verify this
as:
<System Prompt> rpm –qa php-mbstring
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Output:
php-mbstring-4.3.9-3
If this file does not exist then install the same as:
<System Prompt> rpm –ivh php-mbstring-4.3.9-3.i386.rpm
The php-mbstring file is usually available on the system if
everything is selected (i.e. FULL Installation) as an option under
CUSTOM installation of Fedora CORE 3. Otherwise this file is also
available in the book's accompanying CDROM.
This completes the phpMyAdmin installation on Linux.
Reload the page in I.E. by keying in
http://localhost/phpmyadmin/index.php in the Browser address bar.
The login page of phpMyAdmin without errors now will appear.
Refer to diagram 1.5
Diagram 1.5: phpMyAdmin login page
INSTALLING phpMyAdmin ON LINUX
