Easyphp And Mysql Setup: Essays Example

The installation of EasyPHP and MYSQL on my PC was successful. I downloaded the EasyPHP - DevServer-14.1VC11 installation file from the website and followed the installation guide provided. The installer was easy to use which made the overall installation process quite simple. However, I encountered an installation error that a system file "msvcrt.dll" could not be renamed or replaced because it was in use. I paused the installation and went online to search for possible solutions to the problem, where I discovered that it was a known issue. According to the EasyPHP FAQs page, all that needed to be done was to reboot the computer in Safe Mode and re-run the installer, and this time there were no errors. I then rebooted the computer in normal mode.
In order to test whether the MySQL installation was successful, I ran the Windows command prompt (cmd.exe) and typed in the command “cd C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyPHP-Webserver-14.1b2\binaries\dbserver\bin\” to navigate the MySQL installation directory. Addition of the parameters, “mysql –p –u root” to the new prompt instructed the command processor to run MySQL with the username “root”, and a blank password (default MySQL settings). After running these commands, a welcome message was displayed by the MySQL monitor, along other details such as the MySQL connection ID, server version, and copyright information. The output result indicated that MySQL had been successfully installed as shown in the screenshot below.
Figure 1 Mysql Prompt

Features and Capabilities of MySQL:

MySQL is a relational database system that stores data in tables/relations. It is also based on the client-server model where many clients (application software) can communicate with the MySQL database server, make data queries and save changes. The clients can run on the same machine as the server or in different computers and locations connected via a local network or the Internet.
MySQL supports the Structured Query Language (SQL) which is the standard database language also used by other database systems for querying, updating data and administrating databases. MySQL abides by current SQL standards but has some restrictions and customized extensions. MySQL also supports subSELECT statements, database views and stored procedures (code stored in the database system to simplify routine tasks such as inserting and updating data). MySQL also supports Unicode i.e. all known character sets available, and triggers (commands that executed automatically by the server in certain operations such as UPDATE, DELETE, and INSERT). MySQL is platform independent and supports all major operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and many UNIX variants such as Sun Solaris and FreeBSD. In terms of speed, MySQL has been benchmarked and declared quite responsive and fast when processing transactions (Kofler and Kramer).
Other MySQL capabilities include data replication, foreign key constraints, support for multiple programming languages, GIS functions support such as storage of 2-dimensional geographical data and support for Microsoft’s ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) interface. ODBC makes it possible for Windows applications to access data from different types of database management systems (Kofler and Kramer).

Converting logical model into a Physical MySQL database structure:

MySQL is a relational database system that makes it relatively easy to translate from a logical database model into a physical MySQL database. The approach involves first converting the entities in the logical model to become relations/tables in the MySQL database. The attributes of these entities become the table columns in MySQL and each with an appropriate data type assigned to it. The unique identifiers become columns known as primary keys in the database, and these cannot have NULL values. Unique indexes can also be added to the identifiers to enforce uniqueness (Docstore.mik.ua).
Finally, relationships among entities are modeled as foreign keys i.e. a foreign key is a column in a relational table matching the primary key of another table and is used to cross reference tables. This enforces data referential integrity by eliminating inconsistent records. Other information that can be added at this stage include constraints such as check constraints, other unique keys (apart from foreign and primary keys), and refinement of objects such as snapshots and indexes (Graham).

Works Cited:

Docstore.mik.ua,. 'Physical Database Design (Mysql & Msql)'. N.p., 2015. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
EasyPHP FAQs,. 'EasyPHP | Faq : Frequently Asked Questions About Easyphp, WAMP Parameters, Configuration Files, Windows, PHP, Apache, Mysql, Phpmyadmin And Modules.'. Easyphp.org. N.p., 2015. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
Graham, R. 'Logical Versus Physical Database Modeling - Developer.Com'. Developer.com. N.p., 2001. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
Kofler, Michael, and David Kramer. The Definitive Guide to Mysql 5. Berkeley, Calif.: Apress, 2005. Print.