Newbie PHP/MySQL Question

Report · Jul 13, 2007

Hi All.

After a lot of research I've decided on a PHP/MySQL solution for my
website's dynamic content. I have a general question: what, if any, types of
questions should I be running by my ISP? I've downloaded the recent versions
of both (PHP 5.2 and MySQL 5); should I be concerned about what versions of
both my ISP has? I'm also wondering about collation/character sets,
datatypes, storage engine, etc. I guess my concern is that there may be some
sort of compatibility issues.

thanks in advance for any thoughts.

--
steve.

Report · Jul 13, 2007

molsonexpert wrote:
> After a lot of research I've decided on a PHP/MySQL solution for my
> website's dynamic content.

Good choice.

> I've downloaded the recent versions
> of both (PHP 5.2 and MySQL 5); should I be concerned about what versions of
> both my ISP has?

Yes. See my post titled "Support for PHP 4 coming to an end -
implications for Dreamweaver". Most hosts still offer only PHP 4. You
should demand PHP 5 or a clear timetable for an upgrade. Ideally, your
host should also offer MySQL 5.0 or a minimum of 4.1.

> I'm also wondering about collation/character sets,
> datatypes, storage engine, etc.

The default is latin-swedish-ci, which is fine for English. The default
storage engine is MyISAM, which is also fine, but it has the
disadvantage that it doesn't support foreign key constraints. For that,
you need to use InnoDB, which is not support by most hosting companies.
It's not a major problem, because you can replicate foreign key
constraints with PHP conditional logic.

You might be interested in looking at my new book, The Essential Guide
to DW CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP, which comes out in 10 days' time. It
goes into these issues in much greater detail than I can in a forum post.

http://foundationphp.com/egdwcs3/

--
David Powers, Adobe Community Expert
Author, "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" (friends of ED)
Author, "PHP Solutions" (friends of ED)
http://foundationphp.com/

Report · Jul 13, 2007

Thanks for the reply, David. I had been thinking about this for a while,
and, yes, your other post is what prompted me to inquire. I've been playing
around with DW8, PHP and MySQL for about a month now, and am just now
starting to develop. I'm sure I'll be posting frequently as things progress.

thanks again.

--
steve.

"David Powers" <david@example.com> wrote in message
news:f782j1$7f0$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> molsonexpert wrote:
>> After a lot of research I've decided on a PHP/MySQL solution for my
>> website's dynamic content.
>
> Good choice.
>
>> I've downloaded the recent versions of both (PHP 5.2 and MySQL 5); should
>> I be concerned about what versions of both my ISP has?
>
> Yes. See my post titled "Support for PHP 4 coming to an end - implications
> for Dreamweaver". Most hosts still offer only PHP 4. You should demand PHP
> 5 or a clear timetable for an upgrade. Ideally, your host should also
> offer MySQL 5.0 or a minimum of 4.1.
>
>> I'm also wondering about collation/character sets, datatypes, storage
>> engine, etc.
>
> The default is latin-swedish-ci, which is fine for English. The default
> storage engine is MyISAM, which is also fine, but it has the disadvantage
> that it doesn't support foreign key constraints. For that, you need to use
> InnoDB, which is not support by most hosting companies. It's not a major
> problem, because you can replicate foreign key constraints with PHP
> conditional logic.
>
> You might be interested in looking at my new book, The Essential Guide to
> DW CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP, which comes out in 10 days' time. It goes
> into these issues in much greater detail than I can in a forum post.
>
> http://foundationphp.com/egdwcs3/
>
> --
> David Powers, Adobe Community Expert
> Author, "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" (friends of ED)
> Author, "PHP Solutions" (friends of ED)
> http://foundationphp.com/

Report · Jul 16, 2007

molsonexpert wrote:

> Hi All.
>
> After a lot of research I've decided on a PHP/MySQL solution for my
> website's dynamic content. I have a general question: what, if any, types of
> questions should I be running by my ISP? I've downloaded the recent versions
> of both (PHP 5.2 and MySQL 5); should I be concerned about what versions of
> both my ISP has?

Be concerned with the host's versions, not ISP. It's a good idea to
mirror your host's configuration on your local production server.
Mick

I'm also wondering about collation/character sets,
> datatypes, storage engine, etc. I guess my concern is that there may be some
> sort of compatibility issues.
>
> thanks in advance for any thoughts.
>

Report · Jul 16, 2007

Mick White wrote:
> It's a good idea to
> mirror your host's configuration on your local production server.

Not necessarily. Although mirroring the host's configuration locally is
a good way of making sure that your code will work on your remote
server, it makes it impossible to check that your code will still work
if and when the host upgrades the server.

One of the main reasons for the slow uptake of PHP 5 is what happened
when register_globals was switched off by default in 2002. Scripts
suddenly broke, and all hell broke loose. A lot of hosts are afraid of
the same thing happening with the switch to PHP 5. Testing your code on
a more up-to-date system can help future proof your site.

Having said that, it is important to be aware of any differences between
your local configuration and the one provided by the hosting company.
Checking the PHP online documentation is the best way of finding out
which versions of PHP support particular functions. All
Dreamweaver-generated PHP since DW MX 2004 works on both PHP 4 and PHP 5.

--
David Powers, Adobe Community Expert
Author, "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" (friends of ED)
Author, "PHP Solutions" (friends of ED)
http://foundationphp.com/

Report · Jul 16, 2007

Hi I am still using PHP 4 but am wanting to test my code on PHP 5 before asking my host to place PHP 5 for me. Would I need to ask them to change my mysql to 5 as well using PHP 5?
I know I would have to remove both PHP 4 and myslq 4 before placing PHP 5 and mysql 5 on my local machine.
Any suggestions as to the best installers for this, I currently use AppServ for my PHP 4 and apache.
I have googled and previously tried a few including WAMP before liking the AppServ.
Since then a lot has changed.

Report · Jul 16, 2007

jjjhbj111 wrote:
> Hi I am still using PHP 4 but am wanting to test my code on PHP 5 before asking
> my host to place PHP 5 for me. Would I need to ask them to change my mysql to 5
> as well using PHP 5?

No. They are completely separate programs. PHP 5 will work happily with
MySQL 3.23. However, MySQL has already abandoned all support for version
3.23:

http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/lifecycle/#calendar

As you can see from the lifecycle policy calendar, the only version of
MySQL that currently enjoys active support is version 5.0, although
extended support is still offered for versions 4.0 and 4.1.

Since the PHP development team has formally announced the end of life
for PHP 4, it really is time to give hosting companies a kick up the
backside to get them to offer support for current versions of both PHP
and MySQL. You might not need all the bells and whistles of the latest
versions. What you do need, though, is the security upgrades that they
incorporate.

> Any suggestions as to the best installers for this, I currently use AppServ
> for my PHP 4 and apache.

I use the individual programs supplied by php.net and mysql.com.

--
David Powers, Adobe Community Expert
Author, "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" (friends of ED)
Author, "PHP Solutions" (friends of ED)
http://foundationphp.com/

Report · Jul 17, 2007

So after finally contacting my hosting company (I incorrectly stated ISP
earlier) they're using PHP v4.3.10, with apparently no plans in the
immediate future to upgrade. Of a bigger concern to me now is that their
MySQL version is 3.23.58, while I've started to configure a v5 database.
This has some potential problems, no?

--
steve.

"David Powers" <david@example.com> wrote in message
news:f7gb3v$97r$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Mick White wrote:
>> It's a good idea to mirror your host's configuration on your local
>> production server.
>
> Not necessarily. Although mirroring the host's configuration locally is a
> good way of making sure that your code will work on your remote server, it
> makes it impossible to check that your code will still work if and when
> the host upgrades the server.
>
> One of the main reasons for the slow uptake of PHP 5 is what happened when
> register_globals was switched off by default in 2002. Scripts suddenly
> broke, and all hell broke loose. A lot of hosts are afraid of the same
> thing happening with the switch to PHP 5. Testing your code on a more
> up-to-date system can help future proof your site.
>
> Having said that, it is important to be aware of any differences between
> your local configuration and the one provided by the hosting company.
> Checking the PHP online documentation is the best way of finding out which
> versions of PHP support particular functions. All Dreamweaver-generated
> PHP since DW MX 2004 works on both PHP 4 and PHP 5.
>
> --
> David Powers, Adobe Community Expert
> Author, "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" (friends of ED)
> Author, "PHP Solutions" (friends of ED)
> http://foundationphp.com/

Report · Jul 17, 2007

molsonexpert wrote:
> So after finally contacting my hosting company (I incorrectly stated ISP
> earlier) they're using PHP v4.3.10, with apparently no plans in the
> immediate future to upgrade. Of a bigger concern to me now is that their
> MySQL version is 3.23.58, while I've started to configure a v5 database.
> This has some potential problems, no?

Quite honestly, you should tell your hosting company that if it doesn't
offer current, secure versions of the software that you require, you
will take your business elsewhere. The sooner paying customers start
demanding up-to-date versions, the better.

Even if the hosting company plans to stick with PHP 4 for the time
being, it should be offering PHP 4.4.7, which fixes important security
issues in PHP 4.3.

You can use phpMyAdmin to export the data from MySQL 5 in MySQL 3.23
compatible format. However, MySQL 3.23 lacks a lot of important
features, such as subqueries, views, stored procedures, etc. The danger
is that you might develop your web pages relying on unsupported
features, and only find out that they don't work once you upload to the
remote server.

--
David Powers, Adobe Community Expert
Author, "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" (friends of ED)
Author, "PHP Solutions" (friends of ED)
http://foundationphp.com/