Where to start

I've posted this to some other forums, though one hasn't been answered
yet and the other - well not sure if it was the correct place to do so.

Here's my deal.

I'm looking at upgrading my current perl based shopping cart to a PHP
MySQL driven cart / database.

I've installed and configured PHP successfully. I habve no experience
with MySQL, I went to install MySQl (I'm running 5.4-RELEASE FreeBSD
5.4-RELEASE) I went into ports and see

mysql++/ mysql-navigator/ mysql40-client/
mysql50-client/ mysqlman/
mysql++1/ mysql2odbc/ mysql40-scripts/
mysql50-scripts/ mysqltcl/
mysql-administrator/ mysql2pgsql/ mysql40-server/
mysql50-server/ mytop/
mysql-connector-java/ mysql323-client/ mysql41-client/
mysql_last_value/
mysql-connector-odbc/ mysql323-scripts/ mysql41-scripts/
mysqlcc/
mysql-editor/ mysql323-server/ mysql41-server/
mysqlcppapi/

Does anyone know what is required?

Do I need server? Cleint? Both? Scripts? What is the typical
installation for MySQL?

Secondly - Are there any security risks I should be aware of with
permissions or stored locations of files/db's ?

I'm not a book reader, but I love online resources. Can anyone point me
to recommended sites that cover the basics through advanced MySQL -
With ample real-world examples?

Thanks,

Henry

Re: Where to start

custodian wrote:

> I'm looking at upgrading my current perl based shopping cart to a PHP
> MySQL driven cart / database.

Are you aware of existing solutions? Like this one:
http://www.zen-cart.com/modules/frontpage/

> I've installed and configured PHP successfully. I habve no experience
> with MySQL, I went to install MySQl (I'm running 5.4-RELEASE FreeBSD
> 5.4-RELEASE) I went into ports and see
>
> mysql++/ mysql-navigator/ mysql40-client/
> mysql50-client/ mysqlman/
> mysql++1/ mysql2odbc/ mysql40-scripts/
> mysql50-scripts/ mysqltcl/
> mysql-administrator/ mysql2pgsql/ mysql40-server/
> mysql50-server/ mytop/
> mysql-connector-java/ mysql323-client/ mysql41-client/
> mysql_last_value/
> mysql-connector-odbc/ mysql323-scripts/ mysql41-scripts/
> mysqlcc/
> mysql-editor/ mysql323-server/ mysql41-server/
> mysqlcppapi/
>
> Does anyone know what is required?

First deside what version of the server you wish to use. There seems to
be 3.23, 4.0, 4.1 and 5.0 available. I suggest 4.1 or 5.0, depending
which you prefer more. Stability or new features. (Not saying that 5.0
wouldn't be stable.)

You need at least the server package (this is the minimum) and I would
personally not work without the client package as command line
connection is most usefull when debugging problems.

I'm not sure how are you planning to connect PHP to MySQL, but if you
are running it as a module, you will need somekind of a php-mysql
module. And if you are running as a cgi, you will need to compile with
--with-mysql (or something like that) or install the cgi which has mysql
support build in it.

> Secondly - Are there any security risks I should be aware of with
> permissions or stored locations of files/db's ?

It depends how it is installed. I have no idea how it is done in your
system.

> I'm not a book reader, but I love online resources. Can anyone point me
> to recommended sites that cover the basics through advanced MySQL -
> With ample real-world examples?

Solutions to pretty much every problem asked in here can be found from
the manual:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/index.html

Re: Where to start

"custodian" wrote in message
news:1138049962.103353.230910@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com.. .
> I've installed and configured PHP successfully. I habve no experience
> with MySQL, I went to install MySQl (I'm running 5.4-RELEASE FreeBSD
> 5.4-RELEASE) I went into ports and see
.. . .

The FreeBSD ports directory does not contain full software packages. You'll
probably notice if you run "du -s mysql*" under ports that the contents of
each of these directories is surprisingly small. The directories contain
only the source diffs needed to get a given package to compile on FreeBSD.
Frequently these diffs are very minor.

> Does anyone know what is required?
>
> Do I need server? Cleint? Both? Scripts? What is the typical
> installation for MySQL?

It would be easiest to download precompiled binaries for FreeBSD here:
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html

Scroll down to "FreeBSD tar format downloads" and download the kit for
FreeBSD 5.x (x86). I'd recommend choosing the "Max" MySQL download. It
should have all you need.

Also note the general issue using PHP with MySQL 4.1 or later. Read the
note on PHP on this page:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/old-client.html

> Secondly - Are there any security risks I should be aware of with
> permissions or stored locations of files/db's ?

Any server software has security risks if managed improperly.
The question is too broad to answer here.
You should read this section of the manual and its subsections:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/security.html

> I'm not a book reader, but I love online resources. Can anyone point me
> to recommended sites that cover the basics through advanced MySQL -
> With ample real-world examples?

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/tutorial.html
This tutorial doesn't cover writing web applications, but just using SQL

You can also google for "mysql php tutorial" and find dozens of online
articles.

Regards,
Bill K.

Re: Where to start

Wow, thanks to both of you for the input. It's a little much to absorb.
I'm not new to unix at all, but very green to both php and My/SQL.

All this for a shoppingcart. My main issue was attempting to get away
from cgi-bin paths and other session indicators in the url to make
indexing from the search engines more apt.

I was so happy with my current perl cart :( Oh well, guess I'm off to
do some learning.

Henry

Re: Where to start

Aggro

I had looked into Zen and I like the idea of free (as most do) though
I'd like to be able to create a single db and set each individual
regisitered account as either retail or wholesale - this is the #1
reason for my switch from my current cart; which is only retail and has
not account features... you come, you buy, you can review your record
based on your email and that's it. I'd like to keep account settings
seperate, retain cust info for quicker return checkout, inventory (ie:
1 left) etc...

Please correct me if I am wrong, but from what I see Zen does not do
some of these and the screen shots are extremely small :)

Usually if I get a perl app that is close to this I could modify it to
accomidate me, though with no experience with php or sql, I'll need
something more complete until I can get a grasp on it and feel
comfortable to modifications, testing and reverting if need be.

Henry