Download MySQL v4.1

Download MySQL from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/4.1.html Just make sure you get a Windows Essentials (x86) binary version. (after you click the “pick a mirror,” if it asks you to login, scroll down a little and click the “No thanks, just take me to the downloads!” link under the login form)

My file was named: mysql-essential-4.1.22-win32.msi

Install MySQL v4.1

Run the MSI file and use the following settings

• Typical Setup
• Skip Sign-Up
• make sure “Configure the MySQL Server now” is checked
• “Detailed Configuration”
• “Developer Machine”
• “Multifunctional Database”
• “InnoDB Tablespace Settings” – leave everything default
• “Decision Support (DSS)/OLAP”
• make sure “Enable TCP/IP Networking” is checked and leave the port number at 3306 (at this point, if you have a firewall, it will usually try to access itself on the localhost)
• “Standard Character Set”
• check “Install As Windows Service”
• enter your root password and I would recommend leaving “Enable root access from remote machines” unchecked
• then hit “execute” and it’ll install and set it up.

Getting PHP5 to work with MySQL – Official Info

Unfortunately PHP5 removed built-in support for MySQL. To get it to work, the easiest way is to copy the mysql library file by hand. Open the folder you unzipped your PHP to. Copy the libmysql.dll file (should be located like E:\php\libmysql.dll ) into your Window’s System folder (usually C:\Windows\System32\ although might be C:\WinNT\System\ or something).

Then open up your php.ini in a text editor and search for ;extension=php_mysql.dll and remove the ; infont of that line.

Restart Apache and see if you get any errors. If it complains about “php_mysql.dll” either your extension directory isn’t correct or windows can’t find libmysql.dll

Testing MySQL

Testing MySQL is not exactly easy. However, here are the common connection strings for PHP and CGI. I recommend downloading phpMyAdmin and using it to create and manage your databases, etc.

PHP Connection test

<?php
// hostname or ip of server (for local testing, localhost should work)
$dbServer='localhost';

// username and password to log onto db server
$dbUser='root';
$dbPass='';

// name of database
$dbName='test';

    $link = mysql_connect("$dbServer", "$dbUser", "$dbPass") or die("Could not connect");
    print "Connected successfully<br>";
    mysql_select_db("$dbName") or die("Could not select database");
    print "Database selected successfully<br>";

// close connection
mysql_close($link);
?>

CGI Connection test (Must have DBI module installed)

#!/usr/bin/perl

print "Content-type: text/htmlnn";

# DBI is perl module used to connect to the database
use DBI;								 

# hostname or ip of server (for local testing, localhost should work)
$config{'dbServer'} = "localhost";

# username and password to log onto db server
$config{'dbUser'} = "root";
$config{'dbPass'} = "";			

# name of database
$config{'dbName'} = "test";			

# MySQL driver (shouldn't need to change)
$config{'dataSource'} = "DBI:mysql:$config{'dbName'}:$config{'dbServer'}";	

my $dbh = DBI->connect($config{'dataSource'},$config{'dbUser'},$config{'dbPass'}) or
die "Can't connect to $config{'dataSource'}<br>$DBI::errstr";
    print "Connected successfully<br>";
$dbh->disconnect();