Hi
I was learning to design sites with an ms access backend and an asp front end, but I’ve just got some new web space that will only accept MySQL db's.

My problem is I haven’t got a clue what MySQL is.
Is it a replacement for MS Access? Can it be used instead of MS Access?

I’ve seen a lot of people referring to SQL statements in queries, but can you build db’s with MySQL is this the same thing?

How would I go about getting started in MySQL if I decided to learn this? Is php easy to learn?


Any help in this matter is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Mike

Please come up with a better title for your thread (and others if you continue to post here).

You should check out the documents at:
http://mysql.com
to find out about mysql. It is a fully operational database software. Similar to but not as robust as Oracle and other high end systems.

If you want to learn mysql and php then you can check the web for tutorials on using them.

Here is a link to a series by Kevin Yank, who explains set-up and basic use of both:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/php...1-installation
check out the other three articles in the series on this index page:
http://www.sitepoint.com/subcat/php-tutorials

Hello,

MySQL and Access are both DBMSs (Database Management Systems), so they work "approximately" the same way... but there are some significant differences.

First of all, Access is not Client-Server, while MySQL is. That means that you don't have to use an ODBC Bridge to remotely connect to MySQL : the MySQL server runs and awaits client connections. This is the common way REAL DBMS work (Oracle, Sybase, SQL Server, MySQL...).

Then, you will notice that SQL is different in Access and in MySQL, especially concerning SQL functions. This is true for all DBMS : they all have different proprietary SQL syntax, "almost" ANSI 92 compliant.

Concerning Asp or Php, I think Asp can connect to a MySQL database, so you should be able to use your old pages, provided you change one or two SQL queries. However, I'm not sure, so you'd better check that. Anyway, Php is quite easy to learn if you already know Asp.

For more info, here is the MySQL Manual.

I hope it will help you.

Good luck !

Regards,

RBARAER