Suppose you have a tight budget and do not know much about technology, but have a unique idea for a useful site full of elaborate content.
What is your next logical step? The answer is getting a low-cost web host such as iPage and explore the many user-friendly web tools provided.
Here are ways to efficiently store information on your site using MySQL database, which comes free with iPage.
What is MySQL?
MySQL (often pronounced “my sequel”) is an Oracle-owned relational database, allowing you to enter, store and utilize information in tables, columns, and rows. It is useful for creating a marketing list with various data about your customers.
Typical information stored in this type of database includes ID, name, address, phone number, and email addresses.
You can think of it as similar to a spreadsheet, except it is much more powerful since it can be used for web development. MySQL integrates with WordPress, Drupal, and other open source content management systems.
It is considered the standard database for websites.
Common Reasons for Using MySQL
As an example for the utilization of a database, Amazon stores, all of its product information in a database. Many popular sites with search engines, such as Wikipedia, Craigslist, and YouTube draw from databases in response to user queries.
The two primary reasons for using this technology are to organize website data and provide easy, quick access to data. Here are some of the top benefits of connecting MySQL to your website:
- Warehousing for terabytes of data.
- High-speed performance for specific applications.
- Scalability and flexibility for customization.
- Reliable 24/7 access to data.
- Organizing and indexing data protected by encryption.
- Backing up data and recovery strategies.
- Support for application development (PHP, Perl, Java, Visual Basic, .NET).
- The capability of quick application downloading .
- Performance monitoring tools.
- Saves time and costs.
While programmers need to learn SQL and a programming language, it is not necessary to know the code for storing information in MySQL. For example, you do not have to know how an engine works to drive a car.
For a more user-friendly graphical experience, you can use a free software tool called PhpMyAdmin, which is an intuitive interface that resembles a website instead of typing in statements.
How MySQL Makes Life Easier
Multi-use tables used for multiple purposes, not only allow you to use tables to store customer information, but you can use them to store information on products, vendors, and employees.
Each table denotes a particular type of information, which divides into columns and rows.
For instance, use employees as an example of a table, the first column reserved typically for employee ID numbers. The second column might be for the last name, the third column is the first name, and the fourth column would be contact information.
Rows called “records,” represent individual people. If the table is about inventory, then each record would be a separate product.
For the database to connect to the web securely, MySQL allows the administrator to set users, passwords, and privileges. If you are working with a team, you may only want certain members to access certain tables and not others.
Your web host, whether it is iPage or another platform, will provide you with the instructions on how to connect your website to the database. If you like, you can create multiple databases on the same server.
The left column of your admin web interface gives you simple configuration tools for tasks, such as backing up a database. An option is to import an entire existing database from your computer or wherever you have stored it.
You assign a unique name to your various databases, and you list them in the far left column of the admin interface.
Once you select a database, you will then see a list of tables in the left column. You can create as many tables as you want, whether it is for finances, records, web content, or any other type of information you want to store.
It is a great tool for archiving blogs, marketing campaigns, and future content. You can export tables to Excel spreadsheets.
Conclusion
MySQL offers essential database functions that anyone can handle. If you want to learn database programming, you will need to dedicate more time to learning a programming language.
Either way, it can help you organize your business more efficiently and bypass investing in expensive enterprise software. This solution is practical for keeping all valuable company data in one place.