PHP, MySQL, & JavaScript All-in-One For Dummies

Chapter 3

Designing and Building a Database

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding how to design a database

Creating a database in MySQL

Building tables using different tools

In the preceding chapter, you learned your way around the MySQL server interface tools. The next step in the process of building a dynamic web application is to create a database and tables for the data required for your application.

In this chapter, I show you how to determine just what data is required for an application and how to divide it into tables to manage the data. Then I show you how to create databases using the popular MySQL server interface tools. Finally, I explain how to create the tables by using each of the tools, so that you can manage the data in your applications.

Managing Your Data

When you start out a new dynamic web application, your first decision, before you even start any coding, is how to handle the application data. Often you’re faced with a myriad of data elements you need to track, such as employee, customer, and product information for a store. The trick to successfully managing all that information is in how to sort it all out.

The process of structuring application data into tables ...