Welcome to phpMyAdmin’s documentation!

Contents:

Introduction

phpMyAdmin can manage a whole MySQL server (needs a super-user) as well as a single database. To accomplish the latter you’ll need a properly set up MySQL user who can read/write only the desired database. It’s up to you to look up the appropriate part in the MySQL manual.

Supported features

Currently phpMyAdmin can:

  • browse and drop databases, tables, views, columns and indexes
  • display multiple results sets through stored procedures or queries
  • create, copy, drop, rename and alter databases, tables, columns and indexes
  • maintenance server, databases and tables, with proposals on server configuration
  • execute, edit and bookmark any SQL-statement, even batch-queries
  • load text files into tables
  • create [1] and read dumps of tables
  • export [1] data to various formats: CSV, XML, PDF, ISO/IEC 26300 - OpenDocument Text and Spreadsheet, Microsoft Word 2000, and LATEX formats
  • import data and MySQL structures from OpenDocument spreadsheets, as well as XML, CSV, and SQL files
  • administer multiple servers
  • manage MySQL users and privileges
  • check referential integrity in MyISAM tables
  • using Query-by-example (QBE), create complex queries automatically connecting required tables
  • create PDF graphics of your database layout
  • search globally in a database or a subset of it
  • transform stored data into any format using a set of predefined functions, like displaying BLOB-data as image or download-link
  • track changes on databases, tables and views
  • support InnoDB tables and foreign keys
  • support mysqli, the improved MySQL extension see 1.17 Which MySQL versions does phpMyAdmin support?
  • create, edit, call, export and drop stored procedures and functions
  • create, edit, export and drop events and triggers
  • communicate in 62 different languages

A word about users

Many people have difficulty understanding the concept of user management with regards to phpMyAdmin. When a user logs in to phpMyAdmin, that username and password are passed directly to MySQL. phpMyAdmin does no account management on its own (other than allowing one to manipulate the MySQL user account information); all users must be valid MySQL users.

Footnotes

[1](1, 2) phpMyAdmin can compress (Zip, GZip or RFC 1952 formats) dumps and CSV exports if you use PHP with Zlib support (--with-zlib). Proper support may also need changes in php.ini.

Requirements

Web server

Since, phpMyAdmin’s interface is based entirely in your browser, you’ll need a web server (such as Apache, IIS) to install phpMyAdmin’s files into.

PHP

  • You need PHP 5.3.0 or newer, with session support, the Standard PHP Library (SPL) extension, JSON support, and the mbstring extension.
  • To support uploading of ZIP files, you need the PHP zip extension.
  • You need GD2 support in PHP to display inline thumbnails of JPEGs (“image/jpeg: inline”) with their original aspect ratio.
  • When using the cookie authentication (the default), the mcrypt extension is strongly suggested.
  • To support upload progress bars, see 2.9 Seeing an upload progress bar.
  • To support XML and Open Document Spreadsheet importing, you need the libxml extension.
  • Performance suggestion: install the ctype extension.

Database

phpMyAdmin supports MySQL-compatible databases.

  • MySQL 5.5 or newer
  • MariaDB 5.5 or newer
  • Drizzle

Web browser

To access phpMyAdmin you need a web browser with cookies and javascript enabled.

Installation

phpMyAdmin does not apply any special security methods to the MySQL database server. It is still the system administrator’s job to grant permissions on the MySQL databases properly. phpMyAdmin’s Users page can be used for this.

Warning

Mac users should note that if you are on a version before Mac OS X, StuffIt unstuffs with Mac formats. So you’ll have to resave as in BBEdit to Unix style ALL phpMyAdmin scripts before uploading them to your server, as PHP seems not to like Mac-style end of lines character (“\r”).

Linux distributions

phpMyAdmin is included in most Linux distributions. It is recommended to use distribution packages when possible - they usually provide integration to your distribution and you will automatically get security updates from your distribution.

Debian

Debian’s package repositories include a phpMyAdmin package, but be aware that the configuration file is maintained in /etc/phpmyadmin and may differ in some ways from the official phpMyAdmin documentation.

OpenSUSE

OpenSUSE already comes with phpMyAdmin package, just install packages from the openSUSE Build Service.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu ships phpMyAdmin package, however if you want to use recent version, you can use packages from PPA for Michal Čihař.

Gentoo

Gentoo ships the phpMyAdmin package, both in a near stock configuration as well as in a webapp-config configuration. Use emerge dev-db/phpmyadmin to install.

Mandriva

Mandriva ships the phpMyAdmin package in their contrib branch and can be installed via the usual Control Center.

Fedora

Fedora ships the phpMyAdmin package, but be aware that the configuration file is maintained in /etc/phpMyAdmin/ and may differ in some ways from the official phpMyAdmin documentation.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux itself and thus derivatives like CentOS don’t ship phpMyAdmin, but the Fedora-driven repository Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) is doing so, if it’s enabled. But be aware that the configuration file is maintained in /etc/phpMyAdmin/ and may differ in some ways from the official phpMyAdmin documentation.

Installing on Windows

The easiest way to get phpMyAdmin on Windows is using third party products which include phpMyAdmin together with a database and web server such as XAMPP.

You can find more of such options at Wikipedia.

Quick Install

  1. Choose an appropriate distribution kit from the phpmyadmin.net Downloads page. Some kits contain only the English messages, others contain all languages. We’ll assume you chose a kit whose name looks like phpMyAdmin-x.x.x -all-languages.tar.gz.
  2. Untar or unzip the distribution (be sure to unzip the subdirectories): tar -xzvf phpMyAdmin_x.x.x-all-languages.tar.gz in your webserver’s document root. If you don’t have direct access to your document root, put the files in a directory on your local machine, and, after step 4, transfer the directory on your web server using, for example, ftp.
  3. Ensure that all the scripts have the appropriate owner (if PHP is running in safe mode, having some scripts with an owner different from the owner of other scripts will be a problem). See 4.2 What’s the preferred way of making phpMyAdmin secure against evil access? and 1.26 I just installed phpMyAdmin in my document root of IIS but I get the error “No input file specified” when trying to run phpMyAdmin. for suggestions.
  4. Now you must configure your installation. There are two methods that can be used. Traditionally, users have hand-edited a copy of config.inc.php, but now a wizard-style setup script is provided for those who prefer a graphical installation. Creating a config.inc.php is still a quick way to get started and needed for some advanced features.

Manually creating the file

To manually create the file, simply use your text editor to create the file config.inc.php (you can copy config.sample.inc.php to get a minimal configuration file) in the main (top-level) phpMyAdmin directory (the one that contains index.php). phpMyAdmin first loads libraries/config.default.php and then overrides those values with anything found in config.inc.php. If the default value is okay for a particular setting, there is no need to include it in config.inc.php. You’ll probably need only a few directives to get going; a simple configuration may look like this:

<?php
$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = 'ba17c1ec07d65003';  // use here a value of your choice

$i=0;
$i++;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']     = 'cookie';
?>

Or, if you prefer to not be prompted every time you log in:

<?php

$i=0;
$i++;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user']          = 'root';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password']      = 'cbb74bc'; // use here your password
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']     = 'config';
?>

For a full explanation of possible configuration values, see the Configuration of this document.

Using Setup script

Instead of manually editing config.inc.php, you can use phpMyAdmin’s setup feature. First you must manually create a folder config in the phpMyAdmin directory. This is a security measure. On a Linux/Unix system you can use the following commands:

cd phpMyAdmin
mkdir config                        # create directory for saving
chmod o+rw config                   # give it world writable permissions

And to edit an existing configuration, copy it over first:

cp config.inc.php config/           # copy current configuration for editing
chmod o+w config/config.inc.php     # give it world writable permissions

Note

Debian and Ubuntu have simplified this setup and all you need to do is to execute /usr/sbin/pma-configure.

On other platforms, simply create the folder and ensure that your web server has read and write access to it. 1.26 I just installed phpMyAdmin in my document root of IIS but I get the error “No input file specified” when trying to run phpMyAdmin. can help with this.

Next, open your browser and visit the location where you installed phpMyAdmin, with the /setup suffix. If you have an existing configuration, use the Load button to bring its content inside the setup panel. Note that changes are not saved to disk until you explicitly choose ``Save`` from the Configuration area of the screen. Normally the script saves the new config.inc.php to the config/ directory, but if the webserver does not have the proper permissions you may see the error “Cannot load or save configuration.” Ensure that the config/ directory exists and has the proper permissions - or use the Download link to save the config file locally and upload it (via FTP or some similar means) to the proper location.

Once the file has been saved, it must be moved out of the config/ directory and the permissions must be reset, again as a security measure:

mv config/config.inc.php .         # move file to current directory
chmod o-rw config.inc.php          # remove world read and write permissions
rm -rf config                      # remove not needed directory

Note

Debian and Ubuntu have simplified this setup and all you need to do is to execute /usr/sbin/pma-secure.

Now the file is ready to be used. You can choose to review or edit the file with your favorite editor, if you prefer to set some advanced options which the setup script does not provide.

  1. If you are using the auth_type “config”, it is suggested that you protect the phpMyAdmin installation directory because using config does not require a user to enter a password to access the phpMyAdmin installation. Use of an alternate authentication method is recommended, for example with HTTP–AUTH in a .htaccess file or switch to using auth_type cookie or http. See the ISPs, multi-user installations for additional information, especially 4.4 phpMyAdmin always gives “Access denied” when using HTTP authentication..
  2. Open the main phpMyAdmin directory in your browser. phpMyAdmin should now display a welcome screen and your databases, or a login dialog if using HTTP or cookie authentication mode.
  3. You should deny access to the ./libraries and ./setup/lib subfolders in your webserver configuration. Such configuration prevents from possible path exposure and cross side scripting vulnerabilities that might happen to be found in that code. For the Apache webserver, this is often accomplished with a .htaccess file in those directories.
  4. It is generally a good idea to protect a public phpMyAdmin installation against access by robots as they usually can not do anything good there. You can do this using robots.txt file in root of your webserver or limit access by web server configuration, see 1.42 How can I prevent robots from accessing phpMyAdmin?.

phpMyAdmin configuration storage

For a whole set of additional features (bookmarks, comments, SQL-history, tracking mechanism, PDF-generation, column contents transformation, etc.) you need to create a set of special tables. Those tables can be located in your own database, or in a central database for a multi-user installation (this database would then be accessed by the controluser, so no other user should have rights to it).

Zero configuration

In many cases, this database structure can be automatically created and configured. This is called “Zero Configuration” mode and can be particularly useful in shared hosting situations. “Zeroconf” mode is on by default, to disable set $cfg['ZeroConf'] to false.

The following three scenarios are covered by the Zero Configuration mode:

  • When entering a database where the configuration storage tables are not present, phpMyAdmin offers to create them from the Operations tab.
  • When entering a database where the tables do already exist, the software automatically detects this and begins using them. This is the most common situation; after the tables are initially created automatically they are continually used without disturbing the user; this is also most useful on shared hosting where the user is not able to edit config.inc.php and usually the user only has access to one database.
  • When having access to multiple databases, if the user first enters the database containing the configuration storage tables then switches to another database, phpMyAdmin continues to use the tables from the first database; the user is not prompted to create more tables in the new database.

Manual configuration

Please look at your ./sql/ directory, where you should find a file called create_tables.sql. (If you are using a Windows server, pay special attention to 1.23 I’m running MySQL on a Win32 machine. Each time I create a new table the table and column names are changed to lowercase!).

If you already had this infrastructure and:

  • upgraded to MySQL 4.1.2 or newer, please use sql/upgrade_tables_mysql_4_1_2+.sql.
  • upgraded to phpMyAdmin 4.3.0 or newer from 2.5.0 or newer (<= 4.2.x), please use sql/upgrade_column_info_4_3_0+.sql.

and then create new tables by importing sql/create_tables.sql.

You can use your phpMyAdmin to create the tables for you. Please be aware that you may need special (administrator) privileges to create the database and tables, and that the script may need some tuning, depending on the database name.

After having imported the sql/create_tables.sql file, you should specify the table names in your config.inc.php file. The directives used for that can be found in the Configuration.

You will also need to have a controluser ($cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser'] and $cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass'] settings) with the proper rights to those tables. For example you can create it using following statement:

GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON <pma_db>.* TO 'pma'@'localhost'  IDENTIFIED BY 'pmapass';

Upgrading from an older version

Never extract the new version over an existing installation of phpMyAdmin; we had evidence of problems caused by this.

Simply copy config.inc.php from your previous installation into the newly unpacked one. Configuration files from old versions may require some tweaking as some options have been changed or removed. For compatibility with PHP 5.3 and later, remove a set_magic_quotes_runtime(0); statement that you might find near the end of your configuration file.

You should not copy libraries/config.default.php over config.inc.php because the default configuration file is version- specific.

If you have upgraded your MySQL server from a version previous to 4.1.2 to version 5.x or newer and if you use the phpMyAdmin configuration storage, you should run the SQL script found in sql/upgrade_tables_mysql_4_1_2+.sql.

If you have upgraded your phpMyAdmin to 4.3.0 or newer from 2.5.0 or newer (<= 4.2.x) and if you use the phpMyAdmin configuration storage, you should run the SQL script found in sql/upgrade_column_info_4_3_0+.sql.

Using authentication modes

HTTP and cookie authentication modes are recommended in a multi-user environment where you want to give users access to their own database and don’t want them to play around with others. Nevertheless be aware that MS Internet Explorer seems to be really buggy about cookies, at least till version 6. Even in a single-user environment, you might prefer to use HTTP or cookie mode so that your user/password pair are not in clear in the configuration file.

HTTP and cookie authentication modes are more secure: the MySQL login information does not need to be set in the phpMyAdmin configuration file (except possibly for the $cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser']). However, keep in mind that the password travels in plain text, unless you are using the HTTPS protocol. In cookie mode, the password is stored, encrypted with the AES algorithm, in a temporary cookie.

Then each of the true users should be granted a set of privileges on a set of particular databases. Normally you shouldn’t give global privileges to an ordinary user, unless you understand the impact of those privileges (for example, you are creating a superuser). For example, to grant the user real_user with all privileges on the database user_base:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON user_base.* TO 'real_user'@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'real_password';

What the user may now do is controlled entirely by the MySQL user management system. With HTTP or cookie authentication mode, you don’t need to fill the user/password fields inside the $cfg['Servers'].

HTTP authentication mode

Signon authentication mode

The very basic example of saving credentials in a session is available as examples/signon.php:

<?php
/* vim: set expandtab sw=4 ts=4 sts=4: */
/**
 * Single signon for phpMyAdmin
 *
 * This is just example how to use session based single signon with
 * phpMyAdmin, it is not intended to be perfect code and look, only
 * shows how you can integrate this functionality in your application.
 *
 * @package    PhpMyAdmin
 * @subpackage Example
 */

/* Need to have cookie visible from parent directory */
session_set_cookie_params(0, '/', '', false);
/* Create signon session */
$session_name = 'SignonSession';
session_name($session_name);
// Uncomment and change the following line to match your $cfg['SessionSavePath']
//session_save_path('/foobar');
session_start();

/* Was data posted? */
if (isset($_POST['user'])) {
    /* Store there credentials */
    $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_user'] = $_POST['user'];
    $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_password'] = $_POST['password'];
    $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_host'] = $_POST['host'];
    $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_port'] = $_POST['port'];
    /* Update another field of server configuration */
    $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_cfgupdate'] = array('verbose' => 'Signon test');
    $id = session_id();
    /* Close that session */
    session_write_close();
    /* Redirect to phpMyAdmin (should use absolute URL here!) */
    header('Location: ../index.php');
} else {
    /* Show simple form */
    header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
    echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>' . "\n";
    ?>
    <!DOCTYPE HTML>
    <html lang="en" dir="ltr">
    <head>
    <link rel="icon" href="../favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
    <link rel="shortcut icon" href="../favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title>phpMyAdmin single signon example</title>
    </head>
    <body>
    <?php
    if (isset($_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_error_message'])) {
        echo '<p class="error">';
        echo $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_error_message'];
        echo '</p>';
    }
    ?>
    <form action="signon.php" method="post">
    Username: <input type="text" name="user" /><br />
    Password: <input type="password" name="password" /><br />
    Host: (will use the one from config.inc.php by default)
    <input type="text" name="host" /><br />
    Port: (will use the one from config.inc.php by default)
    <input type="text" name="port" /><br />
    <input type="submit" />
    </form>
    </body>
    </html>
    <?php
}
?>

Alternatively you can also use this way to integrate with OpenID as shown in examples/openid.php:

<?php
/* vim: set expandtab sw=4 ts=4 sts=4: */
/**
 * Single signon for phpMyAdmin using OpenID
 *
 * This is just example how to use single signon with phpMyAdmin, it is
 * not intended to be perfect code and look, only shows how you can
 * integrate this functionality in your application.
 *
 * It uses OpenID pear package, see http://pear.php.net/package/OpenID
 *
 * User first authenticates using OpenID and based on content of $AUTH_MAP
 * the login information is passed to phpMyAdmin in session data.
 *
 * @package    PhpMyAdmin
 * @subpackage Example
 */

if (false === @include_once 'OpenID/RelyingParty.php') {
    exit;
}

/**
 * Map of authenticated users to MySQL user/password pairs.
 */
$AUTH_MAP = array(
    'http://launchpad.net/~username' => array(
        'user' => 'root',
        'password' => '',
        ),
    );

/**
 * Simple function to show HTML page with given content.
 *
 * @param string $contents Content to include in page
 *
 * @return void
 */
function Show_page($contents)
{
    header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
    echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>' . "\n";
    ?>
    <!DOCTYPE HTML>
    <html lang="en" dir="ltr">
    <head>
    <link rel="icon" href="../favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
    <link rel="shortcut icon" href="../favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title>phpMyAdmin OpenID signon example</title>
    </head>
    <body>
    <?php
    if (isset($_SESSION) && isset($_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_error_message'])) {
        echo '<p class="error">' . $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_message'] . '</p>';
        unset($_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_message']);
    }
    echo $contents;
    ?>
    </body>
    </html>
    <?php
}

/* Need to have cookie visible from parent directory */
session_set_cookie_params(0, '/', '', false);
/* Create signon session */
$session_name = 'SignonSession';
session_name($session_name);
session_start();

// Determine realm and return_to
$base = 'http';
if (isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && $_SERVER['HTTPS'] == 'on') {
    $base .= 's';
}
$base .= '://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . ':' . $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'];

$realm = $base . '/';
$returnTo = $base . dirname($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']);
if ($returnTo[/*overload*/mb_strlen($returnTo) - 1] != '/') {
    $returnTo .= '/';
}
$returnTo .= 'openid.php';

/* Display form */
if (!count($_GET) && !count($_POST) || isset($_GET['phpMyAdmin'])) {
    /* Show simple form */
    $content = '<form action="openid.php" method="post">
OpenID: <input type="text" name="identifier" /><br />
<input type="submit" name="start" />
</form>
</body>
</html>';
    Show_page($content);
    exit;
}

/* Grab identifier */
if (isset($_POST['identifier'])) {
    $identifier = $_POST['identifier'];
} else if (isset($_SESSION['identifier'])) {
    $identifier = $_SESSION['identifier'];
} else {
    $identifier = null;
}

/* Create OpenID object */
try {
    $o = new OpenID_RelyingParty($returnTo, $realm, $identifier);
} catch (OpenID_Exception $e) {
    $contents = "<div class='relyingparty_results'>\n";
    $contents .= "<pre>" . $e->getMessage() . "</pre>\n";
    $contents .= "</div class='relyingparty_results'>";
    Show_page($contents);
    exit;
}

/* Redirect to OpenID provider */
if (isset($_POST['start'])) {
    try {
        $authRequest = $o->prepare();
    } catch (OpenID_Exception $e) {
        $contents = "<div class='relyingparty_results'>\n";
        $contents .= "<pre>" . $e->getMessage() . "</pre>\n";
        $contents .= "</div class='relyingparty_results'>";
        Show_page($contents);
        exit;
    }

    $url = $authRequest->getAuthorizeURL();

    header("Location: $url");
    exit;
} else {
    /* Grab query string */
    if (!count($_POST)) {
        list(, $queryString) = explode('?', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
    } else {
        // I hate php sometimes
        $queryString = file_get_contents('php://input');
    }

    /* Check reply */
    $message = new OpenID_Message($queryString, OpenID_Message::FORMAT_HTTP);

    $id = $message->get('openid.claimed_id');

    if (!empty($id) && isset($AUTH_MAP[$id])) {
        $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_user'] = $AUTH_MAP[$id]['user'];
        $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_password'] = $AUTH_MAP[$id]['password'];
        session_write_close();
        /* Redirect to phpMyAdmin (should use absolute URL here!) */
        header('Location: ../index.php');
    } else {
        Show_page('<p>User not allowed!</p>');
        exit;
    }
}

If you intend to pass the credentials using some other means than, you have to implement wrapper in PHP to get that data and set it to $cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonScript']. There is very minimal example in examples/signon-script.php:

<?php
/* vim: set expandtab sw=4 ts=4 sts=4: */
/**
 * Single signon for phpMyAdmin
 *
 * This is just example how to use script based single signon with
 * phpMyAdmin, it is not intended to be perfect code and look, only
 * shows how you can integrate this functionality in your application.
 *
 * @package    PhpMyAdmin
 * @subpackage Example
 */


/**
 * This function returns username and password.
 *
 * It can optionally use configured username as parameter.
 *
 * @param string $user User name
 *
 * @return array
 */
function get_login_credentials($user)
{
    /* Optionally we can use passed username */
    if (!empty($user)) {
        return array($user, 'password');
    }

    /* Here we would retrieve the credentials */
    $credentials = array('root', '');

    return $credentials;
}

?>

Config authentication mode

  • This mode is sometimes the less secure one because it requires you to fill the $cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] and $cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] fields (and as a result, anyone who can read your config.inc.php can discover your username and password).
  • In the ISPs, multi-user installations section, there is an entry explaining how to protect your configuration file.
  • For additional security in this mode, you may wish to consider the Host authentication $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['order'] and $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules'] configuration directives.
  • Unlike cookie and http, does not require a user to log in when first loading the phpMyAdmin site. This is by design but could allow any user to access your installation. Use of some restriction method is suggested, perhaps a .htaccess file with the HTTP-AUTH directive or disallowing incoming HTTP requests at one’s router or firewall will suffice (both of which are beyond the scope of this manual but easily searchable with Google).

Swekey authentication mode

The Swekey is a low cost authentication USB key that can be used in web applications. When Swekey authentication is activated, phpMyAdmin requires the users’s Swekey to be plugged before entering the login page (currently supported for cookie authentication mode only). Swekey Authentication is disabled by default. To enable it, add the following line to config.inc.php:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_swekey_config'] = '/etc/swekey.conf';

You then have to create the swekey.conf file that will associate each user with their Swekey Id. It is important to place this file outside of your web server’s document root (in the example, it is located in /etc). Feel free to use it with your own users’ information. If you want to purchase a Swekey please visit http://phpmyadmin.net/auth_key since this link provides funding for phpMyAdmin.

A self documented sample file is provided in the file examples/swekey.sample.conf:

# This is a typical file used to enable Swekey hardware authentication.
#
# To activate the Swekey authentication add the following line to your config.inc.php file.
#       $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_swekey_config'] = '/etc/swekey-pma.conf';
# Then rename this file "swekey-pma.conf" and copy it to the /etc directory.
# Add all the Swekey ids you want to grant access to in the file.
# After each Swekey id put the corresponding user name.
#
# If you don't know the id of a Swekey just visit http://www.swekey.com?sel=support
# while your Swekey is connected.
#
# If you need to purchase a Swekey please visit http://phpmyadmin.net/auth_key
# since this link provides funding to PhpMyAdmin.
#

0000000000000000000000000000763A:root
000000000000000000000000000089E4:steve
0000000000000000000000000000231E:scott

#
# It is recommended to include the following lines to contact the
# authentication servers in SSL mode.
#

SERVER_CHECK=https://auth-check-ssl.musbe.net
SERVER_RNDTOKEN=https://auth-rnd-gen-ssl.musbe.net
SERVER_STATUS=https://auth-status-ssl.musbe.net

#
# The path of the root certificate file used to ensure a secure
# communication with the authentication servers in SSL mode.
# If not specified, will use musbe-ca.crt found in your
# phpMyAdmin/libraries/auth/swekey.
#

#CA_FILE=/var/http-root/phpmyadmin/libraries/auth/swekey/musbe-ca.crt

#
# If your server receives many login requests, you can enable the random
# token caching to accelerate the authentication process.
# Token caching is enabled by default.
#

#ENABLE_TOKEN_CACHE=0

Securing your phpMyAdmin installation

The phpMyAdmin team tries hard to make the application secure, however there are always ways to make your installation more secure:

  • Remove the setup directory from phpMyAdmin, you will probably not use it after the initial setup.
  • Properly choose an authentication method - Cookie authentication mode is probably the best choice for shared hosting.
  • In case you don’t want all MySQL users to be able to access phpMyAdmin, you can use $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules'] to limit them.
  • Consider hiding phpMyAdmin behind an authentication proxy, so that users need to authenticate prior to providing MySQL credentials to phpMyAdmin.
  • If you are afraid of automated attacks, enabling Captcha by $cfg['CaptchaLoginPublicKey'] and $cfg['CaptchaLoginPrivateKey'] might be an option.

Configuration

Almost all configurable data is placed in config.inc.php. If this file does not exist, please refer to the Installation section to create one. This file only needs to contain the parameters you want to change from their corresponding default value in libraries/config.default.php.

If a directive is missing from your file, you can just add another line with the file. This file is for over-writing the defaults; if you wish to use the default value there’s no need to add a line here.

The parameters which relate to design (like colors) are placed in themes/themename/layout.inc.php. You might also want to create config.footer.inc.php and config.header.inc.php files to add your site specific code to be included on start and end of each page.

Note

Some distributions (eg. Debian or Ubuntu) store config.inc.php in /etc/phpmyadmin instead of within phpMyAdmin sources.

Warning

Mac users should note that if you are on a version before Mac OS X, PHP does not seem to like Mac end of lines character (\r). So ensure you choose the option that allows to use the *nix end of line character (\n) in your text editor before saving a script you have modified.

Basic settings

$cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri']
Type:string
Default value:''

Sets here the complete URL (with full path) to your phpMyAdmin installation’s directory. E.g. http://www.example.net/path_to_your_phpMyAdmin_directory/. Note also that the URL on most of web servers are case–sensitive. Don’t forget the trailing slash at the end.

Starting with version 2.3.0, it is advisable to try leaving this blank. In most cases phpMyAdmin automatically detects the proper setting. Users of port forwarding will need to set $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] (more info).

A good test is to browse a table, edit a row and save it. There should be an error message if phpMyAdmin is having trouble auto–detecting the correct value. If you get an error that this must be set or if the autodetect code fails to detect your path, please post a bug report on our bug tracker so we can improve the code.

$cfg['PmaNoRelation_DisableWarning']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Starting with version 2.3.0 phpMyAdmin offers a lot of features to work with master / foreign – tables (see $cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb']).

If you tried to set this up and it does not work for you, have a look on the Structure page of one database where you would like to use it. You will find a link that will analyze why those features have been disabled.

If you do not want to use those features set this variable to true to stop this message from appearing.

$cfg['SuhosinDisableWarning']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

A warning is displayed on the main page if Suhosin is detected.

You can set this parameter to true to stop this message from appearing.

$cfg['LoginCookieValidityDisableWarning']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

A warning is displayed on the main page if the PHP parameter session.gc_maxlifetime is lower than cookie validity configured in phpMyAdmin.

You can set this parameter to true to stop this message from appearing.

$cfg['ServerLibraryDifference_DisableWarning']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

A warning is displayed on the main page if there is a difference between the MySQL library and server version.

You can set this parameter to true to stop this message from appearing.

$cfg['ReservedWordDisableWarning']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

This warning is displayed on the Structure page of a table if one or more column names match with words which are MySQL reserved.

If you want to turn off this warning, you can set it to true and warning will no longer be displayed.

$cfg['TranslationWarningThreshold']
Type:integer
Default value:80

Show warning about incomplete translations on certain threshold.

$cfg['SendErrorReports']
Type:string
Default value:'ask'

Sets the default behavior for JavaScript error reporting.

Whenever an error is detected in the JavaScript execution, an error report may be sent to the phpMyAdmin team if the user agrees.

The default setting of 'ask' will ask the user everytime there is a new error report. However you can set this parameter to 'always' to send error reports without asking for confirmation or you can set it to 'never' to never send error reports.

This directive is available both in the configuration file and in users preferences. If the person in charge of a multi-user installation prefers to disable this feature for all users, a value of 'never' should be set, and the $cfg['UserprefsDisallow'] directive should contain 'SendErrorReports' in one of its array values.

$cfg['AllowThirdPartyFraming']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Setting this to true allows phpMyAdmin to be included inside a frame, and is a potential security hole allowing cross-frame scripting attacks or clickjacking.

Server connection settings

$cfg['Servers']
Type:array
Default value:one server array with settings listed bellow

Since version 1.4.2, phpMyAdmin supports the administration of multiple MySQL servers. Therefore, a $cfg['Servers']-array has been added which contains the login information for the different servers. The first $cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] contains the hostname of the first server, the second $cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] the hostname of the second server, etc. In libraries/config.default.php, there is only one section for server definition, however you can put as many as you need in config.inc.php, copy that block or needed parts (you don’t have to define all settings, just those you need to change).

Note

The $cfg['Servers'] array starts with $cfg[‘Servers’][1]. Do not use $cfg[‘Servers’][0]. If you want more than one server, just copy following section (including $i incrementation) serveral times. There is no need to define full server array, just define values you need to change.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host']
Type:string
Default value:'localhost'

The hostname or IP address of your $i-th MySQL-server. E.g. localhost.

Possible values are:

  • hostname, e.g., 'localhost' or 'mydb.example.org'
  • IP address, e.g., '127.0.0.1' or '192.168.10.1'
  • dot - '.', i.e., use named pipes on windows systems
  • empty - '', disables this server

Note

phpMyAdmin supports connecting to MySQL servers reachable via IPv6 only.
To connect to an IPv6 MySQL server, enter its IPv6 address in this field.
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['port']
Type:string
Default value:''

The port-number of your $i-th MySQL-server. Default is 3306 (leave blank).

Note

If you use localhost as the hostname, MySQL ignores this port number and connects with the socket, so if you want to connect to a port different from the default port, use 127.0.0.1 or the real hostname in $cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'].

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['socket']
Type:string
Default value:''

The path to the socket to use. Leave blank for default. To determine the correct socket, check your MySQL configuration or, using the mysql command–line client, issue the status command. Among the resulting information displayed will be the socket used.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['ssl']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Whether to enable SSL for the connection between phpMyAdmin and the MySQL server.

When using the 'mysql' extension, none of the remaining 'ssl...' configuration options apply.

We strongly recommend the 'mysqli' extension when using this option.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['ssl_key']
Type:string
Default value:NULL

Path to the key file when using SSL for connecting to the MySQL server.

For example:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['ssl_key'] = '/etc/mysql/server-key.pem';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['ssl_cert']
Type:string
Default value:NULL

Path to the cert file when using SSL for connecting to the MySQL server.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['ssl_ca']
Type:string
Default value:NULL

Path to the CA file when using SSL for connecting to the MySQL server.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['ssl_ca_path']
Type:string
Default value:NULL

Directory containing trusted SSL CA certificates in PEM format.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['ssl_ciphers']
Type:string
Default value:NULL

List of allowable ciphers for SSL connections to the MySQL server.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['connect_type']
Type:string
Default value:'tcp'

What type connection to use with the MySQL server. Your options are 'socket' and 'tcp'. It defaults to tcp as that is nearly guaranteed to be available on all MySQL servers, while sockets are not supported on some platforms. To use the socket mode, your MySQL server must be on the same machine as the Web server.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['compress']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Whether to use a compressed protocol for the MySQL server connection or not (experimental).

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlhost']
Type:string
Default value:''

Permits to use an alternate host to hold the configuration storage data.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlport']
Type:string
Default value:''

Permits to use an alternate port to connect to the host that holds the configuration storage.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser']
Type:string
Default value:''
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass']
Type:string
Default value:''

This special account is used for 2 distinct purposes: to make possible all relational features (see $cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb']).

Changed in version 2.2.5: those were called stduser and stdpass

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']
Type:string
Default value:'cookie'

Whether config or cookie or HTTP or signon authentication should be used for this server.

  • ‘config’ authentication ($auth_type = 'config') is the plain old way: username and password are stored in config.inc.php.
  • ‘cookie’ authentication mode ($auth_type = 'cookie') allows you to log in as any valid MySQL user with the help of cookies.
  • ‘http’ authentication allows you to log in as any valid MySQL user via HTTP-Auth.
  • ‘signon’ authentication mode ($auth_type = 'signon') allows you to log in from prepared PHP session data or using supplied PHP script.
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_http_realm']
Type:string
Default value:''

When using auth_type = http, this field allows to define a custom HTTP Basic Auth Realm which will be displayed to the user. If not explicitly specified in your configuration, a string combined of “phpMyAdmin ” and either $cfg['Servers'][$i]['verbose'] or $cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] will be used.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_swekey_config']
Type:string
Default value:''

The name of the file containing Swekey authentication mode ids and login names for hardware authentication. Leave empty to deactivate this feature.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user']
Type:string
Default value:'root'
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password']
Type:string
Default value:''

When using $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] set to ‘config’, this is the user/password-pair which phpMyAdmin will use to connect to the MySQL server. This user/password pair is not needed when HTTP or cookie authentication is used and should be empty.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['nopassword']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Allow attempt to log in without password when a login with password fails. This can be used together with http authentication, when authentication is done some other way and phpMyAdmin gets user name from auth and uses empty password for connecting to MySQL. Password login is still tried first, but as fallback, no password method is tried.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['only_db']
Type:string or array
Default value:''

If set to a (an array of) database name(s), only this (these) database(s) will be shown to the user. Since phpMyAdmin 2.2.1, this/these database(s) name(s) may contain MySQL wildcards characters (“_” and “%”): if you want to use literal instances of these characters, escape them (I.E. use 'my\_db' and not 'my_db').

This setting is an efficient way to lower the server load since the latter does not need to send MySQL requests to build the available database list. But it does not replace the privileges rules of the MySQL database server. If set, it just means only these databases will be displayed but not that all other databases can’t be used.

An example of using more that one database:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['only_db'] = array('db1', 'db2');

Changed in version 4.0.0: Previous versions permitted to specify the display order of the database names via this directive.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['hide_db']
Type:string
Default value:''

Regular expression for hiding some databases from unprivileged users. This only hides them from listing, but a user is still able to access them (using, for example, the SQL query area). To limit access, use the MySQL privilege system. For example, to hide all databases starting with the letter “a”, use

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['hide_db'] = '^a';

and to hide both “db1” and “db2” use

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['hide_db'] = '^(db1|db2)$';

More information on regular expressions can be found in the PCRE pattern syntax portion of the PHP reference manual.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['verbose']
Type:string
Default value:''

Only useful when using phpMyAdmin with multiple server entries. If set, this string will be displayed instead of the hostname in the pull-down menu on the main page. This can be useful if you want to show only certain databases on your system, for example. For HTTP auth, all non-US-ASCII characters will be stripped.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb']
Type:string
Default value:''

The name of the database containing the phpMyAdmin configuration storage.

See the phpMyAdmin configuration storage section in this document to see the benefits of this feature, and for a quick way of creating this database and the needed tables.

If you are the only user of this phpMyAdmin installation, you can use your current database to store those special tables; in this case, just put your current database name in $cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb']. For a multi-user installation, set this parameter to the name of your central database containing the phpMyAdmin configuration storage.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['bookmarktable']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 2.2.0 phpMyAdmin allows users to bookmark queries. This can be useful for queries you often run. To allow the usage of this functionality:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['relation']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 2.2.4 you can describe, in a special ‘relation’ table, which column is a key in another table (a foreign key). phpMyAdmin currently uses this to:

The keys can be numeric or character.

To allow the usage of this functionality:

  • set up $cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb'] and the phpMyAdmin configuration storage
  • put the relation table name in $cfg['Servers'][$i]['relation']
  • now as normal user open phpMyAdmin and for each one of your tables where you want to use this feature, click Structure/Relation view/ and choose foreign columns.

Note

In the current version, master_db must be the same as foreign_db. Those columns have been put in future development of the cross-db relations.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_info']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 2.3.0 you can describe, in a special ‘table_info’ table, which column is to be displayed as a tool-tip when moving the cursor over the corresponding key. This configuration variable will hold the name of this special table. To allow the usage of this functionality:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_coords']
Type:string
Default value:''
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pdf_pages']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 2.3.0 you can have phpMyAdmin create PDF pages showing the relations between your tables. Further, the designer interface permits visually managing the relations. To do this it needs two tables “pdf_pages” (storing information about the available PDF pages) and “table_coords” (storing coordinates where each table will be placed on a PDF schema output). You must be using the “relation” feature.

To allow the usage of this functionality:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['column_info']
Type:string
Default value:''

This part requires a content update! Since release 2.3.0 you can store comments to describe each column for each table. These will then be shown on the “printview”.

Starting with release 2.5.0, comments are consequently used on the table property pages and table browse view, showing up as tool-tips above the column name (properties page) or embedded within the header of table in browse view. They can also be shown in a table dump. Please see the relevant configuration directives later on.

Also new in release 2.5.0 is a MIME- transformation system which is also based on the following table structure. See Transformations for further information. To use the MIME- transformation system, your column_info table has to have the three new columns ‘mimetype’, ‘transformation’, ‘transformation_options’.

Starting with release 4.3.0, a new input-oriented transformation system has been introduced. Also, backward compatibility code used in the old transformations system was removed. As a result, an update to column_info table is necessary for previous transformations and the new input-oriented transformation system to work. phpMyAdmin will upgrade it automatically for you by analyzing your current column_info table structure. However, if something goes wrong with the auto-upgrade then you can use the SQL script found in ./sql/upgrade_column_info_4_3_0+.sql to upgrade it manually.

To allow the usage of this functionality:

  • set up $cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb'] and the phpMyAdmin configuration storage

  • put the table name in $cfg['Servers'][$i]['column_info'] (e.g. pma__column_info)

  • to update your PRE-2.5.0 Column_comments table use this: and remember that the Variable in config.inc.php has been renamed from $cfg['Servers'][$i]['column_comments'] to $cfg['Servers'][$i]['column_info']

    ALTER TABLE `pma__column_comments`
    ADD `mimetype` VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL,
    ADD `transformation` VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL,
    ADD `transformation_options` VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL;
    
  • to update your PRE-4.3.0 Column_info table manually use this ./sql/upgrade_column_info_4_3_0+.sql SQL script.

Note

For auto-upgrade functionality to work, your $cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser'] must have ALTER privilege on phpmyadmin database. See the MySQL documentation for GRANT on how to GRANT privileges to a user.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['history']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 2.5.0 you can store your SQL history, which means all queries you entered manually into the phpMyAdmin interface. If you don’t want to use a table-based history, you can use the JavaScript-based history.

Using that, all your history items are deleted when closing the window. Using $cfg['QueryHistoryMax'] you can specify an amount of history items you want to have on hold. On every login, this list gets cut to the maximum amount.

The query history is only available if JavaScript is enabled in your browser.

To allow the usage of this functionality:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['recent']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 3.5.0 you can show recently used tables in the navigation panel. It helps you to jump across table directly, without the need to select the database, and then select the table. Using $cfg['NumRecentTables'] you can configure the maximum number of recent tables shown. When you select a table from the list, it will jump to the page specified in $cfg['NavigationTreeDefaultTabTable'].

Without configuring the storage, you can still access the recently used tables, but it will disappear after you logout.

To allow the usage of this functionality persistently:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_uiprefs']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 3.5.0 phpMyAdmin can be configured to remember several things (sorted column $cfg['RememberSorting'], column order, and column visibility from a database table) for browsing tables. Without configuring the storage, these features still can be used, but the values will disappear after you logout.

To allow the usage of these functionality persistently:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['users']
Type:string
Default value:''
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['usergroups']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 4.1.0 you can create different user groups with menu items attached to them. Users can be assigned to these groups and the logged in user would only see menu items configured to the usergroup he is assigned to. To do this it needs two tables “usergroups” (storing allowed menu items for each user group) and “users” (storing users and their assignments to user groups).

To allow the usage of this functionality:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['navigationhiding']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 4.1.0 you can hide/show items in the navigation tree.

To allow the usage of this functionality:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['central_columns']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 4.3.0 you can have a central list of columns per database. You can add/remove columns to the list as per your requirement. These columns in the central list will be available to use while you create a new column for a table or create a table itself. You can select a column from central list while creating a new column, it will save you from writing the same column definition over again or from writing different names for similar column.

To allow the usage of this functionality:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['savedsearches']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 4.2.0 you can save and load query-by-example searches from the Database > Query panel.

To allow the usage of this functionality:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 3.3.x a tracking mechanism is available. It helps you to track every SQL command which is executed by phpMyAdmin. The mechanism supports logging of data manipulation and data definition statements. After enabling it you can create versions of tables.

The creation of a version has two effects:

  • phpMyAdmin saves a snapshot of the table, including structure and indexes.
  • phpMyAdmin logs all commands which change the structure and/or data of the table and links these commands with the version number.

Of course you can view the tracked changes. On the Tracking page a complete report is available for every version. For the report you can use filters, for example you can get a list of statements within a date range. When you want to filter usernames you can enter * for all names or you enter a list of names separated by ‘,’. In addition you can export the (filtered) report to a file or to a temporary database.

To allow the usage of this functionality:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking_version_auto_create']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Whether the tracking mechanism creates versions for tables and views automatically.

If this is set to true and you create a table or view with

  • CREATE TABLE ...
  • CREATE VIEW ...

and no version exists for it, the mechanism will create a version for you automatically.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking_default_statements']
Type:string
Default value:'CREATE TABLE,ALTER TABLE,DROP TABLE,RENAME TABLE,CREATE INDEX,DROP INDEX,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,TRUNCATE,REPLACE,CREATE VIEW,ALTER VIEW,DROP VIEW,CREATE DATABASE,ALTER DATABASE,DROP DATABASE'

Defines the list of statements the auto-creation uses for new versions.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking_add_drop_view']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Whether a DROP VIEW IF EXISTS statement will be added as first line to the log when creating a view.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking_add_drop_table']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Whether a DROP TABLE IF EXISTS statement will be added as first line to the log when creating a table.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking_add_drop_database']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Whether a DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS statement will be added as first line to the log when creating a database.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['userconfig']
Type:string
Default value:''

Since release 3.4.x phpMyAdmin allows users to set most preferences by themselves and store them in the database.

If you don’t allow for storing preferences in $cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb'], users can still personalize phpMyAdmin, but settings will be saved in browser’s local storage, or, it is is unavailable, until the end of session.

To allow the usage of this functionality:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['MaxTableUiprefs']
Type:integer
Default value:100

Maximum number of rows saved in $cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_uiprefs'] table.

When tables are dropped or renamed, $cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_uiprefs'] may contain invalid data (referring to tables which no longer exist). We only keep this number of newest rows in $cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_uiprefs'] and automatically delete older rows.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SessionTimeZone']
Type:string
Default value:''

Sets the time zone used by phpMyAdmin. Leave blank to use the time zone of your database server. Possible values are explained at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/time-zone-support.html

This is useful when your database server uses a time zone which is different from the time zone you want to use in phpMyAdmin.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowRoot']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Whether to allow root access. This is just a shortcut for the $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules'] below.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Whether to allow logins without a password. The default value of false for this parameter prevents unintended access to a MySQL server with was left with an empty password for root or on which an anonymous (blank) user is defined.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['order']
Type:string
Default value:''

If your rule order is empty, then IP authorization is disabled.

If your rule order is set to 'deny,allow' then the system applies all deny rules followed by allow rules. Access is allowed by default. Any client which does not match a Deny command or does match an Allow command will be allowed access to the server.

If your rule order is set to 'allow,deny' then the system applies all allow rules followed by deny rules. Access is denied by default. Any client which does not match an Allow directive or does match a Deny directive will be denied access to the server.

If your rule order is set to 'explicit', authorization is performed in a similar fashion to rule order ‘deny,allow’, with the added restriction that your host/username combination must be listed in the allow rules, and not listed in the deny rules. This is the most secure means of using Allow/Deny rules, and was available in Apache by specifying allow and deny rules without setting any order.

Please also see $cfg['TrustedProxies'] for detecting IP address behind proxies.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules']
Type:array of strings
Default value:array()

The general format for the rules is as such:

<'allow' | 'deny'> <username> [from] <ipmask>

If you wish to match all users, it is possible to use a '%' as a wildcard in the username field.

There are a few shortcuts you can use in the ipmask field as well (please note that those containing SERVER_ADDRESS might not be available on all webservers):

'all' -> 0.0.0.0/0
'localhost' -> 127.0.0.1/8
'localnetA' -> SERVER_ADDRESS/8
'localnetB' -> SERVER_ADDRESS/16
'localnetC' -> SERVER_ADDRESS/24

Having an empty rule list is equivalent to either using 'allow % from all' if your rule order is set to 'deny,allow' or 'deny % from all' if your rule order is set to 'allow,deny' or 'explicit'.

For the IP address matching system, the following work:

  • xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (an exact IP address)
  • xxx.xxx.xxx.[yyy-zzz] (an IP address range)
  • xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/nn (CIDR, Classless Inter-Domain Routing type IP addresses)

But the following does not work:

  • xxx.xxx.xxx.xx[yyy-zzz] (partial IP address range)

For IPv6 addresses, the following work:

  • xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx (an exact IPv6 address)
  • xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:[yyyy-zzzz] (an IPv6 address range)
  • xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx/nn (CIDR, Classless Inter-Domain Routing type IPv6 addresses)

But the following does not work:

  • xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xx[yyy-zzz] (partial IPv6 address range)
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['DisableIS']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Disable using INFORMATION_SCHEMA to retrieve information (use SHOW commands instead), because of speed issues when many databases are present. Currently used in some parts of the code, more to come.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonScript']
Type:string
Default value:''

Name of PHP script to be sourced and executed to obtain login credentials. This is alternative approach to session based single signon. The script has to provide a function called get_login_credentials which returns list of username and password, accepting single parameter of existing username (can be empty). See examples/signon-script.php for an example:

<?php
/* vim: set expandtab sw=4 ts=4 sts=4: */
/**
 * Single signon for phpMyAdmin
 *
 * This is just example how to use script based single signon with
 * phpMyAdmin, it is not intended to be perfect code and look, only
 * shows how you can integrate this functionality in your application.
 *
 * @package    PhpMyAdmin
 * @subpackage Example
 */


/**
 * This function returns username and password.
 *
 * It can optionally use configured username as parameter.
 *
 * @param string $user User name
 *
 * @return array
 */
function get_login_credentials($user)
{
    /* Optionally we can use passed username */
    if (!empty($user)) {
        return array($user, 'password');
    }

    /* Here we would retrieve the credentials */
    $credentials = array('root', '');

    return $credentials;
}

?>
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonSession']
Type:string
Default value:''

Name of session which will be used for signon authentication method. You should use something different than phpMyAdmin, because this is session which phpMyAdmin uses internally. Takes effect only if $cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonScript'] is not configured.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonURL']
Type:string
Default value:''

URL where user will be redirected to log in for signon authentication method. Should be absolute including protocol.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['LogoutURL']
Type:string
Default value:''

URL where user will be redirected after logout (doesn’t affect config authentication method). Should be absolute including protocol.

Generic settings

$cfg['ServerDefault']
Type:integer
Default value:1

If you have more than one server configured, you can set $cfg['ServerDefault'] to any one of them to autoconnect to that server when phpMyAdmin is started, or set it to 0 to be given a list of servers without logging in.

If you have only one server configured, $cfg['ServerDefault'] MUST be set to that server.

$cfg['VersionCheck']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Enables check for latest versions using javascript on main phpMyAdmin page.

Note

This setting can be adjusted by your vendor.

$cfg['ProxyUrl']
Type:string
Default value:“”

The url of the proxy to be used when phpmyadmin needs to access the outside internet such as when retrieving the latest version info or submitting error reports. You need this if the server where phpMyAdmin is installed does not have direct access to the internet. The format is: “hostname:portnumber”

$cfg['ProxyUser']
Type:string
Default value:“”

The username for authenticating with the proxy. By default, no authentication is performed. If a username is supplied, Basic Authentication will be performed. No other types of authentication are currently supported.

$cfg['ProxyPass']
Type:string
Default value:“”

The password for authenticating with the proxy.

$cfg['MaxDbList']
Type:integer
Default value:100

The maximum number of database names to be displayed in the main panel’s database list.

$cfg['MaxTableList']
Type:integer
Default value:250

The maximum number of table names to be displayed in the main panel’s list (except on the Export page). This limit is also enforced in the navigation panel when in Light mode.

$cfg['ShowHint']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Whether or not to show hints (for example, hints when hovering over table headers).

$cfg['MaxCharactersInDisplayedSQL']
Type:integer
Default value:1000

The maximum number of characters when a SQL query is displayed. The default limit of 1000 should be correct to avoid the display of tons of hexadecimal codes that represent BLOBs, but some users have real SQL queries that are longer than 1000 characters. Also, if a query’s length exceeds this limit, this query is not saved in the history.

$cfg['PersistentConnections']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Whether persistent connections should be used or not. Works with following extensions:

$cfg['ForceSSL']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Whether to force using https while accessing phpMyAdmin.

Note

In some setups (like separate SSL proxy or load balancer) you might have to set $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] for correct redirection.

$cfg['ExecTimeLimit']
Type:integer [number of seconds]
Default value:300

Set the number of seconds a script is allowed to run. If seconds is set to zero, no time limit is imposed. This setting is used while importing/exporting dump files but has no effect when PHP is running in safe mode.

$cfg['SessionSavePath']
Type:string
Default value:''

Path for storing session data (session_save_path PHP parameter).

$cfg['MemoryLimit']
Type:string [number of bytes]
Default value:'-1'

Set the number of bytes a script is allowed to allocate. If set to '-1', no limit is imposed.

This setting is used while importing/exporting dump files and at some other places in phpMyAdmin so you definitely don’t want to put here a too low value. It has no effect when PHP is running in safe mode.

You can also use any string as in php.ini, eg. ‘16M’. Ensure you don’t omit the suffix (16 means 16 bytes!)

$cfg['SkipLockedTables']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Mark used tables and make it possible to show databases with locked tables (since MySQL 3.23.30).

$cfg['ShowSQL']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Defines whether SQL queries generated by phpMyAdmin should be displayed or not.

$cfg['RetainQueryBox']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Defines whether the SQL query box should be kept displayed after its submission.

$cfg['CodemirrorEnable']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Defines whether to use a Javascript code editor for SQL query boxes. CodeMirror provides syntax highlighting and line numbers. However, middle-clicking for pasting the clipboard contents in some Linux distributions (such as Ubuntu) is not supported by all browsers.

$cfg['AllowUserDropDatabase']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Defines whether normal users (non-administrator) are allowed to delete their own database or not. If set as false, the link Drop Database will not be shown, and even a DROP DATABASE mydatabase will be rejected. Quite practical for ISP ‘s with many customers.

Note

This limitation of SQL queries is not as strict as when using MySQL privileges. This is due to nature of SQL queries which might be quite complicated. So this choice should be viewed as help to avoid accidental dropping rather than strict privilege limitation.

$cfg['Confirm']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Whether a warning (“Are your really sure...”) should be displayed when you’re about to lose data.

$cfg['UseDbSearch']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Define whether the “search string inside database” is enabled or not.

$cfg['IgnoreMultiSubmitErrors']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Define whether phpMyAdmin will continue executing a multi-query statement if one of the queries fails. Default is to abort execution.

Main panel

$cfg['ShowStats']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Defines whether or not to display space usage and statistics about databases and tables. Note that statistics requires at least MySQL 3.23.3 and that, at this date, MySQL doesn’t return such information for Berkeley DB tables.

$cfg['ShowServerInfo']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Defines whether to display detailed server information on main page. You can additionally hide more information by using $cfg['Servers'][$i]['verbose'].

$cfg['ShowPhpInfo']
Type:boolean
Default value:false
$cfg['ShowChgPassword']
Type:boolean
Default value:true
$cfg['ShowCreateDb']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Defines whether to display the PHP information and Change password links and form for creating database or not at the starting main (right) frame. This setting does not check MySQL commands entered directly.

Please note that to block the usage of phpinfo() in scripts, you have to put this in your php.ini:

disable_functions = phpinfo()

Also note that enabling the Change password link has no effect with config authentication mode: because of the hard coded password value in the configuration file, end users can’t be allowed to change their passwords.

Database structure

$cfg['ShowDbStructureCreation']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Defines whether the database structure page (tables list) has a “Creation” column that displays when each table was created.

$cfg['ShowDbStructureLastUpdate']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Defines whether the database structure page (tables list) has a “Last update” column that displays when each table was last updated.

$cfg['ShowDbStructureLastCheck']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Defines whether the database structure page (tables list) has a “Last check” column that displays when each table was last checked.

$cfg['HideStructureActions']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Defines whether the table structure actions are hidden under a “More” drop-down.

Browse mode

$cfg['TableNavigationLinksMode']
Type:string
Default value:'icons'

Defines whether the table navigation links contain 'icons', 'text' or 'both'.

$cfg['ActionLinksMode']
Type:string
Default value:'both'

If set to icons, will display icons instead of text for db and table properties links (like Browse, Select, Insert, ...). Can be set to 'both' if you want icons AND text. When set to text, will only show text.

$cfg['ShowAll']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Defines whether a user should be displayed a “Show all” button in browse mode or not in all cases. By default it is shown only on small tables (less than 500 rows) to avoid performance issues while getting too many rows.

$cfg['MaxRows']
Type:integer
Default value:25

Number of rows displayed when browsing a result set and no LIMIT clause is used. If the result set contains more rows, “Previous” and “Next” links will be shown. Possible values: 25,50,100,250,500.

$cfg['Order']
Type:string
Default value:'SMART'

Defines whether columns are displayed in ascending (ASC) order, in descending (DESC) order or in a “smart” (SMART) order - I.E. descending order for columns of type TIME, DATE, DATETIME and TIMESTAMP, ascending order else- by default.

$cfg['GridEditing']
Type:string
Default value:'double-click'

Defines which action (double-click or click) triggers grid editing. Can be deactivated with the disabled value.

$cfg['RelationalDisplay']
Type:string
Default value:'K'

Defines the initial behavior for Options > Relational. K, which is the default, displays the key while D shows the display column.

$cfg['SaveCellsAtOnce']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Defines whether or not to save all edited cells at once for grid editing.

Editing mode

$cfg['ProtectBinary']
Type:boolean or string
Default value:'blob'

Defines whether BLOB or BINARY columns are protected from editing when browsing a table’s content. Valid values are:

  • false to allow editing of all columns;
  • 'blob' to allow editing of all columns except BLOBS;
  • 'noblob' to disallow editing of all columns except BLOBS (the opposite of 'blob');
  • 'all' to disallow editing of all BINARY or BLOB columns.
$cfg['ShowFunctionFields']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Defines whether or not MySQL functions fields should be initially displayed in edit/insert mode. Since version 2.10, the user can toggle this setting from the interface.

$cfg['ShowFieldTypesInDataEditView']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Defines whether or not type fields should be initially displayed in edit/insert mode. The user can toggle this setting from the interface.

$cfg['InsertRows']
Type:integer
Default value:2

Defines the maximum number of concurrent entries for the Insert page.

$cfg['ForeignKeyMaxLimit']
Type:integer
Default value:100

If there are fewer items than this in the set of foreign keys, then a drop-down box of foreign keys is presented, in the style described by the $cfg['ForeignKeyDropdownOrder'] setting.

$cfg['ForeignKeyDropdownOrder']
Type:array
Default value:array(‘content-id’, ‘id-content’)

For the foreign key drop-down fields, there are several methods of display, offering both the key and value data. The contents of the array should be one or both of the following strings: content-id, id-content.

Export and import settings

$cfg['ZipDump']
Type:boolean
Default value:true
$cfg['GZipDump']
Type:boolean
Default value:true
$cfg['BZipDump']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Defines whether to allow the use of zip/GZip/BZip2 compression when creating a dump file

$cfg['CompressOnFly']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Defines whether to allow on the fly compression for GZip/BZip2 compressed exports. This doesn’t affect smaller dumps and allows users to create larger dumps that won’t otherwise fit in memory due to php memory limit. Produced files contain more GZip/BZip2 headers, but all normal programs handle this correctly.

$cfg['Export']
Type:array
Default value:array(...)

In this array are defined default parameters for export, names of items are similar to texts seen on export page, so you can easily identify what they mean.

$cfg['Export']['method']
Type:string
Default value:'quick'

Defines how the export form is displayed when it loads. Valid values are:

  • quick to display the minimum number of options to configure
  • custom to display every available option to configure
  • custom-no-form same as custom but does not display the option of using quick export
$cfg['Import']
Type:array
Default value:array(...)

In this array are defined default parameters for import, names of items are similar to texts seen on import page, so you can easily identify what they mean.

Tabs display settings

$cfg['TabsMode']
Type:string
Default value:'both'

Defines whether the menu tabs contain 'icons', 'text' or 'both'.

$cfg['PropertiesNumColumns']
Type:integer
Default value:1

How many columns will be utilized to display the tables on the database property view? When setting this to a value larger than 1, the type of the database will be omitted for more display space.

$cfg['DefaultTabServer']
Type:string
Default value:'index.php'

Defines the tab displayed by default on server view. Possible values:

  • main.php (recommended for multi-user setups)
  • server_databases.php,
  • server_status.php
  • server_variables.php
  • server_privileges.php
$cfg['DefaultTabDatabase']
Type:string
Default value:'db_structure.php'

Defines the tab displayed by default on database view. Possible values:

  • db_structure.php
  • db_sql.php
  • db_search.php.
$cfg['DefaultTabTable']
Type:string
Default value:'sql.php'

Defines the tab displayed by default on table view. Possible values:

  • tbl_structure.php
  • tbl_sql.php
  • tbl_select.php
  • tbl_change.php
  • sql.php

PDF Options

$cfg['PDFPageSizes']
Type:array
Default value:array('A3', 'A4', 'A5', 'letter', 'legal')

Array of possible paper sizes for creating PDF pages.

You should never need to change this.

$cfg['PDFDefaultPageSize']
Type:string
Default value:'A4'

Default page size to use when creating PDF pages. Valid values are any listed in $cfg['PDFPageSizes'].

Languages

$cfg['DefaultLang']
Type:string
Default value:'en'

Defines the default language to use, if not browser-defined or user- defined. The corresponding language file needs to be in locale/code/LC_MESSAGES/phpmyadmin.mo.

$cfg['DefaultConnectionCollation']
Type:string
Default value:'utf8_general_ci'

Defines the default connection collation to use, if not user-defined. See the MySQL documentation for charsets for list of possible values. This setting is ignored when connected to Drizzle server.

$cfg['Lang']
Type:string
Default value:not set

Force language to use. The corresponding language file needs to be in locale/code/LC_MESSAGES/phpmyadmin.mo.

$cfg['FilterLanguages']
Type:string
Default value:''

Limit list of available languages to those matching the given regular expression. For example if you want only Czech and English, you should set filter to '^(cs|en)'.

$cfg['RecodingEngine']
Type:string
Default value:'auto'

You can select here which functions will be used for character set conversion. Possible values are:

  • auto - automatically use available one (first is tested iconv, then recode)
  • iconv - use iconv or libiconv functions
  • recode - use recode_string function
  • mb - use mbstring extension
  • none - disable encoding conversion

Enabled charset conversion activates a pull-down menu in the Export and Import pages, to choose the character set when exporting a file. The default value in this menu comes from $cfg['Export']['charset'] and $cfg['Import']['charset'].

$cfg['IconvExtraParams']
Type:string
Default value:'//TRANSLIT'

Specify some parameters for iconv used in charset conversion. See iconv documentation for details. By default //TRANSLIT is used, so that invalid characters will be transliterated.

$cfg['AvailableCharsets']
Type:array
Default value:array(...)

Available character sets for MySQL conversion. You can add your own (any of supported by recode/iconv) or remove these which you don’t use. Character sets will be shown in same order as here listed, so if you frequently use some of these move them to the top.

Web server settings

$cfg['OBGzip']
Type:string/boolean
Default value:'auto'

Defines whether to use GZip output buffering for increased speed in HTTP transfers. Set to true/false for enabling/disabling. When set to ‘auto’ (string), phpMyAdmin tries to enable output buffering and will automatically disable it if your browser has some problems with buffering. IE6 with a certain patch is known to cause data corruption when having enabled buffering.

$cfg['TrustedProxies']
Type:array
Default value:array()

Lists proxies and HTTP headers which are trusted for $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['order']. This list is by default empty, you need to fill in some trusted proxy servers if you want to use rules for IP addresses behind proxy.

The following example specifies that phpMyAdmin should trust a HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR (X -Forwarded-For) header coming from the proxy 1.2.3.4:

$cfg['TrustedProxies'] = array('1.2.3.4' => 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR');

The $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules'] directive uses the client’s IP address as usual.

$cfg['GD2Available']
Type:string
Default value:'auto'

Specifies whether GD >= 2 is available. If yes it can be used for MIME transformations. Possible values are:

  • auto - automatically detect
  • yes - GD 2 functions can be used
  • no - GD 2 function cannot be used
$cfg['CheckConfigurationPermissions']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

We normally check the permissions on the configuration file to ensure it’s not world writable. However, phpMyAdmin could be installed on a NTFS filesystem mounted on a non-Windows server, in which case the permissions seems wrong but in fact cannot be detected. In this case a sysadmin would set this parameter to false.

$cfg['LinkLengthLimit']
Type:integer
Default value:1000

Limit for length of URL in links. When length would be above this limit, it is replaced by form with button. This is required as some web servers (IIS) have problems with long URL .

$cfg['CSPAllow']
Type:string
Default value:''

Additional string to include in allowed script and image sources in Content Security Policy header.

This can be useful when you want to include some external javascript files in config.footer.inc.php or config.header.inc.php, which would be normally not allowed by Content Security Policy.

To allow some sites, just list them within the string:

$cfg['CSPAllow'] = 'example.com example.net';

New in version 4.0.4.

$cfg['DisableMultiTableMaintenance']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

In the database Structure page, it’s possible to mark some tables then choose an operation like optimizing for many tables. This can slow down a server; therefore, setting this to true prevents this kind of multiple maintenance operation.

Theme settings

$cfg['NaviWidth']
Type:integer
Default value:

Navigation panel width in pixels. See themes/themename/layout.inc.php.

$cfg['NaviBackground']
Type:string [CSS color for background]
Default value:
$cfg['MainBackground']
Type:string [CSS color for background]
Default value:

The background styles used for both the frames. See themes/themename/layout.inc.php.

$cfg['NaviPointerBackground']
Type:string [CSS color for background]
Default value:
$cfg['NaviPointerColor']
Type:string [CSS color]
Default value:

The style used for the pointer in the navigation panel. See themes/themename/layout.inc.php.

$cfg['Border']
Type:integer
Default value:

The size of a table’s border. See themes/themename/layout.inc.php.

$cfg['ThBackground']
Type:string [CSS color for background]
Default value:
$cfg['ThColor']
Type:string [CSS color]
Default value:

The style used for table headers. See themes/themename/layout.inc.php.

$cfg['BgOne']
Type:string [CSS color]
Default value:

The color (HTML) #1 for table rows. See themes/themename/layout.inc.php.

$cfg['BgTwo']
Type:string [CSS color]
Default value:

The color (HTML) #2 for table rows. See themes/themename/layout.inc.php.

$cfg['BrowsePointerBackground']
Type:string [CSS color]
Default value:
$cfg['BrowsePointerColor']
Type:string [CSS color]
Default value:
$cfg['BrowseMarkerBackground']
Type:string [CSS color]
Default value:
$cfg['BrowseMarkerColor']
Type:string [CSS color]
Default value:

The colors (HTML) uses for the pointer and the marker in browse mode. The former feature highlights the row over which your mouse is passing and the latter lets you visually mark/unmark rows by clicking on the corresponding checkbox. Highlighting / marking a column is done by hovering over / clicking the column’s header (outside of the text). See themes/themename/layout.inc.php.

$cfg['FontFamily']
Type:string
Default value:

You put here a valid CSS font family value, for example arial, sans- serif. See themes/themename/layout.inc.php.

$cfg['FontFamilyFixed']
Type:string
Default value:

You put here a valid CSS font family value, for example monospace. This one is used in textarea. See themes/themename/layout.inc.php.

Design customization

$cfg['NavigationTreePointerEnable']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

A value of true activates the navi pointer.

$cfg['BrowsePointerEnable']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Whether to activate the browse pointer or not.

$cfg['BrowseMarkerEnable']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Whether to activate the browse marker or not.

$cfg['LimitChars']
Type:integer
Default value:50

Maximum number of characters shown in any non-numeric field on browse view. Can be turned off by a toggle button on the browse page.

Type:string
Default value:'left'

Defines the place where table row links (Edit, Copy, Delete) would be put when tables contents are displayed (you may have them displayed at the left side, right side, both sides or nowhere).

$cfg['RememberSorting']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

If enabled, remember the sorting of each table when browsing them.

$cfg['TablePrimaryKeyOrder']
Type:string
Default value:'NONE'

This defines the default sort order for the tables, having a primary key, when there is no sort order defines externally. Acceptable values : [‘NONE’, ‘ASC’, ‘DESC’]

$cfg['ShowBrowseComments']
Type:boolean
Default value:true
$cfg['ShowPropertyComments']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

By setting the corresponding variable to true you can enable the display of column comments in Browse or Property display. In browse mode, the comments are shown inside the header. In property mode, comments are displayed using a CSS-formatted dashed-line below the name of the column. The comment is shown as a tool-tip for that column.

Text fields

$cfg['CharEditing']
Type:string
Default value:'input'

Defines which type of editing controls should be used for CHAR and VARCHAR columns. Applies to data editing and also to the default values in structure editing. Possible values are:

  • input - this allows to limit size of text to size of columns in MySQL, but has problems with newlines in columns
  • textarea - no problems with newlines in columns, but also no length limitations
$cfg['MinSizeForInputField']
Type:integer
Default value:4

Defines the minimum size for input fields generated for CHAR and VARCHAR columns.

$cfg['MaxSizeForInputField']
Type:integer
Default value:60

Defines the maximum size for input fields generated for CHAR and VARCHAR columns.

$cfg['TextareaCols']
Type:integer
Default value:40
$cfg['TextareaRows']
Type:integer
Default value:15
$cfg['CharTextareaCols']
Type:integer
Default value:40
$cfg['CharTextareaRows']
Type:integer
Default value:2

Number of columns and rows for the textareas. This value will be emphasized (*2) for SQL query textareas and (*1.25) for SQL textareas inside the query window.

The Char* values are used for CHAR and VARCHAR editing (if configured via $cfg['CharEditing']).

$cfg['LongtextDoubleTextarea']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Defines whether textarea for LONGTEXT columns should have double size.

$cfg['TextareaAutoSelect']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Defines if the whole textarea of the query box will be selected on click.

SQL query box settings

$cfg['SQLQuery']['Edit']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Whether to display an edit link to change a query in any SQL Query box.

$cfg['SQLQuery']['Explain']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Whether to display a link to explain a SELECT query in any SQL Query box.

$cfg['SQLQuery']['ShowAsPHP']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Whether to display a link to wrap a query in PHP code in any SQL Query box.

$cfg['SQLQuery']['Refresh']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Whether to display a link to refresh a query in any SQL Query box.

Web server upload/save/import directories

$cfg['UploadDir']
Type:string
Default value:''

The name of the directory where SQL files have been uploaded by other means than phpMyAdmin (for example, ftp). Those files are available under a drop-down box when you click the database or table name, then the Import tab.

If you want different directory for each user, %u will be replaced with username.

Please note that the file names must have the suffix ”.sql” (or ”.sql.bz2” or ”.sql.gz” if support for compressed formats is enabled).

This feature is useful when your file is too big to be uploaded via HTTP, or when file uploads are disabled in PHP.

Note

If PHP is running in safe mode, this directory must be owned by the same user as the owner of the phpMyAdmin scripts. See also 1.16 I cannot upload big dump files (memory, HTTP or timeout problems). for alternatives.

$cfg['SaveDir']
Type:string
Default value:''

The name of the directory where dumps can be saved.

If you want different directory for each user, %u will be replaced with username.

Please note that the directory must exist and has to be writable for the user running webserver.

Note

If PHP is running in safe mode, this directory must be owned by the same user as the owner of the phpMyAdmin scripts.

$cfg['TempDir']
Type:string
Default value:''

The name of the directory where temporary files can be stored.

This is needed for importing ESRI Shapefiles, see 6.30 Import: How can I import ESRI Shapefiles? and to work around limitations of open_basedir for uploaded files, see 1.11 I get an ‘open_basedir restriction’ while uploading a file from the query box..

If the directory where phpMyAdmin is installed is subject to an open_basedir restriction, you need to create a temporary directory in some directory accessible by the web server. However for security reasons, this directory should be outside the tree published by webserver. If you cannot avoid having this directory published by webserver, place at least an empty index.html file there, so that directory listing is not possible.

This directory should have as strict permissions as possible as the only user required to access this directory is the one who runs the webserver. If you have root privileges, simply make this user owner of this directory and make it accessible only by it:

chown www-data:www-data tmp
chmod 700 tmp

If you cannot change owner of the directory, you can achieve a similar setup using ACL:

chmod 700 tmp
setfacl -m "g:www-data:rwx" tmp
setfacl -d -m "g:www-data:rwx" tmp

If neither of above works for you, you can still make the directory chmod 777, but it might impose risk of other users on system reading and writing data in this directory.

Various display setting

$cfg['RepeatCells']
Type:integer
Default value:100

Repeat the headers every X cells, or 0 to deactivate.

$cfg['QueryHistoryDB']
Type:boolean
Default value:false
$cfg['QueryHistoryMax']
Type:integer
Default value:25

If $cfg['QueryHistoryDB'] is set to true, all your Queries are logged to a table, which has to be created by you (see $cfg['Servers'][$i]['history']). If set to false, all your queries will be appended to the form, but only as long as your window is opened they remain saved.

When using the JavaScript based query window, it will always get updated when you click on a new table/db to browse and will focus if you click on Edit SQL after using a query. You can suppress updating the query window by checking the box Do not overwrite this query from outside the window below the query textarea. Then you can browse tables/databases in the background without losing the contents of the textarea, so this is especially useful when composing a query with tables you first have to look in. The checkbox will get automatically checked whenever you change the contents of the textarea. Please uncheck the button whenever you definitely want the query window to get updated even though you have made alterations.

If $cfg['QueryHistoryDB'] is set to true you can specify the amount of saved history items using $cfg['QueryHistoryMax'].

$cfg['BrowseMIME']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Enable Transformations.

$cfg['MaxExactCount']
Type:integer
Default value:500000

For InnoDB tables, determines for how large tables phpMyAdmin should get the exact row count using SELECT COUNT. If the approximate row count as returned by SHOW TABLE STATUS is smaller than this value, SELECT COUNT will be used, otherwise the approximate count will be used.

$cfg['MaxExactCountViews']
Type:integer
Default value:0

For VIEWs, since obtaining the exact count could have an impact on performance, this value is the maximum to be displayed, using a SELECT COUNT ... LIMIT. Setting this to 0 bypasses any row counting.

$cfg['NaturalOrder']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Sorts database and table names according to natural order (for example, t1, t2, t10). Currently implemented in the navigation panel and in Database view, for the table list.

$cfg['InitialSlidersState']
Type:string
Default value:'closed'

If set to 'closed', the visual sliders are initially in a closed state. A value of 'open' does the reverse. To completely disable all visual sliders, use 'disabled'.

$cfg['UserprefsDisallow']
Type:array
Default value:array()

Contains names of configuration options (keys in $cfg array) that users can’t set through user preferences. For possible values, refer to libraries/config/user_preferences.forms.php.

$cfg['UserprefsDeveloperTab']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Activates in the user preferences a tab containing options for developers of phpMyAdmin.

Page titles

$cfg['TitleTable']
Type:string
Default value:'@HTTP_HOST@ / @VSERVER@ / @DATABASE@ / @TABLE@ | @PHPMYADMIN@'
$cfg['TitleDatabase']
Type:string
Default value:'@HTTP_HOST@ / @VSERVER@ / @DATABASE@ | @PHPMYADMIN@'
$cfg['TitleServer']
Type:string
Default value:'@HTTP_HOST@ / @VSERVER@ | @PHPMYADMIN@'
$cfg['TitleDefault']
Type:string
Default value:'@HTTP_HOST@ | @PHPMYADMIN@'

Allows you to specify window’s title bar. You can use 6.27 What format strings can I use?.

Theme manager settings

$cfg['ThemePath']
Type:string
Default value:'./themes'

If theme manager is active, use this as the path of the subdirectory containing all the themes.

$cfg['ThemeManager']
Type:boolean
Default value:true

Enables user-selectable themes. See 2.7 Using and creating themes.

$cfg['ThemeDefault']
Type:string
Default value:'pmahomme'

The default theme (a subdirectory under $cfg['ThemePath']).

$cfg['ThemePerServer']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Whether to allow different theme for each server.

Default queries

$cfg['DefaultQueryTable']
Type:string
Default value:'SELECT * FROM @TABLE@ WHERE 1'
$cfg['DefaultQueryDatabase']
Type:string
Default value:''

Default queries that will be displayed in query boxes when user didn’t specify any. You can use standard 6.27 What format strings can I use?.

MySQL settings

$cfg['DefaultFunctions']
Type:array
Default value:array(...)

Functions selected by default when inserting/changing row, Functions are defined for meta types as (FUNC_NUMBER, FUNC_DATE, FUNC_CHAR, FUNC_SPATIAL, FUNC_UUID) and for first_timestamp, which is used for first timestamp column in table.

Developer

Warning

These settings might have huge effect on performance or security.

$cfg['DBG']
Type:array
Default value:array(...)
$cfg['DBG']['sql']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Enable logging queries and execution times to be displayed in the bottom of main page (right frame).

$cfg['DBG']['demo']
Type:boolean
Default value:false

Enable to let server present itself as demo server. This is used for <http://demo.phpmyadmin.net/>.

$cfg['RowActionType']
Type:string
Default value:'both'

Whether to display icons or text or both icons and text in table row action segment. Value can be either of 'icons', 'text' or 'both'.

User Guide

Transformations

Introduction

To enable transformations, you have to setup the column_info table and the proper directives. Please see the Configuration on how to do so.

You can apply different transformations to the contents of each column. The transformation will take the content of each column and transform it with certain rules defined in the selected transformation.

Say you have a column ‘filename’ which contains a filename. Normally you would see in phpMyAdmin only this filename. Using transformations you can transform that filename into a HTML link, so you can click inside of the phpMyAdmin structure on the column’s link and will see the file displayed in a new browser window. Using transformation options you can also specify strings to append/prepend to a string or the format you want the output stored in.

For a general overview of all available transformations and their options, you can consult your <www.your-host.com>/<your-install- dir>/transformation_overview.php installation.

For a tutorial on how to effectively use transformations, see our Link section on the official phpMyAdmin homepage.

Usage

Go to your tbl_structure.php page (i.e. reached through clicking on the ‘Structure’ link for a table). There click on “Change” (or change icon) and there you will see three new fields at the end of the line. They are called ‘MIME-type’, ‘Browser transformation’ and ‘Transformation options’.

  • The field ‘MIME-type’ is a drop-down field. Select the MIME-type that corresponds to the column’s contents. Please note that transformations are inactive as long as no MIME-type is selected.
  • The field ‘Browser transformation’ is a drop-down field. You can choose from a hopefully growing amount of pre-defined transformations. See below for information on how to build your own transformation. There are global transformations and mimetype-bound transformations. Global transformations can be used for any mimetype. They will take the mimetype, if necessary, into regard. Mimetype-bound transformations usually only operate on a certain mimetype. There are transformations which operate on the main mimetype (like ‘image’), which will most likely take the subtype into regard, and those who only operate on a specific subtype (like ‘image/jpeg’). You can use transformations on mimetypes for which the function was not defined for. There is no security check for you selected the right transformation, so take care of what the output will be like.
  • The field ‘Transformation options’ is a free-type textfield. You have to enter transform-function specific options here. Usually the transforms can operate with default options, but it is generally a good idea to look up the overview to see which options are necessary. Much like the ENUM/SET-Fields, you have to split up several options using the format ‘a’,’b’,’c’,...(NOTE THE MISSING BLANKS). This is because internally the options will be parsed as an array, leaving the first value the first element in the array, and so forth. If you want to specify a MIME character set you can define it in the transformation_options. You have to put that outside of the pre- defined options of the specific mime-transform, as the last value of the set. Use the format “’; charset=XXX’”. If you use a transform, for which you can specify 2 options and you want to append a character set, enter “‘first parameter’,’second parameter’,’charset=us-ascii’”. You can, however use the defaults for the parameters: “’‘,’‘,’charset =us-ascii’”.

File structure

All specific transformations for mimetypes are defined through class files in the directory ‘libraries/plugins/transformations/’. Each of them extends a certain transformation abstract class declared in libraries/plugins/transformations/abstract.

They are stored in files to ease up customization and easy adding of new transformations.

Because the user cannot enter own mimetypes, it is kept sure that transformations always work. It makes no sense to apply a transformation to a mimetype the transform-function doesn’t know to handle.

There is a file called ‘transformations.lib.php‘ that provides some basic functions which can be included by any other transform function.

The file name convention is [Mimetype]_[Subtype]_[Transformation Name].class.php, while the abtract class that it extends has the name [Transformation Name]TransformationsPlugin. All of the methods that have to be implemented by a transformations plug-in are:

  1. getMIMEType() and getMIMESubtype() in the main class;
  2. getName(), getInfo() and applyTransformation() in the abstract class it extends.

The getMIMEType(), getMIMESubtype() and getName() methods return the name of the MIME type, MIME Subtype and transformation accordingly. getInfo() returns the transformation’s description and possible options it may receive and applyTransformation() is the method that does the actual work of the transformation plug-in.

Please see the libraries/plugins/transformations/TEMPLATE and libraries/plugins/transformations/TEMPLATE_ABSTRACT files for adding your own transformation plug-in. You can also generate a new transformation plug-in (with or without the abstract transformation class), by using libraries/plugins/transformations/generator_plugin.sh or libraries/plugins/transformations/generator_main_class.sh.

The applyTransformation() method always gets passed three variables:

  1. $buffer - Contains the text inside of the column. This is the text, you want to transform.
  2. $options - Contains any user-passed options to a transform function as an array.
  3. $meta - Contains an object with information about your column. The data is drawn from the output of the mysql_fetch_field() function. This means, all object properties described on the manual page are available in this variable and can be used to transform a column accordingly to unsigned/zerofill/not_null/... properties. The $meta->mimetype variable contains the original MIME-type of the column (i.e. ‘text/plain’, ‘image/jpeg’ etc.)

User management

User management is the process of controlling which users are allowed to connect to the MySQL server and what permissions they have on each database. phpMyAdmin does not handle user management, rather it passes the username and password on to MySQL, which then determines whether a user is permitted to perform a particular action. Within phpMyAdmin, administrators have full control over creating users, viewing and editing privileges for existing users, and removing users.

Within phpMyAdmin, user management is controlled via the Users link from the main page. Users can be created, edited, and removed.

Creating a new user

To create a new user, click the Add a new user link near the bottom of the Users page (you must be a “superuser”, e.g., user “root”). Use the textboxes and drop-downs to configure the user to your particular needs. You can then select whether to create a database for that user and grant specific global privileges. Once you’ve created the user (by clicking Go), you can define that user’s permissions on a specific database (don’t grant global privileges in that case). In general, users do not need any global privileges (other than USAGE), only permissions for their specific database.

Editing an existing user

To edit an existing user, simply click the pencil icon to the right of that user in the Users page. You can then edit their global- and database-specific privileges, change their password, or even copy those privileges to a new user.

Deleting a user

From the Users page, check the checkbox for the user you wish to remove, select whether or not to also remove any databases of the same name (if they exist), and click Go.

Assigning privileges to user for a specific database

Users are assigned to databases by editing the user record (from the Users link on the home page) not from within the Users link under the table. If you are creating a user specifically for a given table you will have to create the user first (with no global privileges) and then go back and edit that user to add the table and privileges for the individual table.

Other sources of information

Printed Book

The definitive guide to using phpMyAdmin is the book Mastering phpMyAdmin for Effective MySQL Management by Marc Delisle. You can get information on that book and other officially endorsed books at the phpMyAdmin site.

Tutorials

Third party tutorials and articles are listed on our wiki page.

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Please have a look at our Link section on the official phpMyAdmin homepage for in-depth coverage of phpMyAdmin’s features and or interface.

Server

1.1 My server is crashing each time a specific action is required or phpMyAdmin sends a blank page or a page full of cryptic characters to my browser, what can I do?

Try to set the $cfg['OBGzip'] directive to false in your config.inc.php file and the zlib.output_compression directive to Off in your php configuration file.

1.2 My Apache server crashes when using phpMyAdmin.

You should first try the latest versions of Apache (and possibly MySQL). If your server keeps crashing, please ask for help in the various Apache support groups.

1.3 (withdrawn).

1.4 Using phpMyAdmin on IIS, I’m displayed the error message: “The specified CGI application misbehaved by not returning a complete set of HTTP headers ...”.

You just forgot to read the install.txt file from the PHP distribution. Have a look at the last message in this PHP bug report #12061 from the official PHP bug database.

1.5 Using phpMyAdmin on IIS, I’m facing crashes and/or many error messages with the HTTP.

This is a known problem with the PHP ISAPI filter: it’s not so stable. Please use instead the cookie authentication mode.

1.6 I can’t use phpMyAdmin on PWS: nothing is displayed!

This seems to be a PWS bug. Filippo Simoncini found a workaround (at this time there is no better fix): remove or comment the DOCTYPE declarations (2 lines) from the scripts libraries/Header.class.php and index.php.

1.7 How can I GZip a dump or a CSV export? It does not seem to work.

This feature is based on the gzencode() PHP function to be more independent of the platform (Unix/Windows, Safe Mode or not, and so on). So, you must have Zlib support (--with-zlib).

1.8 I cannot insert a text file in a table, and I get an error about safe mode being in effect.

Your uploaded file is saved by PHP in the “upload dir”, as defined in php.ini by the variable upload_tmp_dir (usually the system default is /tmp). We recommend the following setup for Apache servers running in safe mode, to enable uploads of files while being reasonably secure:

  • create a separate directory for uploads: mkdir /tmp/php
  • give ownership to the Apache server’s user.group: chown apache.apache /tmp/php
  • give proper permission: chmod 600 /tmp/php
  • put upload_tmp_dir = /tmp/php in php.ini
  • restart Apache

1.9 (withdrawn).

1.10 I’m having troubles when uploading files with phpMyAdmin running on a secure server. My browser is Internet Explorer and I’m using the Apache server.

As suggested by “Rob M” in the phpWizard forum, add this line to your httpd.conf:

SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown

It seems to clear up many problems between Internet Explorer and SSL.

1.11 I get an ‘open_basedir restriction’ while uploading a file from the query box.

Since version 2.2.4, phpMyAdmin supports servers with open_basedir restrictions. However you need to create temporary directory and configure it as $cfg['TempDir']. The uploaded files will be moved there, and after execution of your SQL commands, removed.

1.12 I have lost my MySQL root password, what can I do?

The MySQL manual explains how to reset the permissions.

1.13 (withdrawn).

1.14 (withdrawn).

1.15 I have problems with mysql.user column names.

In previous MySQL versions, the User and Password``columns were named ``user and password. Please modify your column names to align with current standards.

1.16 I cannot upload big dump files (memory, HTTP or timeout problems).

Starting with version 2.7.0, the import engine has been re–written and these problems should not occur. If possible, upgrade your phpMyAdmin to the latest version to take advantage of the new import features.

The first things to check (or ask your host provider to check) are the values of upload_max_filesize, memory_limit and post_max_size in the php.ini configuration file. All of these three settings limit the maximum size of data that can be submitted and handled by PHP. One user also said that post_max_size and memory_limit need to be larger than upload_max_filesize. There exist several workarounds if your upload is too big or your hosting provider is unwilling to change the settings:

  • Look at the $cfg['UploadDir'] feature. This allows one to upload a file to the server via scp, ftp, or your favorite file transfer method. PhpMyAdmin is then able to import the files from the temporary directory. More information is available in the Configuration of this document.

  • Using a utility (such as BigDump) to split the files before uploading. We cannot support this or any third party applications, but are aware of users having success with it.

  • If you have shell (command line) access, use MySQL to import the files directly. You can do this by issuing the “source” command from within MySQL:

    source filename.sql;
    

1.17 Which MySQL versions does phpMyAdmin support?

Since phpMyAdmin 3.0.x, only MySQL 5.0.1 and newer are supported. For older MySQL versions, you need to use the latest 2.x branch. phpMyAdmin can connect to your MySQL server using PHP’s classic MySQL extension as well as the improved MySQL extension (MySQLi) that is available in PHP 5.0. The latter one should be used unless you have a good reason not to do so. When compiling PHP, we strongly recommend that you manually link the MySQL extension of your choice to a MySQL client library of at least the same minor version since the one that is bundled with some PHP distributions is rather old and might cause problems see 1.17a I cannot connect to the MySQL server. It always returns the error message, “Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client”. MariaDB is also supported (versions 5.1 and 5.2 were tested).

Changed in version 3.5: Since phpMyAdmin 3.5 Drizzle is supported.

1.17a I cannot connect to the MySQL server. It always returns the error message, “Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client”

You tried to access MySQL with an old MySQL client library. The version of your MySQL client library can be checked in your phpinfo() output. In general, it should have at least the same minor version as your server - as mentioned in 1.17 Which MySQL versions does phpMyAdmin support?. This problem is generally caused by using MySQL version 4.1 or newer. MySQL changed the authentication hash and your PHP is trying to use the old method. The proper solution is to use the mysqli extension with the proper client library to match your MySQL installation. More information (and several workarounds) are located in the MySQL Documentation.

1.18 (withdrawn).

1.19 I can’t run the “display relations” feature because the script seems not to know the font face I’m using!

The TCPDF library we’re using for this feature requires some special files to use font faces. Please refers to the TCPDF manual to build these files.

1.20 I receive an error about missing mysqli and mysql extensions.

To connect to a MySQL server, PHP needs a set of MySQL functions called “MySQL extension”. This extension may be part of the PHP distribution (compiled-in), otherwise it needs to be loaded dynamically. Its name is probably mysqli.so or php_mysqli.dll. phpMyAdmin tried to load the extension but failed. Usually, the problem is solved by installing a software package called “PHP-MySQL” or something similar.

There are currently two interfaces PHP provides as MySQL extensions - mysql and mysqli. The mysqli is tried first, because it’s the best one.

1.22 I don’t see the “Location of text file” field, so I cannot upload.

This is most likely because in php.ini, your file_uploads parameter is not set to “on”.

1.23 I’m running MySQL on a Win32 machine. Each time I create a new table the table and column names are changed to lowercase!

This happens because the MySQL directive lower_case_table_names defaults to 1 (ON) in the Win32 version of MySQL. You can change this behavior by simply changing the directive to 0 (OFF): Just edit your my.ini file that should be located in your Windows directory and add the following line to the group [mysqld]:

set-variable = lower_case_table_names=0

Next, save the file and restart the MySQL service. You can always check the value of this directive using the query

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'lower_case_table_names';

1.24 (withdrawn).

1.25 I am running Apache with mod_gzip-1.3.26.1a on Windows XP, and I get problems, such as undefined variables when I run a SQL query.

A tip from Jose Fandos: put a comment on the following two lines in httpd.conf, like this:

# mod_gzip_item_include file \.php$
# mod_gzip_item_include mime "application/x-httpd-php.*"

as this version of mod_gzip on Apache (Windows) has problems handling PHP scripts. Of course you have to restart Apache.

1.26 I just installed phpMyAdmin in my document root of IIS but I get the error “No input file specified” when trying to run phpMyAdmin.

This is a permission problem. Right-click on the phpmyadmin folder and choose properties. Under the tab Security, click on “Add” and select the user “IUSR_machine” from the list. Now set his permissions and it should work.

1.27 I get empty page when I want to view huge page (eg. db_structure.php with plenty of tables).

This was caused by a PHP bug that occur when GZIP output buffering is enabled. If you turn off it (by $cfg['OBGzip'] in config.inc.php), it should work. This bug will has been fixed in PHP 5.0.0.

1.28 My MySQL server sometimes refuses queries and returns the message ‘Errorcode: 13’. What does this mean?

This can happen due to a MySQL bug when having database / table names with upper case characters although lower_case_table_names is set to 1. To fix this, turn off this directive, convert all database and table names to lower case and turn it on again. Alternatively, there’s a bug-fix available starting with MySQL 3.23.56 / 4.0.11-gamma.

1.29 When I create a table or modify a column, I get an error and the columns are duplicated.

It is possible to configure Apache in such a way that PHP has problems interpreting .php files.

The problems occur when two different (and conflicting) set of directives are used:

SetOutputFilter PHP
SetInputFilter PHP

and

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

In the case we saw, one set of directives was in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf, while the other set was in /etc/httpd/conf/addon-modules/php.conf. The recommended way is with AddType, so just comment out the first set of lines and restart Apache:

#SetOutputFilter PHP
#SetInputFilter PHP

1.30 I get the error “navigation.php: Missing hash”.

This problem is known to happen when the server is running Turck MMCache but upgrading MMCache to version 2.3.21 solves the problem.

1.31 Does phpMyAdmin support PHP 5?

Yes.

Since release 4.1 phpMyAdmin supports only PHP 5.3 and newer. For PHP 5.2 you can use 4.0.x releases.

1.32 Can I use HTTP authentication with IIS?

Yes. This procedure was tested with phpMyAdmin 2.6.1, PHP 4.3.9 in ISAPI mode under IIS 5.1.

  1. In your php.ini file, set cgi.rfc2616_headers = 0
  2. In Web Site Properties -> File/Directory Security -> Anonymous Access dialog box, check the Anonymous access checkbox and uncheck any other checkboxes (i.e. uncheck Basic authentication, Integrated Windows authentication, and Digest if it’s enabled.) Click OK.
  3. In Custom Errors, select the range of 401;1 through 401;5 and click the Set to Default button.

See also

RFC 2616

1.33 (withdrawn).

1.34 Can I access directly to database or table pages?

Yes. Out of the box, you can use URL like http://server/phpMyAdmin/index.php?server=X&db=database&table=table&target=script. For server you use the server number which refers to the order of the server paragraph in config.inc.php. Table and script parts are optional. If you want http://server/phpMyAdmin/database[/table][/script] URL, you need to do some configuration. Following lines apply only for Apache web server. First make sure, that you have enabled some features within global configuration. You need Options FollowSymLinks and AllowOverride FileInfo enabled for directory where phpMyAdmin is installed and you need mod_rewrite to be enabled. Then you just need to create following .htaccess file in root folder of phpMyAdmin installation (don’t forget to change directory name inside of it):

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /path_to_phpMyAdmin
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)/([a-z_]+\.php)$ index.php?db=$1&table=$2&target=$3 [R]
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)/([a-z_]+\.php)$ index.php?db=$1&target=$2 [R]
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)$ index.php?db=$1&table=$2 [R]
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)$ index.php?db=$1 [R]

1.35 Can I use HTTP authentication with Apache CGI?

Yes. However you need to pass authentication variable to CGI using following rewrite rule:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=REMOTE_USER:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]

1.36 I get an error “500 Internal Server Error”.

There can be many explanations to this and a look at your server’s error log file might give a clue.

1.38 Can I use phpMyAdmin on a server on which Suhosin is enabled?

Yes but the default configuration values of Suhosin are known to cause problems with some operations, for example editing a table with many columns and no primary key or with textual primary key.

Suhosin configuration might lead to malfunction in some cases and it can not be fully avoided as phpMyAdmin is kind of application which needs to transfer big amounts of columns in single HTTP request, what is something what Suhosin tries to prevent. Generally all suhosin.request.*, suhosin.post.* and suhosin.get.* directives can have negative effect on phpMyAdmin usability. You can always find in your error logs which limit did cause dropping of variable, so you can diagnose the problem and adjust matching configuration variable.

The default values for most Suhosin configuration options will work in most scenarios, however you might want to adjust at least following parameters:

You can also disable the warning using the $cfg['SuhosinDisableWarning'].

1.39 When I try to connect via https, I can log in, but then my connection is redirected back to http. What can cause this behavior?

Be sure that you have enabled SSLOptions and StdEnvVars in your Apache configuration.

1.41 When I view a database and ask to see its privileges, I get an error about an unknown column.

The MySQL server’s privilege tables are not up to date, you need to run the mysql_upgrade command on the server.

1.42 How can I prevent robots from accessing phpMyAdmin?

You can add various rules to .htaccess to filter access based on user agent field. This is quite easy to circumvent, but could prevent at least some robots accessing your installation.

RewriteEngine on

# Allow only GET and POST verbs
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !^(GET|POST)$ [NC,OR]

# Ban Typical Vulnerability Scanners and others
# Kick out Script Kiddies
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^(java|curl|wget).* [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*(libwww-perl|curl|wget|python|nikto|wkito|pikto|scan|acunetix).* [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*(winhttp|HTTrack|clshttp|archiver|loader|email|harvest|extract|grab|miner).* [NC,OR]

# Ban Search Engines, Crawlers to your administrative panel
# No reasons to access from bots
# Ultimately Better than the useless robots.txt
# Did google respect robots.txt?
# Try google: intitle:phpMyAdmin intext:"Welcome to phpMyAdmin *.*.*" intext:"Log in" -wiki -forum -forums -questions intext:"Cookies must be enabled"
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*(AdsBot-Google|ia_archiver|Scooter|Ask.Jeeves|Baiduspider|Exabot|FAST.Enterprise.Crawler|FAST-WebCrawler|www\.neomo\.de|Gigabot|Mediapartners-Google|Google.Desktop|Feedfetcher-Google|Googlebot|heise-IT-Markt-Crawler|heritrix|ibm.com\cs/crawler|ICCrawler|ichiro|MJ12bot|MetagerBot|msnbot-NewsBlogs|msnbot|msnbot-media|NG-Search|lucene.apache.org|NutchCVS|OmniExplorer_Bot|online.link.validator|psbot0|Seekbot|Sensis.Web.Crawler|SEO.search.Crawler|Seoma.\[SEO.Crawler\]|SEOsearch|Snappy|www.urltrends.com|www.tkl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~crawler|SynooBot|crawleradmin.t-info@telekom.de|TurnitinBot|voyager|W3.SiteSearch.Crawler|W3C-checklink|W3C_Validator|www.WISEnutbot.com|yacybot|Yahoo-MMCrawler|Yahoo\!.DE.Slurp|Yahoo\!.Slurp|YahooSeeker).* [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F]

1.43 Why can’t I display the structure of my table containing hundreds of columns?

Because your PHP’s memory_limit is too low; adjust it in php.ini.

Configuration

2.1 The error message “Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by ...” is displayed, what’s the problem?

Edit your config.inc.php file and ensure there is nothing (I.E. no blank lines, no spaces, no characters...) neither before the <?php tag at the beginning, neither after the ?> tag at the end. We also got a report from a user under IIS, that used a zipped distribution kit: the file libraries/Config.class.php contained an end-of-line character (hex 0A) at the end; removing this character cleared his errors.

2.2 phpMyAdmin can’t connect to MySQL. What’s wrong?

Either there is an error with your PHP setup or your username/password is wrong. Try to make a small script which uses mysql_connect and see if it works. If it doesn’t, it may be you haven’t even compiled MySQL support into PHP.

2.3 The error message “Warning: MySQL Connection Failed: Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/tmp/mysql.sock’ (111) ...” is displayed. What can I do?

For RedHat users, Harald Legner suggests this on the mailing list:

On my RedHat-Box the socket of MySQL is /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock. In your php.ini you will find a line

mysql.default_socket = /tmp/mysql.sock

change it to

mysql.default_socket = /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

Then restart apache and it will work.

Here is a fix suggested by Brad Ummer:

  • First, you need to determine what socket is being used by MySQL. To do this, telnet to your server and go to the MySQL bin directory. In this directory there should be a file named mysqladmin. Type ./mysqladmin variables, and this should give you a bunch of info about your MySQL server, including the socket (/tmp/mysql.sock, for example).
  • Then, you need to tell PHP to use this socket. To do this in phpMyAdmin, you need to complete the socket information in the config.inc.php. For example: $cfg['Servers'][$i]['socket'] Please also make sure that the permissions of this file allow to be readable by your webserver (i.e. ‘0755’).

Have also a look at the corresponding section of the MySQL documentation.

2.4 Nothing is displayed by my browser when I try to run phpMyAdmin, what can I do?

Try to set the $cfg['OBGzip'] directive to false in the phpMyAdmin configuration file. It helps sometime. Also have a look at your PHP version number: if it contains “b” or “alpha” it means you’re running a testing version of PHP. That’s not a so good idea, please upgrade to a plain revision.

2.6 I get an “Access denied for user: 'root@localhost‘ (Using password: YES)”-error when trying to access a MySQL-Server on a host which is port-forwarded for my localhost.

When you are using a port on your localhost, which you redirect via port-forwarding to another host, MySQL is not resolving the localhost as expected. Erik Wasser explains: The solution is: if your host is “localhost” MySQL (the command line tool mysql as well) always tries to use the socket connection for speeding up things. And that doesn’t work in this configuration with port forwarding. If you enter “127.0.0.1” as hostname, everything is right and MySQL uses the TCP connection.

2.7 Using and creating themes

Themes are configured with $cfg['ThemePath'], $cfg['ThemeManager'] and $cfg['ThemeDefault']. Under $cfg['ThemePath'], you should not delete the directory pmahomme or its underlying structure, because this is the system theme used by phpMyAdmin. pmahomme contains all images and styles, for backwards compatibility and for all themes that would not include images or css-files. If $cfg['ThemeManager'] is enabled, you can select your favorite theme on the main page. Your selected theme will be stored in a cookie.

To create a theme:

  • make a new subdirectory (for example “your_theme_name”) under $cfg['ThemePath'] (by default themes)
  • copy the files and directories from pmahomme to “your_theme_name”
  • edit the css-files in “your_theme_name/css”
  • put your new images in “your_theme_name/img”
  • edit layout.inc.php in “your_theme_name”
  • edit info.inc.php in “your_theme_name” to contain your chosen theme name, that will be visible in user interface
  • make a new screenshot of your theme and save it under “your_theme_name/screen.png”

In theme directory there is file info.inc.php which contains theme verbose name, theme generation and theme version. These versions and generations are enumerated from 1 and do not have any direct dependence on phpMyAdmin version. Themes within same generation should be backwards compatible - theme with version 2 should work in phpMyAdmin requiring version 1. Themes with different generation are incompatible.

If you do not want to use your own symbols and buttons, remove the directory “img” in “your_theme_name”. phpMyAdmin will use the default icons and buttons (from the system-theme pmahomme).

2.8 I get “Missing parameters” errors, what can I do?

Here are a few points to check:

  • In config.inc.php, try to leave the $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] directive empty. See also 4.7 Authentication window is displayed more than once, why?.
  • Maybe you have a broken PHP installation or you need to upgrade your Zend Optimizer. See <http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=31134>.
  • If you are using Hardened PHP with the ini directive varfilter.max_request_variables set to the default (200) or another low value, you could get this error if your table has a high number of columns. Adjust this setting accordingly. (Thanks to Klaus Dorninger for the hint).
  • In the php.ini directive arg_separator.input, a value of ”;” will cause this error. Replace it with “&;”.
  • If you are using Hardened-PHP, you might want to increase request limits.
  • The directory specified in the php.ini directive session.save_path does not exist or is read-only.

2.9 Seeing an upload progress bar

To be able to see a progress bar during your uploads, your server must have the APC extension, the uploadprogress one, or you must be running PHP 5.4.0 or higher. Moreover, the JSON extension has to be enabled in your PHP.

If using APC, you must set apc.rfc1867 to on in your php.ini.

If using PHP 5.4.0 or higher, you must set session.upload_progress.enabled to 1 in your php.ini. However, starting from phpMyAdmin version 4.0.4, session-based upload progress has been temporarily deactivated due to its problematic behavior.

See also

RFC 1867

Known limitations

3.1 When using HTTP authentication, a user who logged out can not log in again in with the same nick.

This is related to the authentication mechanism (protocol) used by phpMyAdmin. To bypass this problem: just close all the opened browser windows and then go back to phpMyAdmin. You should be able to log in again.

3.2 When dumping a large table in compressed mode, I get a memory limit error or a time limit error.

Compressed dumps are built in memory and because of this are limited to php’s memory limit. For GZip/BZip2 exports this can be overcome since 2.5.4 using $cfg['CompressOnFly'] (enabled by default). Zip exports can not be handled this way, so if you need Zip files for larger dump, you have to use another way.

3.3 With InnoDB tables, I lose foreign key relationships when I rename a table or a column.

This is an InnoDB bug, see <http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=21704>.

3.4 I am unable to import dumps I created with the mysqldump tool bundled with the MySQL server distribution.

The problem is that older versions of mysqldump created invalid comments like this:

-- MySQL dump 8.22
--
-- Host: localhost Database: database
---------------------------------------------------------
-- Server version 3.23.54

The invalid part of the code is the horizontal line made of dashes that appears once in every dump created with mysqldump. If you want to run your dump you have to turn it into valid MySQL. This means, you have to add a whitespace after the first two dashes of the line or add a # before it: -- ------------------------------------------------------- or #---------------------------------------------------------

3.5 When using nested folders, multiple hierarchies are displayed in a wrong manner.

Please note that you should not use the separating string multiple times without any characters between them, or at the beginning/end of your table name. If you have to, think about using another TableSeparator or disabling that feature.

3.6 (withdrawn).

3.7 I have table with many (100+) columns and when I try to browse table I get series of errors like “Warning: unable to parse url”. How can this be fixed?

Your table neither have a primary key nor an unique one, so we must use a long expression to identify this row. This causes problems to parse_url function. The workaround is to create a primary or unique key.

3.8 I cannot use (clickable) HTML-forms in columns where I put a MIME-Transformation onto!

Due to a surrounding form-container (for multi-row delete checkboxes), no nested forms can be put inside the table where phpMyAdmin displays the results. You can, however, use any form inside of a table if keep the parent form-container with the target to tbl_row_delete.php and just put your own input-elements inside. If you use a custom submit input field, the form will submit itself to the displaying page again, where you can validate the $HTTP_POST_VARS in a transformation. For a tutorial on how to effectively use transformations, see our Link section on the official phpMyAdmin-homepage.

3.9 I get error messages when using “–sql_mode=ANSI” for the MySQL server.

When MySQL is running in ANSI-compatibility mode, there are some major differences in how SQL is structured (see <http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/ansi-mode.html>). Most important of all, the quote-character (”) is interpreted as an identifier quote character and not as a string quote character, which makes many internal phpMyAdmin operations into invalid SQL statements. There is no workaround to this behaviour. News to this item will be posted in Bug report #1013.

3.10 Homonyms and no primary key: When the results of a SELECT display more that one column with the same value (for example SELECT lastname from employees where firstname like 'A%' and two “Smith” values are displayed), if I click Edit I cannot be sure that I am editing the intended row.

Please make sure that your table has a primary key, so that phpMyAdmin can use it for the Edit and Delete links.

3.11 The number of rows for InnoDB tables is not correct.

phpMyAdmin uses a quick method to get the row count, and this method only returns an approximate count in the case of InnoDB tables. See $cfg['MaxExactCount'] for a way to modify those results, but this could have a serious impact on performance. However, one can easily replace the approximate row count with exact count by simply clicking on the approximate count. This can also be done for all tables at once by clicking on the rows sum displayed at the bottom.

3.12 (withdrawn).

3.13 I get an error when entering USE followed by a db name containing an hyphen.

The tests I have made with MySQL 5.1.49 shows that the API does not accept this syntax for the USE command.

3.14 I am not able to browse a table when I don’t have the right to SELECT one of the columns.

This has been a known limitation of phpMyAdmin since the beginning and it’s not likely to be solved in the future.

3.15 (withdrawn).

3.16 (withdrawn).

3.17 (withdrawn).

3.18 When I import a CSV file that contains multiple tables, they are lumped together into a single table.

There is no reliable way to differentiate tables in CSV format. For the time being, you will have to break apart CSV files containing multiple tables.

3.19 When I import a file and have phpMyAdmin determine the appropriate data structure it only uses int, decimal, and varchar types.

Currently, the import type-detection system can only assign these MySQL types to columns. In future, more will likely be added but for the time being you will have to edit the structure to your liking post-import. Also, you should note the fact that phpMyAdmin will use the size of the largest item in any given column as the column size for the appropriate type. If you know you will be adding larger items to that column then you should manually adjust the column sizes accordingly. This is done for the sake of efficiency.

3.20 After upgrading, some bookmarks are gone or their content cannot be shown.

At some point, the character set used to store bookmark content has changed. It’s better to recreate your bookmark from the newer phpMyAdmin version.

ISPs, multi-user installations

4.1 I’m an ISP. Can I setup one central copy of phpMyAdmin or do I need to install it for each customer?

Since version 2.0.3, you can setup a central copy of phpMyAdmin for all your users. The development of this feature was kindly sponsored by NetCologne GmbH. This requires a properly setup MySQL user management and phpMyAdmin HTTP or cookie authentication.

4.2 What’s the preferred way of making phpMyAdmin secure against evil access?

This depends on your system. If you’re running a server which cannot be accessed by other people, it’s sufficient to use the directory protection bundled with your webserver (with Apache you can use .htaccess files, for example). If other people have telnet access to your server, you should use phpMyAdmin’s HTTP or cookie authentication features.

Suggestions:

  • Your config.inc.php file should be chmod 660.
  • All your phpMyAdmin files should be chown -R phpmy.apache, where phpmy is a user whose password is only known to you, and apache is the group under which Apache runs.
  • Follow security recommendations for PHP and your webserver.

4.3 I get errors about not being able to include a file in /lang or in /libraries.

Check php.ini, or ask your sysadmin to check it. The include_path must contain ”.” somewhere in it, and open_basedir, if used, must contain ”.” and ”./lang” to allow normal operation of phpMyAdmin.

4.4 phpMyAdmin always gives “Access denied” when using HTTP authentication.

This could happen for several reasons:

4.5 Is it possible to let users create their own databases?

Starting with 2.2.5, in the user management page, you can enter a wildcard database name for a user (for example “joe%”), and put the privileges you want. For example, adding SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER would let a user create/manage his/her database(s).

4.6 How can I use the Host-based authentication additions?

If you have existing rules from an old .htaccess file, you can take them and add a username between the 'deny'/'allow' and 'from' strings. Using the username wildcard of '%' would be a major benefit here if your installation is suited to using it. Then you can just add those updated lines into the $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules'] array.

If you want a pre-made sample, you can try this fragment. It stops the ‘root’ user from logging in from any networks other than the private network IP blocks.

//block root from logging in except from the private networks
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['order'] = 'deny,allow';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules'] = array(
    'deny root from all',
    'allow root from localhost',
    'allow root from 10.0.0.0/8',
    'allow root from 192.168.0.0/16',
    'allow root from 172.16.0.0/12',
);

4.7 Authentication window is displayed more than once, why?

This happens if you are using a URL to start phpMyAdmin which is different than the one set in your $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri']. For example, a missing “www”, or entering with an IP address while a domain name is defined in the config file.

4.8 Which parameters can I use in the URL that starts phpMyAdmin?

When starting phpMyAdmin, you can use the db, pma_username, pma_password and server parameters. This last one can contain either the numeric host index (from $i of the configuration file) or one of the host names present in the configuration file. Using pma_username and pma_password has been tested along with the usage of ‘cookie’ auth_type.

Browsers or client OS

5.1 I get an out of memory error, and my controls are non-functional, when trying to create a table with more than 14 columns.

We could reproduce this problem only under Win98/98SE. Testing under WinNT4 or Win2K, we could easily create more than 60 columns. A workaround is to create a smaller number of columns, then come back to your table properties and add the other columns.

5.2 With Xitami 2.5b4, phpMyAdmin won’t process form fields.

This is not a phpMyAdmin problem but a Xitami known bug: you’ll face it with each script/website that use forms. Upgrade or downgrade your Xitami server.

5.3 I have problems dumping tables with Konqueror (phpMyAdmin 2.2.2).

With Konqueror 2.1.1: plain dumps, zip and GZip dumps work ok, except that the proposed file name for the dump is always ‘tbl_dump.php’. Bzip2 dumps don’t seem to work. With Konqueror 2.2.1: plain dumps work; zip dumps are placed into the user’s temporary directory, so they must be moved before closing Konqueror, or else they disappear. GZip dumps give an error message. Testing needs to be done for Konqueror 2.2.2.

5.5 In Internet Explorer 5.0, I get JavaScript errors when browsing my rows.

Upgrade to at least Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2.

5.6 In Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5 or 6.0, I get an error (like “Page not found”) when trying to modify a row in a table with many columns, or with a text column.

Your table neither have a primary key nor an unique one, so we must use a long URL to identify this row. There is a limit on the length of the URL in those browsers, and this not happen in Netscape, for example. The workaround is to create a primary or unique key, or use another browser.

5.7 I refresh (reload) my browser, and come back to the welcome page.

Some browsers support right-clicking into the frame you want to refresh, just do this in the right frame.

5.8 With Mozilla 0.9.7 I have problems sending a query modified in the query box.

Looks like a Mozilla bug: 0.9.6 was OK. We will keep an eye on future Mozilla versions.

5.9 With Mozilla 0.9.? to 1.0 and Netscape 7.0-PR1 I can’t type a whitespace in the SQL-Query edit area: the page scrolls down.

This is a Mozilla bug (see bug #26882 at BugZilla).

5.10 With Netscape 4.75 I get empty rows between each row of data in a CSV exported file.

This is a known Netscape 4.75 bug: it adds some line feeds when exporting data in octet-stream mode. Since we can’t detect the specific Netscape version, we cannot workaround this bug.

5.11 Extended-ASCII characters like German umlauts are displayed wrong.

Please ensure that you have set your browser’s character set to the one of the language file you have selected on phpMyAdmin’s start page. Alternatively, you can try the auto detection mode that is supported by the recent versions of the most browsers.

5.12 Mac OS X Safari browser changes special characters to ”?”.

This issue has been reported by a Mac OS X user, who adds that Chimera, Netscape and Mozilla do not have this problem.

5.13 With Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6, and HTTP authentication type, I cannot manage two servers: I log in to the first one, then the other one, but if I switch back to the first, I have to log in on each operation.

This is a bug in Internet Explorer, other browsers do not behave this way.

5.14 Using Opera6, I can manage to get to the authentication, but nothing happens after that, only a blank screen.

Please upgrade to Opera7 at least.

5.15 I have display problems with Safari.

Please upgrade to at least version 1.2.3.

5.16 With Internet Explorer, I get “Access is denied” Javascript errors. Or I cannot make phpMyAdmin work under Windows.

Please check the following points:

  • Maybe you have defined your $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] setting in config.inc.php to an IP address and you are starting phpMyAdmin with a URL containing a domain name, or the reverse situation.
  • Security settings in IE and/or Microsoft Security Center are too high, thus blocking scripts execution.
  • The Windows Firewall is blocking Apache and MySQL. You must allow HTTP ports (80 or 443) and MySQL port (usually 3306) in the “in” and “out” directions.

5.17 With Firefox, I cannot delete rows of data or drop a database.

Many users have confirmed that the Tabbrowser Extensions plugin they installed in their Firefox is causing the problem.

5.18 With Konqueror 4.2.x an invalid LIMIT clause is generated when I browse a table.

This happens only when both of these conditions are met: using the http authentication mode and register_globals being set to On on the server. It seems to be a browser-specific problem; meanwhile use the cookie authentication mode.

5.19 I get JavaScript errors in my browser.

Issues have been reported with some combinations of browser extensions. To troubleshoot, disable all extensions then clear your browser cache to see if the problem goes away.

Using phpMyAdmin

6.1 I can’t insert new rows into a table / I can’t create a table - MySQL brings up a SQL error.

Examine the SQL error with care. Often the problem is caused by specifying a wrong column-type. Common errors include:

  • Using VARCHAR without a size argument
  • Using TEXT or BLOB with a size argument

Also, look at the syntax chapter in the MySQL manual to confirm that your syntax is correct.

6.2 When I create a table, I set an index for two columns and phpMyAdmin generates only one index with those two columns.

This is the way to create a multi-columns index. If you want two indexes, create the first one when creating the table, save, then display the table properties and click the Index link to create the other index.

6.3 How can I insert a null value into my table?

Since version 2.2.3, you have a checkbox for each column that can be null. Before 2.2.3, you had to enter “null”, without the quotes, as the column’s value. Since version 2.5.5, you have to use the checkbox to get a real NULL value, so if you enter “NULL” this means you want a literal NULL in the column, and not a NULL value (this works in PHP4).

6.4 How can I backup my database or table?

Click on a database or table name in the navigation panel, the properties will be displayed. Then on the menu, click “Export”, you can dump the structure, the data, or both. This will generate standard SQL statements that can be used to recreate your database/table. You will need to choose “Save as file”, so that phpMyAdmin can transmit the resulting dump to your station. Depending on your PHP configuration, you will see options to compress the dump. See also the $cfg['ExecTimeLimit'] configuration variable. For additional help on this subject, look for the word “dump” in this document.

6.5 How can I restore (upload) my database or table using a dump? How can I run a ”.sql” file?

Click on a database name in the navigation panel, the properties will be displayed. Select “Import” from the list of tabs in the right–hand frame (or “SQL” if your phpMyAdmin version is previous to 2.7.0). In the “Location of the text file” section, type in the path to your dump filename, or use the Browse button. Then click Go. With version 2.7.0, the import engine has been re–written, if possible it is suggested that you upgrade to take advantage of the new features. For additional help on this subject, look for the word “upload” in this document.

6.6 How can I use the relation table in Query-by-example?

Here is an example with the tables persons, towns and countries, all located in the database “mydb”. If you don’t have a pma__relation table, create it as explained in the configuration section. Then create the example tables:

CREATE TABLE REL_countries (
country_code char(1) NOT NULL default '',
description varchar(10) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (country_code)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

INSERT INTO REL_countries VALUES ('C', 'Canada');

CREATE TABLE REL_persons (
id tinyint(4) NOT NULL auto_increment,
person_name varchar(32) NOT NULL default '',
town_code varchar(5) default '0',
country_code char(1) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

INSERT INTO REL_persons VALUES (11, 'Marc', 'S', '');
INSERT INTO REL_persons VALUES (15, 'Paul', 'S', 'C');

CREATE TABLE REL_towns (
town_code varchar(5) NOT NULL default '0',
description varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (town_code)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

INSERT INTO REL_towns VALUES ('S', 'Sherbrooke');
INSERT INTO REL_towns VALUES ('M', 'Montréal');

To setup appropriate links and display information:

  • on table “REL_persons” click Structure, then Relation view
  • for “town_code”, choose from dropdowns, “mydb”, “REL_towns”, “code” for foreign database, table and column respectively
  • for “country_code”, choose from dropdowns, “mydb”, “REL_countries”, “country_code” for foreign database, table and column respectively
  • on table “REL_towns” click Structure, then Relation view
  • in “Choose column to display”, choose “description”
  • repeat the two previous steps for table “REL_countries”

Then test like this:

  • Click on your db name in the navigation panel
  • Choose “Query”
  • Use tables: persons, towns, countries
  • Click “Update query”
  • In the columns row, choose persons.person_name and click the “Show” tickbox
  • Do the same for towns.description and countries.descriptions in the other 2 columns
  • Click “Update query” and you will see in the query box that the correct joins have been generated
  • Click “Submit query”

6.7 How can I use the “display column” feature?

Starting from the previous example, create the pma__table_info as explained in the configuration section, then browse your persons table, and move the mouse over a town code or country code. See also 6.21 In edit/insert mode, how can I see a list of possible values for a column, based on some foreign table? for an additional feature that “display column” enables: drop-down list of possible values.

6.8 How can I produce a PDF schema of my database?

First the configuration variables “relation”, “table_coords” and “pdf_pages” have to be filled in. Then you need to think about your schema layout. Which tables will go on which pages?

  • Select your database in the navigation panel.
  • Choose “Operations” in the navigation bar at the top.
  • Choose “Edit PDF Pages” near the bottom of the page.
  • Enter a name for the first PDF page and click Go. If you like, you can use the “automatic layout,” which will put all your linked tables onto the new page.
  • Select the name of the new page (making sure the Edit radio button is selected) and click Go.
  • Select a table from the list, enter its coordinates and click Save. Coordinates are relative; your diagram will be automatically scaled to fit the page. When initially placing tables on the page, just pick any coordinates – say, 50x50. After clicking Save, you can then use the 6.28 How can I easily edit relational schema for export? to position the element correctly.
  • When you’d like to look at your PDF, first be sure to click the Save button beneath the list of tables and coordinates, to save any changes you made there. Then scroll all the way down, select the PDF options you want, and click Go.
  • Internet Explorer for Windows may suggest an incorrect filename when you try to save a generated PDF. When saving a generated PDF, be sure that the filename ends in ”.pdf”, for example “schema.pdf”. Browsers on other operating systems, and other browsers on Windows, do not have this problem.

6.9 phpMyAdmin is changing the type of one of my columns!

No, it’s MySQL that is doing silent column type changing.

6.10 When creating a privilege, what happens with underscores in the database name?

If you do not put a backslash before the underscore, this is a wildcard grant, and the underscore means “any character”. So, if the database name is “john_db”, the user would get rights to john1db, john2db ... If you put a backslash before the underscore, it means that the database name will have a real underscore.

6.11 What is the curious symbol ø in the statistics pages?

It means “average”.

6.12 I want to understand some Export options.

Structure:

  • “Add DROP TABLE” will add a line telling MySQL to drop the table, if it already exists during the import. It does NOT drop the table after your export, it only affects the import file.
  • “If Not Exists” will only create the table if it doesn’t exist. Otherwise, you may get an error if the table name exists but has a different structure.
  • “Add AUTO_INCREMENT value” ensures that AUTO_INCREMENT value (if any) will be included in backup.
  • “Enclose table and column names with backquotes” ensures that column and table names formed with special characters are protected.
  • “Add into comments” includes column comments, relations, and MIME types set in the pmadb in the dump as SQL comments (/* xxx */).

Data:

  • “Complete inserts” adds the column names on every INSERT command, for better documentation (but resulting file is bigger).
  • “Extended inserts” provides a shorter dump file by using only once the INSERT verb and the table name.
  • “Delayed inserts” are best explained in the MySQL manual - INSERT DELAYED Syntax.
  • “Ignore inserts” treats errors as a warning instead. Again, more info is provided in the MySQL manual - INSERT Syntax, but basically with this selected, invalid values are adjusted and inserted rather than causing the entire statement to fail.

6.13 I would like to create a database with a dot in its name.

This is a bad idea, because in MySQL the syntax “database.table” is the normal way to reference a database and table name. Worse, MySQL will usually let you create a database with a dot, but then you cannot work with it, nor delete it.

6.14 (withdrawn).

6.15 I want to add a BLOB column and put an index on it, but MySQL says “BLOB column ‘...’ used in key specification without a key length”.

The right way to do this, is to create the column without any indexes, then display the table structure and use the “Create an index” dialog. On this page, you will be able to choose your BLOB column, and set a size to the index, which is the condition to create an index on a BLOB column.

6.16 How can I simply move in page with plenty editing fields?

You can use Ctrl+arrows (Option+Arrows in Safari) for moving on most pages with many editing fields (table structure changes, row editing, etc.).

6.17 Transformations: I can’t enter my own mimetype! WTF is this feature then useful for?

Slow down :). Defining mimetypes is of no use, if you can’t put transformations on them. Otherwise you could just put a comment on the column. Because entering your own mimetype will cause serious syntax checking issues and validation, this introduces a high-risk false- user-input situation. Instead you have to initialize mimetypes using functions or empty mimetype definitions.

Plus, you have a whole overview of available mimetypes. Who knows all those mimetypes by heart so he/she can enter it at will?

6.18 Bookmarks: Where can I store bookmarks? Why can’t I see any bookmarks below the query box? What is this variable for?

Any query you have executed can be stored as a bookmark on the page where the results are displayed. You will find a button labeled ‘Bookmark this query’ just at the end of the page. As soon as you have stored a bookmark, it is related to the database you run the query on. You can now access a bookmark dropdown on each page, the query box appears on for that database.

You can also have, inside the query, a placeholder for a variable. This is done by inserting into the query a SQL comment between /* and */. Inside the comment, the special string [VARIABLE] is used. Be aware that the whole query minus the SQL comment must be valid by itself, otherwise you won’t be able to store it as a bookmark.

When you execute the bookmark, everything typed into the value input box on the query box page will replace the string /*[VARIABLE]*/ in your stored query.

Also remember, that everything else inside the /*[VARIABLE]*/ string for your query will remain the way it is, but will be stripped of the /**/ chars. So you can use:

/*, [VARIABLE] AS myname */

which will be expanded to

, VARIABLE as myname

in your query, where VARIABLE is the string you entered in the input box. If an empty string is provided, no replacements are made.

A more complex example. Say you have stored this query:

SELECT Name, Address FROM addresses WHERE 1 /* AND Name LIKE '%[VARIABLE]%' */

Say, you now enter “phpMyAdmin” as the variable for the stored query, the full query will be:

SELECT Name, Address FROM addresses WHERE 1 AND Name LIKE '%phpMyAdmin%'

You can use multiple occurrences of /*[VARIABLE]*/ in a single query (that is, multiple occurrences of the same variable).

NOTE THE ABSENCE OF SPACES inside the /**/ construct. Any spaces inserted there will be later also inserted as spaces in your query and may lead to unexpected results especially when using the variable expansion inside of a “LIKE ‘’” expression.

Your initial query which is going to be stored as a bookmark has to yield at least one result row so you can store the bookmark. You may have that to work around using well positioned /**/ comments.

6.19 How can I create simple LATEX document to include exported table?

You can simply include table in your LATEX documents, minimal sample document should look like following one (assuming you have table exported in file table.tex):

\documentclass{article} % or any class you want
\usepackage{longtable}  % for displaying table
\begin{document}        % start of document
\include{table}         % including exported table
\end{document}          % end of document

6.20 I see a lot of databases which are not mine, and cannot access them.

You have one of these global privileges: CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, SHOW DATABASES, LOCK TABLES. Those privileges also enable users to see all the database names. So if your users do not need those privileges, you can remove them and their databases list will shorten.

6.21 In edit/insert mode, how can I see a list of possible values for a column, based on some foreign table?

You have to setup appropriate links between the tables, and also setup the “display column” in the foreign table. See 6.6 How can I use the relation table in Query-by-example? for an example. Then, if there are 100 values or less in the foreign table, a drop-down list of values will be available. You will see two lists of values, the first list containing the key and the display column, the second list containing the display column and the key. The reason for this is to be able to type the first letter of either the key or the display column. For 100 values or more, a distinct window will appear, to browse foreign key values and choose one. To change the default limit of 100, see $cfg['ForeignKeyMaxLimit'].

6.22 Bookmarks: Can I execute a default bookmark automatically when entering Browse mode for a table?

Yes. If a bookmark has the same label as a table name and it’s not a public bookmark, it will be executed.

6.23 Export: I heard phpMyAdmin can export Microsoft Excel files?

You can use CSV for Microsoft Excel, which works out of the box.

Changed in version 3.4.5: Since phpMyAdmin 3.4.5 support for direct export to Microsoft Excel version 97 and newer was dropped.

6.24 Now that phpMyAdmin supports native MySQL 4.1.x column comments, what happens to my column comments stored in pmadb?

Automatic migration of a table’s pmadb-style column comments to the native ones is done whenever you enter Structure page for this table.

6.25 (withdrawn).

6.26 How can I select a range of rows?

Click the first row of the range, hold the shift key and click the last row of the range. This works everywhere you see rows, for example in Browse mode or on the Structure page.

6.27 What format strings can I use?

In all places where phpMyAdmin accepts format strings, you can use @VARIABLE@ expansion and strftime format strings. The expanded variables depend on a context (for example, if you haven’t chosen a table, you can not get the table name), but the following variables can be used:

@HTTP_HOST@
HTTP host that runs phpMyAdmin
@SERVER@
MySQL server name
@VERBOSE@
Verbose MySQL server name as defined in $cfg['Servers'][$i]['verbose']
@VSERVER@
Verbose MySQL server name if set, otherwise normal
@DATABASE@
Currently opened database
@TABLE@
Currently opened table
@COLUMNS@
Columns of the currently opened table
@PHPMYADMIN@
phpMyAdmin with version

6.28 How can I easily edit relational schema for export?

By clicking on the button ‘toggle scratchboard’ on the page where you edit x/y coordinates of those elements you can activate a scratchboard where all your elements are placed. By clicking on an element, you can move them around in the pre-defined area and the x/y coordinates will get updated dynamically. Likewise, when entering a new position directly into the input field, the new position in the scratchboard changes after your cursor leaves the input field.

You have to click on the ‘OK’-button below the tables to save the new positions. If you want to place a new element, first add it to the table of elements and then you can drag the new element around.

By changing the paper size and the orientation you can change the size of the scratchboard as well. You can do so by just changing the dropdown field below, and the scratchboard will resize automatically, without interfering with the current placement of the elements.

If ever an element gets out of range you can either enlarge the paper size or click on the ‘reset’ button to place all elements below each other.

6.29 Why can’t I get a chart from my query result table?

Not every table can be put to the chart. Only tables with one, two or three columns can be visualised as a chart. Moreover the table must be in a special format for chart script to understand it. Currently supported formats can be found in the wiki.

6.30 Import: How can I import ESRI Shapefiles?

An ESRI Shapefile is actually a set of several files, where .shp file contains geometry data and .dbf file contains data related to those geometry data. To read data from .dbf file you need to have PHP compiled with the dBase extension (–enable-dbase). Otherwise only geometry data will be imported.

To upload these set of files you can use either of the following methods:

Configure upload directory with $cfg['UploadDir'], upload both .shp and .dbf files with the same filename and chose the .shp file from the import page.

Create a Zip archive with .shp and .dbf files and import it. For this to work, you need to set $cfg['TempDir'] to a place where the web server user can write (for example './tmp').

To create the temporary directory on a UNIX-based system, you can do:

cd phpMyAdmin
mkdir tmp
chmod o+rwx tmp

6.31 How do I create a relation in designer?

To select relation, click: The display column is shown in pink. To set/unset a column as the display column, click the “Choose column to display” icon, then click on the appropriate column name.

6.32 How can I use the zoom search feature?

The Zoom search feature is an alternative to table search feature. It allows you to explore a table by representing its data in a scatter plot. You can locate this feature by selecting a table and clicking the Search tab. One of the sub-tabs in the Table Search page is Zoom Search.

Consider the table REL_persons in 6.6 How can I use the relation table in Query-by-example? for an example. To use zoom search, two columns need to be selected, for example, id and town_code. The id values will be represented on one axis and town_code values on the other axis. Each row will be represented as a point in a scatter plot based on its id and town_code. You can include two additional search criteria apart from the two fields to display.

You can choose which field should be displayed as label for each point. If a display column has been set for the table (see 6.7 How can I use the “display column” feature?), it is taken as the label unless you specify otherwise. You can also select the maximum number of rows you want to be displayed in the plot by specifing it in the ‘Max rows to plot’ field. Once you have decided over your criteria, click ‘Go’ to display the plot.

After the plot is generated, you can use the mousewheel to zoom in and out of the plot. In addition, panning feature is enabled to navigate through the plot. You can zoom-in to a certail level of detail and use panning to locate your area of interest. Clicking on a point opens a dialogue box, displaying field values of the data row represented by the point. You can edit the values if required and click on submit to issue an update query. Basic instructions on how to use can be viewed by clicking the ‘How to use?’ link located just above the plot.

6.33 When browsing a table, how can I copy a column name?

Selecting the name of the column within the browse table header cell for copying is difficult, as the columns support reordering by dragging the header cells as well as sorting by clicking on the linked column name. To copy a column name, double-click on the empty area next to the column name, when the tooltip tells you to do so. This will show you an input box with the column name. You may right-click the column name within this input box to copy it to your clipboard.

6.34 How can I use the Favorite Tables feature?

Favorite Tables feature is very much similar to Recent Tables feature. It allows you to add a shortcut for the frequently used tables of any database in the navigation panel . You can easily navigate to any table in the list by simply choosing it from the list. These tables are stored in your browser’s local storage if you have not configured your phpMyAdmin Configuration Storage. Otherwise these entries are stored in phpMyAdmin Configuration Storage.

IMPORTANT: In absence of phpMyAdmin Configuration Storage, your Favorite tables may be different in different browsers based on your different selections in them.

To add a table to Favorite list simply click on the Gray star in front of a table name in the list of tables of a Database and wait until it turns to Yellow. To remove a table from list, simply click on the Yellow star and wait until it turns Gray again.

Using $cfg['NumFavoriteTables'] in your config.inc.php file, you can define the maximum number of favorite tables shown in the navigation panel. Its default value is 10.

6.35 How can I use the Range search feature?

With the help of range search feature, one can specify a range of values for particular column(s) while performing search operation on a table from the Search tab.

To use this feature simply click on the BETWEEN or NOT BETWEEN operators from the operator select list in front of the column name. On choosing one of the above options, a dialog box will show up asking for the Minimum and Maximum value for that column. Only the specified range of values will be included in case of BETWEEN and excluded in case of NOT BETWEEN from the final results.

Note: The Range search feature will work only Numeric and Date data type columns.

6.36 What is Central columns and How can I use this feature?

As the name suggests, the Central columns feature enables to maintain a central list of columns per database to avoid similar name for the same data element and bring consistency of data type for the same data element. You can use the central list of columns to add an element to any table structure in that database which will save from writing similar column name and column definition.

To add a column to central list, go to table structure page, check the columns you want to include and then simply click on “Add to central columns”. If you want to add all unique columns from more than one table from a database then go to database structure page, check the tables you want to include and then select “Add columns to central list”.

To remove a column from central list, go to Table structure page, check the columns you want to remove and then simply click on “Remove from central columns”. If you want to remove all columns from more than one tables from a database then go to database structure page, check the tables you want to include and then select “Remove columns from central list”.

To view and manage the central list, select the database you want to manage central columns for then from the top menu click on “Central columns”. You will be taken to a page where you will have options to edit, delete or add new columns to central list.

6.37 How can I use Improve Table structure feature?

Improve table structure feature helps to bring the table structure upto Third Normal Form. A wizard is presented to user which asks questions about the elements during the various steps for normalization and a new structure is proposed accordingly to bring the table into the First/Second/Third Normal form. On startup of the wizard, user gets to select upto what normal form they want to normalize the table structure.

Here is an example table which you can use to test all of the three First, Second and Third Normal From.

CREATE TABLE `VetOffice` (
 `petName` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
 `petBreed` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
 `petType` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
 `petDOB` date NOT NULL,
 `ownerLastName` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
 `ownerFirstName` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
 `ownerPhone1` int(12) NOT NULL,
 `ownerPhone2` int(12) NOT NULL,
 `ownerEmail` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
);

The above table is not in First normal Form as no primary key exists. Primary key is supposed to be (petName,`ownerLastName`,`ownerFirstName`) . If the primary key is chosen as suggested the resultant table won’t be in Second as well as Third Normal form as the following dependencies exists.

(OwnerLastName, OwnerFirstName) -> OwnerEmail
(OwnerLastName, OwnerFirstName) -> OwnerPhone
PetBreed -> PetType

Which says, OwnerEmail depends on OwnerLastName and OwnerFirstName. OwnerPhone depends on OwnerLastName and OwnerFirstName. PetType depends on PetBreed.

phpMyAdmin project

7.1 I have found a bug. How do I inform developers?

Our Bug Tracker is located at <http://sf.net/projects/phpmyadmin/> under the Bugs section. But please first discuss your bug with other users: <https://sourceforge.net/projects/phpmyadmin/forums>.

7.2 I want to translate the messages to a new language or upgrade an existing language, where do I start?

Translations are very welcome and all you need to have are the language skills. The easiest way is to use our online translation service. You can check out all the possibilities to translate in the translate section on our website.

7.3 I would like to help out with the development of phpMyAdmin. How should I proceed?

We welcome every contribution to the development of phpMyAdmin. You can check out all the possibilities to contribute in the contribute section on our website.

Security

8.1 Where can I get information about the security alerts issued for phpMyAdmin?

Please refer to <http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/security.php>.

8.2 How can I protect phpMyAdmin against brute force attacks?

If you use Apache web server, phpMyAdmin exports information about authentication to the Apache environment and it can be used in Apache logs. Currently there are two variables available:

userID
User name of currently active user (he does not have to be logged in).
userStatus
Status of currently active user, one of ok (user is logged in), mysql-denied (MySQL denied user login), allow-denied (user denied by allow/deny rules), root-denied (root is denied in configuration), empty-denied (empty password is denied).

LogFormat directive for Apache can look like following:

LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %{userID}n %{userStatus}n"   pma_combined

You can then use any log analyzing tools to detect possible break-in attempts.

Synchronization

9.1 (withdrawn).

9.2 (withdrawn).

Developers Information

phpMyAdmin is Open Source, so you’re invited to contribute to it. Many great features have been written by other people and you too can help to make phpMyAdmin a useful tool.

You can check out all the possibilities to contribute in the contribute section on our website.

Distributing and packaging phpMyAdmin

This document is intended to give advices to people who want to redistribute phpMyAdmin inside other software package such as Linux distribution or some all in one package including web server and MySQL server.

Generally you can customize some basic aspects (paths to some files and behavior) in libraries/vendor_config.php.

For example if you want setup script to generate config file in var, change SETUP_CONFIG_FILE to /var/lib/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php and you will also probably want to skip directory writable check, so set SETUP_DIR_WRITABLE to false.

External libraries

phpMyAdmin includes several external libraries, you might want to replace them with system ones if they are available, but please note that you should test whether version you provide is compatible with the one we ship.

Currently known list of external libraries:

js/jquery
jQuery js framework and various jQuery based libraries.
libraries/php-gettext
php-gettext library
libraries/tcpdf
tcpdf library, stripped down of not needed files
libraries/phpseclib
portions of phpseclib library

Credits

Credits, in chronological order

  • Tobias Ratschiller <tobias_at_ratschiller.com>
    • creator of the phpmyadmin project
    • maintainer from 1998 to summer 2000
  • Marc Delisle <marc_at_infomarc.info>
    • multi-language version in December 1998
    • various fixes and improvements
    • SQL analyser (most of it)
    • current project maintainer
    • maintains content on our website
  • Olivier Müller <om_at_omnis.ch>
    • started SourceForge phpMyAdmin project in March 2001
    • sync’ed different existing CVS trees with new features and bugfixes
    • multi-language improvements, dynamic language selection
    • many bugfixes and improvements
  • Loïc Chapeaux <lolo_at_phpheaven.net>
    • rewrote and optimized javascript, DHTML and DOM stuff
    • rewrote the scripts so they fit the PEAR coding standards and generate XHTML1.0 and CSS2 compliant codes
    • improved the language detection system
    • many bugfixes and improvements
  • Robin Johnson <robbat2_at_users.sourceforge.net>
    • database maintenance controls
    • table type code
    • Host authentication IP Allow/Deny
    • DB-based configuration (Not completed)
    • SQL parser and pretty-printer
    • SQL validator
    • many bugfixes and improvements
  • Armel Fauveau <armel.fauveau_at_globalis-ms.com>
    • bookmarks feature
    • multiple dump feature
    • gzip dump feature
    • zip dump feature
  • Geert Lund <glund_at_silversoft.dk>
    • various fixes
    • moderator of the phpMyAdmin former users forum at phpwizard.net
  • Korakot Chaovavanich <korakot_at_iname.com>
    • “insert as new row” feature
  • Pete Kelly <webmaster_at_trafficg.com>
    • rewrote and fix dump code
    • bugfixes
  • Steve Alberty <alberty_at_neptunlabs.de>
    • rewrote dump code for PHP4
    • mySQL table statistics
    • bugfixes
  • Benjamin Gandon <gandon_at_isia.cma.fr>
    • main author of the version 2.1.0.1
    • bugfixes
  • Alexander M. Turek <me_at_derrabus.de>
    • MySQL 4.0 / 4.1 / 5.0 compatibility
    • abstract database interface (PMA_DBI) with MySQLi support
    • privileges administration
    • XML exports
    • various features and fixes
    • German language file updates
  • Mike Beck <mike.beck_at_web.de>
    • automatic joins in QBE
    • links column in printview
    • Relation view
  • Michal Čihař <michal_at_cihar.com>
    • enhanced index creation/display feature
    • feature to use a different charset for HTML than for MySQL
    • improvements of export feature
    • various features and fixes
    • Czech language file updates
    • created current website for phpMyAdmin
  • Christophe Gesché from the “MySQL Form Generator for PHPMyAdmin” (http://sf.net/projects/phpmysqlformgen/)
    • suggested the patch for multiple table printviews
  • Garvin Hicking <me_at_supergarv.de>
    • built the patch for vertical display of table rows
    • built the Javascript based Query window + SQL history
    • Improvement of column/db comments
    • (MIME)-Transformations for columns
    • Use custom alias names for Databases in left frame
    • hierarchical/nested table display
    • PDF-scratchboard for WYSIWYG- distribution of PDF relations
    • new icon sets
    • vertical display of column properties page
    • some bugfixes, features, support, German language additions
  • Yukihiro Kawada <kawada_at_den.fujifilm.co.jp>
    • japanese kanji encoding conversion feature
  • Piotr Roszatycki <d3xter_at_users.sourceforge.net> and Dan Wilson
    • the Cookie authentication mode
  • Axel Sander <n8falke_at_users.sourceforge.net>
    • table relation-links feature
  • Maxime Delorme <delorme.maxime_at_free.fr>
  • Olof Edlund <olof.edlund_at_upright.se>
    • SQL validator server
  • Ivan R. Lanin <ivanlanin_at_users.sourceforge.net>
    • phpMyAdmin logo (until June 2004)
  • Mike Cochrane <mike_at_graftonhall.co.nz>
    • blowfish library from the Horde project (withdrawn in release 4.0)
  • Marcel Tschopp <ne0x_at_users.sourceforge.net>
    • mysqli support
    • many bugfixes and improvements
  • Nicola Asuni (Tecnick.com)
  • Michael Keck <mkkeck_at_users.sourceforge.net>
    • redesign for 2.6.0
    • phpMyAdmin sailboat logo (June 2004)
  • Mathias Landhäußer
    • Representation at conferences
  • Sebastian Mendel <cybot_tm_at_users.sourceforge.net>
    • interface improvements
    • various bugfixes
  • Ivan A Kirillov
    • new relations Designer
  • Raj Kissu Rajandran (Google Summer of Code 2008)
    • BLOBstreaming support (withdrawn in release 4.0)
  • Piotr Przybylski (Google Summer of Code 2008, 2010 and 2011)
    • improved setup script
    • user preferences
    • Drizzle support
  • Derek Schaefer (Google Summer of Code 2009)
    • Improved the import system
  • Alexander Rutkowski (Google Summer of Code 2009)
    • Tracking mechanism
  • Zahra Naeem (Google Summer of Code 2009)
    • Synchronization feature (removed in release 4.0)
  • Tomáš Srnka (Google Summer of Code 2009)
    • Replication support
  • Muhammad Adnan (Google Summer of Code 2010)
    • Relation schema export to multiple formats
  • Lori Lee (Google Summer of Code 2010)
    • User interface improvements
    • ENUM/SET editor
    • Simplified interface for export/import
  • Ninad Pundalik (Google Summer of Code 2010)
    • AJAXifying the interface
  • Martynas Mickevičius (Google Summer of Code 2010)
    • Charts
  • Barrie Leslie
    • BLOBstreaming support with PBMS PHP extension (withdrawn in release 4.0)
  • Ankit Gupta (Google Summer of Code 2010)
    • Visual query builder
  • Madhura Jayaratne (Google Summer of Code 2011)
    • OpenGIS support
  • Ammar Yasir (Google Summer of Code 2011)
    • Zoom search
  • Aris Feryanto (Google Summer of Code 2011)
    • Browse-mode improvements
  • Thilanka Kaushalya (Google Summer of Code 2011)
    • AJAXification
  • Tyron Madlener (Google Summer of Code 2011)
    • Query statistics and charts for the status page
  • Zarubin Stas (Google Summer of Code 2011)
    • Automated testing
  • Rouslan Placella (Google Summer of Code 2011 and 2012)
    • Improved support for Stored Routines, Triggers and Events
    • Italian translation updates
    • Removal of frames, new navigation
  • Dieter Adriaenssens
    • Various bugfixes
    • Dutch translation updates
  • Alex Marin (Google Summer of Code 2012)
    • New plugins and properties system
  • Thilina Buddika Abeyrathna (Google Summer of Code 2012)
    • Refactoring
  • Atul Pratap Singh (Google Summer of Code 2012)
    • Refactoring
  • Chanaka Indrajith (Google Summer of Code 2012)
    • Refactoring
  • Yasitha Pandithawatta (Google Summer of Code 2012)
    • Automated testing
  • Jim Wigginton (phpseclib.sourceforge.net)
    • phpseclib
  • Bin Zu (Google Summer of Code 2013)
    • Refactoring
  • Supun Nakandala (Google Summer of Code 2013)
    • Refactoring
  • Mohamed Ashraf (Google Summer of Code 2013)
    • AJAX error reporting
  • Adam Kang (Google Summer of Code 2013)
    • Automated testing
  • Ayush Chaudhary (Google Summer of Code 2013)
    • Automated testing
  • Kasun Chathuranga (Google Summer of Code 2013)
    • Interface improvements
  • Hugues Peccatte
    • Load/save query by example (database search bookmarks)
  • Smita Kumari (Google Summer of Code 2014)
    • Central list of columns
    • Improve table structure (normalization)
  • Ashutosh Dhundhara (Google Summer of Code 2014)
    • Interface improvements
  • Dhananjay Nakrani (Google Summer of Code 2014)
    • PHP error reporting
  • Edward Cheng (Google Summer of Code 2014)
    • SQL Query Console
  • Kankanamge Bimal Yashodha (Google Summer of Code 2014)
    • Refactoring: Designer/schema integration
  • Chirayu Chiripal (Google Summer of Code 2014)
    • Custom field handlers (Input based MIME transformations)
    • Export with table/column name changes

And also to the following people who have contributed minor changes, enhancements, bugfixes or support for a new language since version 2.1.0:

Bora Alioglu, Ricardo ?, Sven-Erik Andersen, Alessandro Astarita, Péter Bakondy, Borges Botelho, Olivier Bussier, Neil Darlow, Mats Engstrom, Ian Davidson, Laurent Dhima, Kristof Hamann, Thomas Kläger, Lubos Klokner, Martin Marconcini, Girish Nair, David Nordenberg, Andreas Pauley, Bernard M. Piller, Laurent Haas, “Sakamoto”, Yuval Sarna, www.securereality.com.au, Alexis Soulard, Alvar Soome, Siu Sun, Peter Svec, Michael Tacelosky, Rachim Tamsjadi, Kositer Uros, Luís V., Martijn W. van der Lee, Algis Vainauskas, Daniel Villanueva, Vinay, Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams, Chee Wai, Jakub Wilk, Thomas Michael Winningham, Vilius Zigmantas, “Manuzhai”.

Translators

Following people have contributed to translation of phpMyAdmin:

  • Arabic
    • Abdullah Al-Saedi <abdullah.10_at_windowslive.com>
  • Bulgarian
    • stoyanster <stoyanster_at_gmail.com>
  • Catalan
    • Xavier Navarro <xvnavarro_at_gmail.com>
  • Czech
    • Michal Čihař <michal_at_cihar.com>
  • Danish
    • opensource <opensource_at_jth.net>
    • Jørgen Thomsen <opensource_at_jth.net>
  • German
    • mrbendig <mrbendig_at_mrbendig.com>
    • torsten.funck <torsten.funck_at_googlemail.com>
    • Sven Strickroth <email_at_cs-ware.de>
    • typo3 <typo3_at_dirk-weise.de>
    • Jo Michael <me_at_mynetx.net>
  • Greek
    • Panagiotis Papazoglou <papaz_p_at_yahoo.com>
  • English (United Kingdom)
    • Robert Readman <robert_readman_at_hotmail.com>
  • Spanish
    • Matías Bellone <matiasbellone_at_gmail.com>
  • French
    • Marc Delisle <marc_at_infomarc.info>
  • Hindi
    • u4663530 <u4663530_at_anu.edu.au>
    • rsedwardian <rsedwardian_at_gmail.com>
  • Hungarian
    • gergo314 <gergo314_at_gmail.com>
  • Italian
    • Rouslan Placella <rouslan_at_placella.com>
  • Japanese
    • Yuichiro <yuichiro_at_pop07.odn.ne.jp>
  • Lithuanian
    • Kęstutis <forkik_at_gmail.com>
  • Norwegian Bokmål
    • Sven-Erik Andersen <sven.erik.andersen_at_gmail.com>
  • Dutch
    • Dieter Adriaenssens <ruleant_at_users.sourceforge.net>
    • Herman van Rink <rink_at_initfour.nl>
  • Polish
    • Stanisław Krukowski <stankruk_at_neostrada.pl>
    • Marcin Kozioł <lord_dark_at_wp.pl>
  • Portuguese
    • JoaoTMDias <contacto_at_joaodias.me>
  • Portuguese (Brazil)
    • wiltave <wiltave_at_gmail.com>
    • emerson4br <emerson4br_at_gmail.com>
  • Romanian
    • alexukf <alex.ukf_at_gmail.com>
  • Russian
    • Victor Volkov <hanut_at_php-myadmin.ru>
  • Sinhala
    • Madhura Jayaratne <madhura.cj_at_gmail.com>
  • Slovak
    • Martin Lacina <martin_at_whistler.sk>
  • Slovenian
    • Domen <dbc334_at_gmail.com>
  • Swedish
    • stefan <stefan_at_inkopsforum.se>
  • Tamil
    • ysajeepan <ysajeepan_at_live.com>
  • Telugu
    • veeven <veeven_at_gmail.com>
  • Thai
    • kanitchet <kanichet_at_hotmail.com>
  • Turkish
    • Burak Yavuz <hitowerdigit_at_hotmail.com>
  • Uighur
    • gheni <gheni_at_yahoo.cn>
  • Ukrainian
    • typim <duke3d_at_ukr.net>
    • oleg-ilnytskyi <ukraine.oleg_at_gmail.com>
  • Urdu
    • Mehbooob Khan <mehboobbugti_at_gmail.com>
  • Simplified Chinese
    • shanyan baishui <Siramizu_at_gmail.com>
  • Traditional Chinese
    • star <star_at_origin.club.tw>

Documentation translators

Following people have contributed to translation of phpMyAdmin documentation:

  • Czech
    • Michal Čihař <michal_at_cihar.com>
  • Greek
    • Panagiotis Papazoglou <papaz_p_at_yahoo.com>
  • English (United Kingdom)
    • Robert Readman <robert_readman_at_hotmail.com>
  • French
    • Cédric Corazza <cedric.corazza_at_wanadoo.fr>
  • Japanese
    • Yuichiro Takahashi <yuichiro_at_pop07.odn.ne.jp>
  • Polish
    • Stanisław Krukowski <stankruk_at_neostrada.pl>
  • Portuguese (Brazil)
    • mjaning <mjaning_at_gmail.com>
  • Slovenian
    • Domen <dbc334_at_gmail.com>

Original Credits of Version 2.1.0

This work is based on Peter Kuppelwieser’s MySQL-Webadmin. It was his idea to create a web-based interface to MySQL using PHP3. Although I have not used any of his source-code, there are some concepts I’ve borrowed from him. phpMyAdmin was created because Peter told me he wasn’t going to further develop his (great) tool.

Thanks go to

  • Amalesh Kempf <ak-lsml_at_living-source.com> who contributed the code for the check when dropping a table or database. He also suggested that you should be able to specify the primary key on tbl_create.php3. To version 1.1.1 he contributed the ldi_*.php3-set (Import text-files) as well as a bug-report. Plus many smaller improvements.
  • Jan Legenhausen <jan_at_nrw.net>: He made many of the changes that were introduced in 1.3.0 (including quite significant ones like the authentication). For 1.4.1 he enhanced the table-dump feature. Plus bug-fixes and help.
  • Marc Delisle <DelislMa_at_CollegeSherbrooke.qc.ca> made phpMyAdmin language-independent by outsourcing the strings to a separate file. He also contributed the French translation.
  • Alexandr Bravo <abravo_at_hq.admiral.ru> who contributed tbl_select.php3, a feature to display only some columns from a table.
  • Chris Jackson <chrisj_at_ctel.net> added support for MySQL functions in tbl_change.php3. He also added the “Query by Example” feature in 2.0.
  • Dave Walton <walton_at_nordicdms.com> added support for multiple servers and is a regular contributor for bug-fixes.
  • Gabriel Ash <ga244_at_is8.nyu.edu> contributed the random access features for 2.0.6.

The following people have contributed minor changes, enhancements, bugfixes or support for a new language:

Jim Kraai, Jordi Bruguera, Miquel Obrador, Geert Lund, Thomas Kleemann, Alexander Leidinger, Kiko Albiol, Daniel C. Chao, Pavel Piankov, Sascha Kettler, Joe Pruett, Renato Lins, Mark Kronsbein, Jannis Hermanns, G. Wieggers.

And thanks to everyone else who sent me email with suggestions, bug- reports and or just some feedback.

Glossary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

.htaccess

the default name of Apache’s directory-level configuration file.

ACL
Access Contol List
Blowfish

a keyed, symmetric block cipher, designed in 1993 by Bruce Schneier.

Browser

a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, and other information typically located on a web page at a website on the World Wide Web.

bzip2

a free software/open source data compression algorithm and program developed by Julian Seward.

CGI

Common Gateway Interface is an important World Wide Web technology that enables a client web browser to request data from a program executed on the Web server.

Changelog

a log or record of changes made to a project.

Client

a computer system that accesses a (remote) service on another computer by some kind of network.

column

a set of data values of a particular simple type, one for each row of the table.

a packet of information sent by a server to a World Wide Web browser and then sent back by the browser each time it accesses that server.

CSV

Comma- separated values

DB
look at database
database

an organized collection of data.

Engine
look at storage engines
extension

a PHP module that extends PHP with additional functionality.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions is a list of commonly asked question and there answers.

Field

one part of divided data/columns.

foreign key

a column or group of columns in a database row that point to a key column or group of columns forming a key of another database row in some (usually different) table.

FPDF

the free PDF library

GD

Graphics Library by Thomas Boutell and others for dynamically manipulating images.

GD2
look at gd
gzip

gzip is short for GNU zip, a GNU free software file compression program.

host

any machine connected to a computer network, a node that has a hostname.

hostname

the unique name by which a network attached device is known on a network.

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol is the primary method used to transfer or convey information on the World Wide Web.

https

a HTTP-connection with additional security measures.

IEC
International Electrotechnical Commission
IIS

Internet Information Services is a set of Internet-based services for servers using Microsoft Windows.

Index

a feature that allows quick access to the rows in a table.

IP

Internet Protocol is a data-oriented protocol used by source and destination hosts for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork.

IP Address

a unique number that devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard.

IPv6

IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is the latest revision of the Internet Protocol (IP), designed to deal with the long-anticipated problem of its precedessor IPv4 running out of addresses.

ISAPI

Internet Server Application Programming Interface is the API of Internet Information Services (IIS).

ISP

Internet service provider is a business or organization that offers users access to the Internet and related services.

ISO
International Standards Organisation
JPEG

a most commonly used standard method of lossy compression for photographic images.

JPG
look at jpeg
Key
look at index
LATEX

a document preparation system for the TEX typesetting program.

Mac

Apple Macintosh is line of personal computers is designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer.

. seealso:: <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac>

Mac OS X

the operating system which is included with all currently shipping Apple Macintosh computers in the consumer and professional markets.

MCrypt

a cryptographic library.

mcrypt

the MCrypt PHP extension.

MIME

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions is an Internet Standard for the format of e-mail.

module

some sort of extension for the Apache Webserver.

MySQL

a multithreaded, multi-user, SQL (Structured Query Language) Database Management System (DBMS).

mysqli

the improved MySQL client PHP extension.

mysql

the MySQL client PHP extension.

OpenDocument

open standard for office documents.

OS X

look at Mac OS X.

PDF

Portable Document Format is a file format developed by Adobe Systems for representing two dimensional documents in a device independent and resolution independent format.

PEAR

the PHP Extension and Application Repository.

PCRE

Perl Compatible Regular Expressions is the perl-compatible regular expression functions for PHP

See also

<http://php.net/pcre>

PHP

short for “PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor”, is an open-source, reflective programming language used mainly for developing server-side applications and dynamic web content, and more recently, a broader range of software applications.

port

a connection through which data is sent and received.

RFC

Request for Comments (RFC) documents are a series of memoranda encompassing new research, innovations, and methodologies applicable to Internet technologies.

RFC 1952

GZIP file format specification version 4.3

See also

RFC 1952

Row (record, tuple)

represents a single, implicitly structured data item in a table.

Server

a computer system that provides services to other computing systems over a network.

Storage Engines

handlers for different table types

socket

a form of inter-process communication.

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer is a cryptographic protocol which provides secure communication on the Internet.

Stored procedure

a subroutine available to applications accessing a relational database system

SQL

Structured Query Language

table

a set of data elements (cells) that is organized, defined and stored as horizontal rows and vertical columns where each item can be uniquely identified by a label or key or by it?s position in relation to other items.

tar

a type of archive file format: the Tape ARchive format.

TCP

Transmission Control Protocol is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite.

TCPDF

Rewrite of UFPDF with various improvements.

trigger

a procedural code that is automatically executed in response to certain events on a particular table or view in a database

UFPDF

Unicode/UTF-8 extension for FPDF

URL

Uniform Resource Locator is a sequence of characters, conforming to a standardized format, that is used for referring to resources, such as documents and images on the Internet, by their location.

Webserver

A computer (program) that is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from clients and serving them Web pages.

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a W3C-recommended general- purpose markup language for creating special-purpose markup languages, capable of describing many different kinds of data.

ZIP

a popular data compression and archival format.

zlib

an open-source, cross- platform data compression library by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.

Indices and tables