Databases

A number of Societies want a dynamic website of one variety or another. The database we run is called MySQL. Further details and documentation is available on MySQL.com.

To use MySQL, you must first request an account on the database. Having an email/web account on the server entitles you to one, but they are not automatically created. It is done upon request -- you need to email root@umu.man.ac.uk.

You will generally get granted two accounts. The first is an "admin" account which allows you to make structural changes to the database (create and drop tables etc) as well as add,delete,update entries in existing tables. The second account does not have the admin privileges, but can add,delete, update rows in tables. This allows for some degree of split between admin and user functions for each society.

When setting up PHP/Perl/whatever sites to use the database, the information you may need is: 

 Hostname      : localhost
 ServerType    : MySQL version 3

The following will be given to you when your account is created: 
 UserID        :  
 Password      : 
 Database Name :

Please note that the database does not allow connections from off the machine, so that if you want to log in to the database to execute SQL commands manually, you must run them from your account on waldo. The command to do this is 

    mysql -p
The -p option means you are prompted for your password. If you do not know what this is, or why you would want to do it, then you probably don't need to.

We have a web interface to mysql available

The services described here are for University of Manchester Students' Union registered societies only. All requests must be made from yoursociety@umsu.man.ac.uk to root@umsu.man.ac.uk.