PHPMyAdmin

PHPMyAdmin (PHPMA) is an easy-to-use web-based database management tool for MySQL.

Backing up

1. Make sure you've got PHPMyAdmin running happily. I won't cover this part here as it varies with your set up.
2. Login and choose Export from the main page
3. Leave most of the default options. Specifically,
   • Format: SQL
   • Select the database(s) you want in the listbox
   • etc.
4. Checkmark 'Add DROP TABLE'. This will make sure that when you restore from a backup, it will delete existing tables before restoring from the backed up ones.
5. Checkmark 'Save to file' at the bottom, or it will just dump it to your browser window, and that's no fun.
   • You probably also want to use compression. These won't be huge files, but a 1.5mb database compresses to about 150kb. So, y'know, whatever. Wiggy recommends BZIP.
6. Click Go.

Restoring from backup

I'm writing this from memory, so I might be wrong, but I think it's right.

1. Click Databases from the PHPMA main page
2. Click the name of your database (or create it, if not present).
3. Click the SQL tab
4. Where it says Location of textfile:, browse to your latest backup, then click Go.

Notes

Some installations of PHPMA may have an upper size-limit on imports, which may make it unusable for your particular databases. The limit may be set by the PHPMA configuration, or it may be set by the PHP configuration in any of several places. It might be easier to use a different tool, if you run into this.