MySQL Import

General Description

The "mysql_import" package consists of an HTML form and a CGI script that allow people to import files into MySQL databases via the web. The main features that this package offers are:

Reliable.
Web-Based.
German User Interface (optional)
Arbitrary field and line delimiters (i.e. each delimiter can be more than two characters in length if need be).
A variety of options for how to specify which columns in the database table that you want to import data into.
Easy to use.
Automates the creation of new databases and new tables (for users with the appropriate MySQL permissions)

Installing:

First, get the software: latest release NOTE: This tool requires MySQL

NOTE: This tool requires Spreadsheet::ParseExcel

There are three main ways to install this package:

From an RPM file:
1. Install the package. Type at the shell prompt:
```
shell> rpm -Uvh mysql_import-X.X.rpm
```
2. Make sure the permissions are set correctly for all of the MySQL databases you are going to want import data into. For information on how to do this, see below: Setting up MySQL.
3. Point your web browser at: http://localhost/mysql_import/mysql_import.html.
From a tar file with the install script:
1. Untar the tar file. Type at the shell prompt:
```
shell> tar -xzvf mysql_import-X.X.tar.gz
```
2. Change directories to the mysql_import directory:
```
shell> cd mysql_import_X.X
```
3. Switch to the root user:
```
shell> su
```
4. Run the install script:
```
shell> ./install.pl
```
  Simply hitting return at each of the install script's prompts will use the default setup.
5. Make sure the permissions are set correctly for all of the MySQL databases you are going to want import data into. For information on how to do this, see below: Setting up MySQL.
6. Point your web browser at: http://localhost/mysql_import/mysql_import.html.
From a tar file by hand:
1. Untar the tar file. Type at the shell prompt:
```
shell> tar -xzvf mysql_import-X.X.tar.gz
```
2. Change directories to the mysql_import directory:
```
shell> cd mysql_import_X.X
```
3. Edit the file "mysql_import.html" so that the scripts "FORM" tag has a meaningful value for "ACTION" and the default value for the "host" field makes sense.
4. Move mysql_import.pl to a cgi directory (and make sure this makes sense according to what you put in for "ACTION" in the file).
5. Move mysql_import.html to an html directory.
6. Make sure the permissions are set correctly for all of the MySQL databases you are going to want import data into. For information on how to do this, see below: Setting up MySQL.

Setting up MySQL:

These scripts rely on a MySQL client program "mysql" being installed on the web-server. Make sure that if you are going to be importing data into hosts other than the "localhost" (the localhost in this case is the machine that is running the web-server), that you also configure the other hosts' privileges in such as way as to allow connections from the the machine running the web-server. To find out more about how to do this exactly, please read the section titled Configuring the MySQL Access Rights in the Help file.

Compatibility Tests:

Although the cgi script should be portable, it has only been tested on RedHat Linux 6.x

Below is is list of tested client configurations. "Yes" means that the test was a success, "No" means the test failed.

OS	Netscape 4.7	Internet Explorer (5.0/4.5)
RedHat Linux 6.x	Yes	N/A
Windows NT/98	Yes	Yes
MacOS 9.x	Yes	No*

* For some reason the file was uploaded in a binary format instead of plain text.

Known Problems:

Data that follows a dollar sign '$' within a field tends to be chopped off. I believe this is an error in the MySQL client program.

Questions, comments, concerns and any other feedback can be sent to the Butterfat team.

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