Many websites use databases and scripting languages such as PHP, ASP, and ASP.NET to create dynamic sites and manage large amounts of information, rather than using only static HTML files. Two of the most popular databases are MySQL and MS SQL. Whether you are creating a website from scratch by coding it yourself or are installing one of the many scripts and web applications available, you probably need to interact with a database at some point, even if it is just to set it up.
Unless you are a programmer, you typically will only need to create a database and configure your script to connect to it, and you are done! But more advanced functionality is available for programmers on occasions where you need additional access.
This article will give you an overview of what things may need to be done to use a database and links to the relevant articles that discuss those topics more in-depth, which also give step-by-step instructions.
- This article mentions cPanel and Plesk. If you purchased Shared, Reseller, VPS, or Dedicated hosting, cPanel is available.
- If you have Windows hosting (shared or dedicated), you have Plesk.
- MySQL is available on Linux and Windows hosting, and MSSQL is only available on Windows Hosting.
Please click the links below for the different database functions and the list of articles you can refer to.