phpMy­Ad­min is a tool which fa­cil­it­ates database ad­min­is­tra­tion. It is possible to install phpMy­Ad­min on all common operating systems and it can be done in a few steps.

What is phpMy­Ad­min?

phpMy­Ad­min is an open source tool designed to help users manage databases. Normally, databases can only be accessed through the command line. phpMy­Ad­min provides a visual interface which is displayed in the browser and helps website owners interact with the MariaDB or MySQL database. phpMy­Ad­min doesn’t even ne­ces­sar­ily require knowledge of the SQL query language. Many functions, such as creating tables, can be done easily without any knowledge of in­di­vidu­al SQL commands.

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What are the re­quire­ments to install phpMy­Ad­min?

Some re­quire­ments must be met in order to install phpMy­Ad­min on your web server. However, these are not par­tic­u­larly chal­len­ging, so you shouldn’t encounter any issues when using the web interface.

  • Webserver: You’ll need a webserver such as Apache or Nginx to install phpMy­Ad­min.
  • PHP: You will also need a version of PHP. Any version of PHP 7.2.5 or later will be suf­fi­cient to install the latest version of phpMy­Ad­min. PHP ex­ten­sions like mbstring can improve the per­form­ance.
  • Database: phpMy­Ad­min supports MySQL com­pat­ible databases (MySQL version 5.5 or newer and MariaDB version 5.5 or newer).
  • Web Browser: phpMy­Ad­min is an ap­plic­a­tion which runs in a browser, so you will also need a web browser of your choice. Cookies and JavaS­cript should be enabled in the browser.

How do I install phpMy­Ad­min on Windows?

In­stalling phpMy­Ad­min on Windows will be easiest with a third-party software. Programs such as XAMPP contain everything needed for phpMy­Ad­min and they also allow you to set up an Apache webserver. However, Git or Docker also allow you to install phpMy­Ad­min on Windows without any problems. We’ll show you how to install phpMy­Ad­min with XAMPP. In­struc­tions on how to install phpMy­Ad­min with the Git version control system or Docker can be found in the official doc­u­ment­a­tion for the web interface.

Step 1: Download and install XAMPP

Begin by in­stalling the XAMPP program. It’s simple to download the required files from the official website of the open source Apache dis­tri­bu­tion. Follow the in­stall­a­tion wizard’s in­struc­tions or use our XAMPP tutorial to complete the in­stall­a­tion on your system.

Image: XAMPP download for Windows
You can download XAMPP from the official website.

Step 2: Start web server and database in XAMPP

You can start the program once the XAMMP download is complete. Start the Apache web server and the MySQL database in the XAMPP control panel by clicking on the ‘Start’ button to use phpMy­Ad­min.

Image: XAMPP Control Panel
You can start your web server and database in the XAMPP Control Panel.

Step 3: Open the web interface of phpMy­Ad­min

You can easily open the phpMy­Ad­min web interface in your browser. Simply type the address ‘http://localhost/phpMy­Ad­min’ into the browser’s search bar. This will auto­mat­ic­ally bring you to the phpMy­Ad­min start page. You can adjust the settings and create or manage your own databases here.

Image: phpMyAdmin home page
You’ll see the web interface home screen after going to phpMy­Ad­min in your browser.

How do I install phpMy­Ad­min on macOS?

You can also install and use phpMy­Ad­min on macOS with XAMPP. The procedure is the same, but make sure to select the version for macOS when down­load­ing XAMPP. Unlike on Windows, Apache and PHP are already pre­in­stalled on macOS, so the manual setup of phpMy­Ad­min can be done in just a few steps.

Step 1: Install and start MySQL

The only thing missing on macOS for phpMy­Ad­min is a suitable database. This is a quick fix. The official MySQL website has made the required files available for download. Make sure that you select macOS as your operating system. Follow the in­stall­a­tion wizard’s in­struc­tions to complete the in­stall­a­tion suc­cess­fully. You can start the MySQL server in the ap­plic­a­tion’s con­fig­ur­a­tion window from this point on.

Image: MySQL download for macOS
Ensure the correct operating system is selected from the drop-down menu when down­load­ing MySQL for macOS.

Step 2: Start Apache web server

You just need to start the web server as Apache is already pre-installed on macOS. Open the terminal to do this and type the following command into the command line:

sudo apachectl start
bash

Step 3: Install phpMy­Ad­min and open the web interface

You can download the latest version of phpMy­Ad­min from the official website. Unzip the folder after down­load­ing the required files. Then move the folder to /Library/WebServer/Documents to add phpMy­Ad­min to your web server. Just like on Windows, enter the address ‘http://localhost/phpMy­Ad­min’ in the browser’s search bar to access the phpMy­Ad­min start page.

How do I Install PhpMy­Ad­min on Linux?

In­stalling the phpMy­Ad­min web interface on Linux will depend heavily on which Linux dis­tri­bu­tion you are using. In­stalling phpMy­Ad­min on CentOS 7 requires different steps than an Ubuntu in­stall­a­tion. We’ll outline the procedure required for Ubuntu and Debian.

Ubuntu

Step 1: Install LAMP stack

Ubuntu is con­sidered one of the most user-friendly Linux dis­tri­bu­tions. phpMy­Ad­min is usually ready to use as soon as you have installed a suitable web server and database. You can easily install the LAMP server on Ubuntu, which already comes with the required com­pon­ents. Enter the following commands in the command line to install the Ubuntu tool Tasksel and the LAMP stack:

sudo apt-get install tasksel
sudo tasksel install lamp-server
bash

Step 2: Install PhpMy­Ad­min

You can also install phpMy­Ad­min easily by typing the following command into your terminal:

sudo apt install phpmyadmin
bash

You will be asked to confirm the in­stall­a­tion of phpMy­Ad­min in the terminal after executing this command. Press the [Y] key for ‘Yes’. The in­stall­a­tion will start af­ter­wards, and you can use phpMy­Ad­min in a browser of your choice.

Image: Ubuntu terminal during phpMyAdmin installation
The terminal will prompt you to confirm the in­stall­a­tion again during the phpMy­Ad­min in­stall­a­tion.

Debian

Step 1: Install web server and database

You will need to manually install a web server, database and a current PHP version to work with phpMy­Ad­min if your Debian version does not have these com­pon­ents already. Use the following terminal commands to do this:

sudo apt install apache2
sudo apt install mariadb-server
sudo apt install php php-mysql libapache2-mod-php
bash

Step 2: Install PhpMy­Ad­min

The command to install phpMy­Ad­min looks the same as on Ubuntu:

sudo apt install phpmyadmin
bash

This completes the web interface in­stall­a­tion, and you can now use a browser of your choice to access phpMy­Ad­min.

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