Upgrading phpMyAdmin (2.7.0-pl2 to 2.8.1) on a local, Windows-based, Apache server

• June 20, 2006
• James Skemp
• tutorials / guides

In a previous post, we installed phpMyAdmin 2.7.0-pl2 to our local Web server. We did this so that we would have an easy way to administer our MySQL databases, from a PHP-based interface. This time, we'll be upgrading phpMyAdmin to version 2.8.1.

Downloading and unzipping

First, we'll need to grab the download for phpMyAdmin, from http://www.phpmyadmin.net/. As of this writing, the current version is 2.8.1. The zip file runs about 3.5 MB.

Once the download has finished, we can unzip the file into our main Web directory (C:\home). Depending upon how you installed the previous version of phpMyAdmin, you can either keep this new version in a folder containing the version number, or not. For example: c:\home\phpMyAdmin-2.8.1\ or c:\home\phpMyAdmin\ If you'll be doing things the latter way, make sure you make a backup of your previously installed phpMyAdmin directory - just in case. If you'll be saving to a directory containing the version information, then there's no real reason to remove the old directory (unless you're concerned with space).

Configuring phpMyAdmin

At this point you can go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin-2.8.1/ However, if you do so, you'll notice that you're unable to view the interface due to an error. As with our initial install, we need to configure phpMyAdmin before we can start using it.

Browse to the directory containing your previous installation of phpMyAdmin (for example, C:\home\phpMyAdmin-2.7.0-pl2\) and copy the file config.inc.php. Now, make a copy of this file in your upgraded phpMyAdmin's directory - C:\home\phpMyAdmin-2.8.1\config.inc.php, for example.

Open this file and verify that $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] (on line 31) is correct. If you've switched from one directory scheme to another (with version number to without, or vice versa), then this may not be correct.

You should now be able to refresh, or visit, http://localhost/phpmyadmin-2.8.1/ and log in, using one of the MySQL user names and passwords you've setup.

Finally, if you setup a subdomain in your httpd.conf file (C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\conf\), you can modify the subdomain so that it points to the correct path. If you make this change, make sure you restart Apache afterwards.

And with that, you've successfully updated phpMyAdmin. Really, a pretty easy upgrade.

View all of the steps to creating a local Web server, for development.

• phpmyadmin
• apache
• mysql