Developer Quickstart: PHP and MariaDB
Tags: mariadb, php, database, beginners
Published: 2022-01-14 11:03:00

The [PHP programming language](https://php.net) has long been considered a fairly light and simple solution for developers to use to create robust and creative web applications. In fact, that’s as true now as it has ever been as past few versions of PHP have made the language more appealing than ever. 

Like many other languages, PHP has the ability to take advantage of the power of [MariaDB](https://mariadb.com), and it’s actually a pretty simple and straightforward process. 

But talk, text in this case, is cheap. So to demonstrate this I’ve created a [simple PHP web application](https://github.com/mariadb-developers/php-quickstart) called _Rolodex_ to manage contacts. 

![App demo](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/hq1p0mkrtpzi4gbzp8lh.gif)

In this article I’m going to highlight, from a high level, some of the fundamental details of using PHP to connect to and communicate with a [MariaDB database](https://github.com/mariadb-developers/mariadb-getting-started). Everything I’ll be exploring is based on the code for the _Rolodex_ application, and if you’d like to dive into the code you can check it out [here](https://github.com/mariadb-developers/php-quickstart).

## Preparing the database

Before jumping into the PHP code for the application it’s important to note that it uses a single database called _rolodex_.

```sql
CREATE DATABASE `rolodex`;
```

The _rolodex_ database contains a single table, _contacts_, that is used to store basic information.

```sql 
CREATE TABLE `rolodex`.`contacts` (
  `id` INT(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `name` VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
  `age` INT(3) NOT NULL,
  `email` VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
);
```

The SQL necessary to run the Rolodex application can be found in the [schema.sql file](https://github.com/mariadb-developers/schema.sql).

**Tip:** If you don't have an instance of MariaDB up and running yet you can find more information on how to get started in this [MariaDB Quickstart Guide](https://github.com/mariadb-developers/mariadb-getting-started). 

## Configuring the application

To facilitate the use of a MariaDB database within the Rolodex PHP application  I’ve created a new file called [config.php](https://github.com/mariadb-developers/php-quickstart/src/config.php) that contains the configuration settings and database connection object that can be reused across PHP pages. Connecting to and communicating with an underlying MariaDB database is facilitated by the [mysqli PHP extension](https://www.php.net/manual/en/book.mysqli.php).

```php
<?php
// Basic connection settings
$databaseHost = '<host_address>';
$databaseUsername = '<user_name>';
$databasePassword = '******';
$databaseName = 'rolodex';
 
// Connect to the database
$mysqli = mysqli_connect($databaseHost, $databaseUsername, $databasePassword, $databaseName);
```
Within the config.php file I’ve started by defining variables that hold the host address, username, password and default database that are used to create a new [mysqli connection object](https://www.php.net/manual/en/class.mysqli.php), which contains a variety of configuration options that you can use to tailor to your environment.

## Executing SQL

Using, and reusing, the `mysqli` connection within _config.php_ is as easy as including it within a PHP code block on another PHP page.

```php
<?php
// Include the database connection file
include_once("config.php");
...
?>
```

Then, with an established connection, you have the ability to use a plethora of capabilities from the mysqli extension, including executing queries using [mysqli_query](https://www.php.net/manual/en/mysqli.query.php).

**Selecting data**
```php
<?php
// Include the database connection file
include_once("config.php");
 
// Fetch contacts (in descending order)
$result = mysqli_query($mysqli, "SELECT * FROM contacts ORDER BY id DESC"); 
?>
```
_Selecting contacts with mysqli_query_

Or, in the case that you need to handle dynamically inserted parameter values, you can use [mysqli_prepare](https://www.php.net/manual/en/mysqli.prepare.php).

**Inserting data**
```php
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("INSERT INTO contacts (name,age,email) VALUES(?, ?, ?)");
```
_Inserting contacts using mysqli_prepare_

**Updating data**
```php
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("UPDATE contacts SET name=?, age=?, email=? WHERE id=?");
$stmt->bind_param("sisi", $name, $age, $email, $id);
$stmt->execute();
```
_Updating contacts using mysqli_prepare_

**Deleting data**
```php
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("DELETE FROM contacts WHERE id=?");
$stmt->bind_param("i", $id);
$stmt->execute();
```
_Deleting contacts using mysqli_prepare_

As you can see, getting started with PHP and MariaDB is easy, but we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible. If you’d like to see for yourself what else is possible with PHP and MariaDB, start by checking out the full source code for the Rolodex application  in the new [PHP Quickstart GitHub repository](https://github.com/mariadb-developers/php-quickstart).

## Learn more

And if you’d like to learn even more about what’s possible with MariaDB be sure to check out the [Developer Hub](https://mariadb.com/developers) and the new [MariaDB Developer Code Central GitHub organization](https://github.com/mariadb-developers). There you can find much more completely open-source content just like this spanning a variety of other technologies, use cases and even programming languages. 

You can also dive even deeper into MariaDB capabilities in the [official MariaDB documentation](https://mariadb.com/docs).

And, as always, MariaDB is deeply rooted in open-source and would be nothing without their awesome community! If you’d like to help contribute directly to MariaDB you can find them on [GitHub](https://github.com/mariadb-corporation), send feedback directly to their Developer Relations team at [developers@mariadb.com](mailto:developers@mariadb.com), or join the conversation in the new [MariaDB Community Slack](https://r.mariadb.com/join-community-slack)!

Happy coding!