My latest project is MAMP on my Mac. It’s a full featured development environment for web sites featuring the Apache web server, MySQL database, and the PHP scripting language. Those are the web standards for dynamically generated content on web sites these days.
Sequel Pro vs. phpMyAdmin
MAMP is perfect for Mac users who want to get their hands all geeky dirty, but don’t want to leave the comfort of home (no need for a remote server– your Mac is the server).
It comes with phpMyAdmin built-in, so you can manage the MySQL database from a browser window. My tool of choice, though, is Sequel Pro, a standalone app that does what phpMyAdmin cannot.
Sequel Pro will connect to your MAMP MySQL database, or connect to a remote database. It’s even full screen compatible with Mac OS X Lion. And, it will connect to remote servers using direct IP address and SSH, so the connections are fast and secure.
Up front, what you get is a typical Mac interface. Multiple window allow work with multiple database connections at a time. Auto completion makes it easier to fill in keywords, field names, and tables. You can even control syntax coloring.
Where phpMyAdmin has limits, particularly when importing large databases, Sequel Pro cruises through the chores. Create, rename, duplicate (with all content), and delete databases.
It’s simple enough to use for database first timers, and loaded with enough features for Mac pro users.
Here’s the real catcher. Sequel Pro is free. It started life as CocoaMySQL, which was abandoned years ago, but Sequel Pro lives on. Free. Not bad, right?
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