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Apache2 on Ubuntu

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It’s always interesting when I build new instances. Ubuntu 22.0.4 was no different but I ran into an issue with installing Apache2 and eventually loading the mysqli module.

The Apache2 error was an issue with an unsupported module or hidden prerequisite. The MySQLi required an Apache reload after installation. Contrary to some erroneous posts the mysqli driver is supported on PHP 8.1.

Apache2 installation starts first and the mysqli module reload and verification script follows. On Ubuntu, you install Apache2 if you’re unaware of the hidden pre-requisite, otherwise install the pre-requisite first and avoid the error.

This is the command to install the apache2 module:

sudo apt-get install -y apache2

It generated the following error message:

apache2: Syntax error on line 146 of /etc/apache2/apache2.conf: Syntax error on line 1 of /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/wsgi.load: Cannot load /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_wsgi.so into server: /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_wsgi.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Action 'start' failed.
The Apache error log may have more information.

Line 146 in the /etc/apache2/apache2.conf file contains the instruction to load modules. The error says it can’t find the mod_wsgi.so library, which was originally part of the deprecated Python 2.7 release.

IncludeOptional mods-enabled/*.load

The first step I pursued was finding the missing library, which appeared to be in the libapache2-mod-wsgi package. However, it became clear there is no installation candidate for that module, which supported Python 3.x. A little more research led me to find the appropriate library version for Python 3, which is found in the libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3 package.

I installed the libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3 package with the following syntax:

sudo apt-get install -y libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3

After applying it, I was able to start Apache2. Then, typing in localhost returns the Apache2 index.htm page, like:

After creating the following file in the default directory:

<?php
  phpinfo();
?>

Typing in localhost/infophp returns the Apache2 info.php page, like:

After the basics for PHP, the next step is the mysqli module for the MySQL database. This can be done in two steps on Ubuntu.

  1. Install the MySQLi software with the following syntax on Ubuntu:

    sudo apt-get install -y php8.1-mysql

    If you forget and use the old php-mysqli, it will redirect to the new PHP 8.1 MySQL module.

  2. You need to reload the Apache configuration with the following syntax:

    sudo systemctl reload apache2

Now, you can use the following PHP program to verify that the mysqli and pdo drivers are installed:

<html>
<header>
<title>Module Verification</title>
</header>
<body>
<?php
  if (!function_exists('mysqli_init') && !extension_loaded('mysqli')) {
    print 'mysqli not installed.'; }
  else {
    print 'mysqli installed.'; }
  if (!function_exists('pdo_init') && !extension_loaded('pdo')) {
    print '<p>pdo not installed.</p>'; }
  else {
    print '<p>pdo installed.</p>'; }
?>
</script>
</body>
</html>

If everything is correct, it should return the following in a browser when you query it from localhost/the-file-name and the file is in the /var/www/html directory:

mysqli installed.
 
pdo installed.

This means you can now write PHP applications, like the following example for my students:

I also have some demonstration programs that upload PNG files. As usual, I forgot about that while building the Ubuntu installation with MySQL 8, PHP 8.1 and Apache2. Fortunately, I solved it back in the day when moving from PHP 5.7 to 7.1 and here are the equivalent steps for Ubuntu:

I installed the libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3 package with the following syntax:

sudo apt-get install -y php-gd

Then, I restarted the Apache2 server to incorporate the php-gd library in my PHP module with this syntax:

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Retesting the PHP form to upload and render a PNG image file with this code (note that the only thing you can display is the html header and converted image, as shown on lines 64 and 65):

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<?php
  /*  ConvertBlobToImage.php
   *  by Michael McLaughlin
   *
   *  This script queries an image from a BLOB column and
   *  converts it to a PNG image.
   *
   *  ALERT:
   *
   *  The header must be inside the PHP script tag because nothing
   *  can be rendered before the header() function call that signals
   *  this is a PNG file.
   */
 
    // Database credentials must be set manually because an include_once() function
    // call puts something ahead of the header, which causes a failure when rendering
    // an image.
 
    // Include the credential library.
    include_once("MySQLCredentials.inc");
 
  // Return successful attempt to connect to the database.
  if (!$c = @mysqli_connect(HOSTNAME,USERNAME,PASSWORD,DATABASE)) {
 
    // Print user message.
    print "Sorry! The connection to the database failed. Please try again later.";
 
    // Assign the OCI error and format double and single quotes.
    print mysqli_error();
 
    // Kill the resource.
    die();
  }
  else {
 
    // Declare input variables.
    $id = (isset($_GET['id'])) ? (int) $_GET['id'] : 1023;
 
    // Initialize a statement in the scope of the connection.
    $stmt = mysqli_stmt_init($c);
 
    // Declare a SQL SELECT statement returning a MediumBLOB.
    $sql = "SELECT item_blob FROM item WHERE item_id = ?";
 
    // Prepare statement and link it to a connection.
    if (mysqli_stmt_prepare($stmt,$sql)) {
      mysqli_stmt_bind_param($stmt,"i",$id);
 
      // Execute the PL/SQL statement.
      if (mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt)) {
 
        // Bind result to local variable.
	      mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $image);
 
        // Read result.
        mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt);
      }
    } 
 
    // Disconnect from database.
    mysqli_close($c);
 
    // Print the header first.
    header('Content-type: image/png');
    imagepng(imagecreatefromstring($image));
  }
?>

The call to the ConvertMySQLBlobToImage.php is handled in an image tag, as shown:

<img src="ConvertMySQLBlobToImage.php?id='.$id.'">

Rendering a web page, like:

As always, I hope this explains something worthwhile.

Written by maclochlainn

December 10th, 2023 at 11:25 pm

MySQL on Ubuntu

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Fresh install of Ubuntu on my MacBook Pro i7 because Apple said the OS X was no longer upgradable. Time to install and configure MySQL Server. These are the steps to install MySQL on the Ubuntu Desktop.

Installation

  1. Update the Ubuntu OS by checking for, inspecting, and upgrading any available updates with the following commands:

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt list
    sudo apt upgrade
  2. Check for available MySQL Server packages with this command:

    apt-cache search binaries | grep -i mysql

    It should return:

    mysql-server - MySQL database server binaries and system database setup
    mysql-server-8.0 - MySQL database server binaries and system database setup
    mysql-server-core-8.0 - MySQL database server binaries
    default-mysql-server - MySQL database server binaries and system database setup (metapackage)
    default-mysql-server-core - MySQL database server binaries (metapackage)
    mariadb-server-10.6 - MariaDB database core server binaries
    mariadb-server-core-10.6 - MariaDB database core server files
  3. Check for more details on the MySQL packages with this command:

    apt info -a mysql-server-8.0
  4. Install MySQL Server packages with this command:

    sudo apt install mysql-server-8.0
  5. Start the MySQL Server service with this command:

    sudo systemctl start mysql.service
  6. Before you can run the mysql_secure_installation script, you must set the root password. If you skip this step the mysql_secure_installation script will enter an infinite loop and lock your terminal session. Log in to the mysql monitor with the following command:

    sudo mysql

    Enter a password with the following command (password is an insecure example):

    ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'C4nGet1n!';

    Quit the mysql monitor session:

    quit;
  7. Run the mysql_secure_installation script with this command:

    sudo mysql_secure_installation

    Here’s the typical output from running the mysql_secure_installation script:

    Securing the MySQL server deployment.
     
    Enter password for user root: 
     
    VALIDATE PASSWORD COMPONENT can be used to test passwords
    and improve security. It checks the strength of password
    and allows the users to set only those passwords which are
    secure enough. Would you like to setup VALIDATE PASSWORD component?
     
    Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No: Y
     
    There are three levels of password validation policy:
     
    LOW    Length >= 8
    MEDIUM Length >= 8, numeric, mixed case, and special characters
    STRONG Length >= 8, numeric, mixed case, special characters and dictionary file
     
    Please enter 0 = LOW, 1 = MEDIUM and 2 = STRONG: 2
    Using existing password for root.
     
    Estimated strength of the password: 100 
    Change the password for root ? ((Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : N
     
     ... skipping.
    By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user,
    allowing anyone to log into MySQL without having to have
    a user account created for them. This is intended only for
    testing, and to make the installation go a bit smoother.
    You should remove them before moving into a production
    environment.
     
    Remove anonymous users? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y
    Success.
     
    Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from
    'localhost'. This ensures that someone cannot guess at
    the root password from the network.
     
    Disallow root login remotely? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y
    Success.
     
    By default, MySQL comes with a database named 'test' that
    anyone can access. This is also intended only for testing,
    and should be removed before moving into a production
    environment.
     
     
    Remove test database and access to it? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y
     - Dropping test database...
    Success.
     
     - Removing privileges on test database...
    Success.
     
    Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes
    made so far will take effect immediately.
     
    Reload privilege tables now? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y
    Success.
     
    All done!

Configuration

The next step is configuration. It requires setting up the sample sakila and studentdb database. The syntax has changed from prior releases. Here are the new three steps:

  1. Grant the root user the privilege to grant to others, which root does not have by default. You use the following syntax as the MySQL root user:

    mysql> GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'root'@'localhost';
  2. Download the sakila database, which you can download from this site. Click on the sakila database’s TGZ download.

    When you download the sakila zip file it creates a sakila-db folder in the /home/student/Downloads directory. Copy the sakila-db folder into the /home/student/Data/sakila directory. Then, change to the /home/student/Data/sakila/sakila-db directory, connect to mysql as the root user, and run the following command:

    mysql> SOURCE /home/student/Data/sakila/sakila-db/sakila-schema.sql
    mysql> SOURCE /home/student/Data/sakila/sakila-db/sakila-data.sql
  3. Create the studentdb database with the following command as the MySQL root user:

    mysql> CREATE DATABASE studentdb;
  4. Create the user with a clear English password and grant the user student full privileges on the sakila and studentdb databases:

    mysql> CREATE USER 'student'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'Stud3nt!';
    mysql> GRANT ALL ON studentdb.* TO 'student'@'localhost';
    mysql> GRANT ALL ON sakila.* TO 'student'@'localhost';

You can now connect to a sandboxed sakila database with the student user’s credentials, like:

mysql -ustudent -p -Dsakila

or, you can now connect to a sandboxed studentdb database with the student user’s credentials, like:

mysql -ustudent -p -Dstudentdb

MySQL Workbench Installation

sudo snap install mysql-workbench-community

You have now configure the MySQL Server 8.0.

Written by maclochlainn

May 23rd, 2023 at 4:18 pm

MySQL PNG Files

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LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python) Architecture is very flexible. All the components can be positioned on the same server or different servers. The servers are divided into two types. The types are known as the Application or database tiers. Generally, the application tier holds the Apache Server, any Apache Modules, and local copies of Server Side Includes (SSI) programs.

In many development environments, you also deploy the client to the same machine. This means a single machine runs the database server, the application server, and the browser. The lab for this section assumes these configurations.

Before you test an installation, you should make sure that you’ve started the database and Apache server. In an Oracle LAMP configuration (known as an OLAP – Oracle, Linux, Apache, Perl/PHP/Python), you must start both the Oracle Listener and database. MySQL starts the listener when you start the database. You must also start the Apache Server. The Apache Server also starts an Apache Listener, which listens for incoming HTTP/HTTPS requests. It listens on Port 80 unless you override that setting in the httpd.conf file.

The URI reaches the server and is redirected to an Apache Module based on configuration information found in the httpd.conf file. Spawned or child processes of the Apache Module then read programs into memory from the file system and run them. If you’ve uploaded a file the locally stored program can move it from a secure cache location to another local area for processing. The started programs can run independently or include other files as libraries, and they can communicate to the database server.

Working though PHP test cases against the MySQL database for my AlmaLinux installation and configuration, I discovered that the php-gd library weren’t installed by default. I had to add it to get my PHP programs to upload and display PNG files.

The log file for applying the php-gd packages:

The balance of this page demonstrates how to upload, store, and manage Text (Character Large Data Streams) and BLOBs (Binary Large Objects). It provides MySQL equivalent instructions to those for manaing LOBs in an Oracle database. As covered in Chapter 8 in my Oracle Database 11g PL/SQL Programming book.

Before you begin these steps, you should have already installed Zend Server Community Edition. If you haven’t done so, please click here for instructions.

If you find any problems, please let me know. I’ll be happy to fix them.

Written by maclochlainn

December 28th, 2022 at 10:59 pm

AlmaLinux Install & Configuration

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This is a collection of blog posts for installing and configuring AlmaLinux with the Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL databases and several programming languages. Sample programs show how to connect PHP and Python to the MySQL database.

I used Oracle Database 11g XE in this instance to keep the footprint as small as possible. It required a few tricks and discovering the missing library that caused folks grief eleven years ago. I build another with a current Oracle Database XE after the new year.

If you see something that I missed or you’d like me to add, let me know. As time allows, I’ll try to do that. Naturally, the post will get updates as things are added later.

Bash Debug Function

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My students working in Linux would have a series of labs to negotiate and I’d have them log the activities of their Oracle SQL scripts. Many of them would suffer quite a bit because they didn’t know how to find the errors in the log files.

I wrote this SQL function for them to put in their .bashrc files. It searches all the .txt files for errors and organizes them by log file, line number, and descriptive error message.

errors () 
{ 
  label="File Name:Line Number:Error Code";
  list=`ls ./*.$1 | wc -l`;
  if [[ ${list} -eq 1 ]]; then
    echo ${label};
    echo "----------------------------------------";
    filename=`ls *.txt`;
    echo ${filename}:`find . -type f | grep -in *.txt -e ora\- -e pls\- -e sp2\-`;
  else
    if [[ ${list} -gt 1 ]]; then
      echo ${label};
      echo "----------------------------------------";
      find . -type f | grep --color=auto -in *.txt -e ora\- -e pls\- -e sp2\-;
    fi;
  fi
}

I hope it helps others now too.

Written by maclochlainn

May 4th, 2022 at 10:51 pm

Python on PostgreSQL

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The ODBC library you use when connecting Python to PostgreSQL is the psycopg2 Python library. This blog post will show use how to use it in Python and install it on your Fedora Linux installation. It leverages a videodb database that I show you how to build in this earlier post on configuring PostgreSQL 14.

You would import psycopg2 as follows in your Python code:

import psycopg2

Unfortunately, that only works on Linux servers when you’ve installed the library. That library isn’t installed with generic Python libraries. You get the following error when the psycopg2 library isn’t installed on your server.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "python_new_hire.sql", line 1, in <module>
    import psycopg2
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'psycopg2'

You can install it on Fedora Linux with the following command:

yum install python3-psycopg2

It will install:

====================================================================================
 Package                  Architecture   Version               Repository      Size
====================================================================================
Installing:
 python3-psycopg2         x86_64         2.7.7-1.fc30          fedora         160 k
 
Transaction Summary
====================================================================================
Install  1 Package
 
Total download size: 160 k
Installed size: 593 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
python3-psycopg2-2.7.7-1.fc30.x86_64.rpm            364 kB/s | 160 kB     00:00    
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                               167 kB/s | 160 kB     00:00     
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                            1/1 
  Installing       : python3-psycopg2-2.7.7-1.fc30.x86_64                       1/1 
  Running scriptlet: python3-psycopg2-2.7.7-1.fc30.x86_64                       1/1 
  Verifying        : python3-psycopg2-2.7.7-1.fc30.x86_64                       1/1 
 
Installed:
  python3-psycopg2-2.7.7-1.fc30.x86_64                                              
 
Complete!

Here’s a quick test case that you can run in PostgreSQL and Python to test all the pieces. The first SQL script creates a new_hire table and inserts two rows, and the Python program queries data from the new_hire table.

The new_hire.sql file creates the new_hire table and inserts two rows:

-- Environment settings for the script.
SET SESSION "videodb.table_name" = 'new_hire';
SET CLIENT_MIN_MESSAGES TO ERROR;
 
--  Verify table name.
SELECT current_setting('videodb.table_name');
 
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------
--  Conditionally drop table.
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS new_hire CASCADE;
 
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------
--  Create table.
-- -------------------------------------------------------------------
CREATE TABLE new_hire
( new_hire_id  SERIAL
, first_name   VARCHAR(20)  NOT NULL
, middle_name  VARCHAR(20)
, last_name    VARCHAR(20)  NOT NULL
, hire_date    TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
, PRIMARY KEY (new_hire_id));
 
-- Alter the sequence by restarting it at 1001.
ALTER SEQUENCE new_hire_new_hire_id_seq RESTART WITH 1001;
 
-- Display the table organization.
SELECT   tc.table_catalog || '.' || tc.constraint_name AS constraint_name
,        tc.table_catalog || '.' || tc.table_name AS table_name
,        kcu.column_name
,        ccu.table_catalog || '.' || ccu.table_name AS foreign_table_name
,        ccu.column_name AS foreign_column_name
FROM     information_schema.table_constraints AS tc JOIN information_schema.key_column_usage AS kcu
ON       tc.constraint_name = kcu.constraint_name
AND      tc.table_schema = kcu.table_schema JOIN information_schema.constraint_column_usage AS ccu
ON       ccu.constraint_name = tc.constraint_name
AND      ccu.table_schema = tc.table_schema
WHERE    tc.constraint_type = 'FOREIGN KEY'
AND      tc.table_name = current_setting('videodb.table_name')
ORDER BY 1;
 
SELECT c1.table_name
,      c1.ordinal_position
,      c1.column_name
,      CASE
         WHEN c1.is_nullable = 'NO' AND c2.column_name IS NOT NULL THEN 'PRIMARY KEY'
         WHEN c1.is_nullable = 'NO' AND c2.column_name IS NULL THEN 'NOT NULL'
       END AS is_nullable
,      CASE
         WHEN data_type = 'character varying' THEN
           data_type||'('||character_maximum_length||')'
         WHEN data_type = 'numeric' THEN
           CASE
             WHEN numeric_scale != 0 AND numeric_scale IS NOT NULL THEN
               data_type||'('||numeric_precision||','||numeric_scale||')'
             ELSE
               data_type||'('||numeric_precision||')'
             END
         ELSE
           data_type
        END AS data_type
FROM    information_schema.columns c1 LEFT JOIN
          (SELECT trim(regexp_matches(column_default,current_setting('videodb.table_name'))::text,'{}')||'_id' column_name
           FROM   information_schema.columns) c2
ON       c1.column_name = c2.column_name
WHERE    c1.table_name = current_setting('videodb.table_name')
ORDER BY c1.ordinal_position;
 
-- Display primary key and unique constraints.
SELECT constraint_name
,      lower(constraint_type) AS constraint_type
FROM   information_schema.table_constraints
WHERE  table_name = current_setting('videodb.table_name')
AND    constraint_type IN ('PRIMARY KEY','UNIQUE');
 
-- Insert two test records.
INSERT INTO new_hire
( first_name, middle_name, last_name, hire_date )
VALUES
 ('Malcolm','Jacob','Lewis','2018-2-14')
,('Henry',null,'Chabot','1990-07-31');

You can put it into a local directory, connect as the student user to a videodb database, and run the following command (or any database you’ve created).

\i new_hire.sql

The new_hire.py file creates the new_hire table and inserts two rows:

# Import the PostgreSQL connector library.
import psycopg2
 
try:
  # Open a connection to the database.
  connection = psycopg2.connect( user="student"
                               , password="student"
                               , port="5432"
                               , dbname="videodb")
 
  # Open a cursor.
  cursor = connection.cursor()
 
  # Assign a static query.
  query = "SELECT new_hire_id, first_name, last_name " \
          "FROM new_hire"
 
  # Parse and execute the query.
  cursor.execute(query)
 
  # Fetch all rows from a table.
  records = cursor.fetchall()
 
  # Read through and print the rows as tuples.
  for row in range(0, len(records)):
    print(records[row]) 
 
except (Exception, psycopg2.Error) as error :
  print("Error while fetching data from PostgreSQL", error)
 
finally:
  # Close the database connection.
  if (connection):
    cursor.close()
    connection.close()

You run it from the command line, like:

python3 ./new_hire.py

It should print:

(1001, 'Malcolm', 'Lewis')
(1002, 'Henry', 'Chabot')

As always, I hope this helps those trying to sort out how to connect Python to PostgreSQL.

Written by maclochlainn

March 2nd, 2022 at 1:06 am

PostgreSQL CLI Error

without comments

Problems get reported to me all the time on installations for my students, this one was interesting. They got an error complaining about a missing libpq.so.5 library.

psql: /usr/pgsql-11/lib/libpq.so.5: no version information available (required by psql)
psql: /usr/pgsql-11/lib/libpq.so.5: no version information available (required by psql)
could not change directory to "/root": Permission denied
psql (11.7, server 11.8)
Type "help" for help.
 
postgres=#

It appeared as a mismatch of libraries but it’s not that. For reference, this was a Fedora instance. I ran the rpm utility:

rpm -qa | grep postgres

It returned:

postgresql11-libs-11.8-1PGDG.f30.x86_64
postgresql-11.7-2.fc30.x86_64
postgresql-server-11.7-2.fc30.x86_64

Then, I had them run the rpm utility again looking for the Python driver for PostgreSQL:

rpm -qa | grep psycopg2

It returned:

python3-psycopg2-2.7.7-1.fc30.x86_64

Then, it was easy to explain. The Python psycopg2 library uses both PostgreSQL 11.7 and 11.8 dependent libraries and the libpq.so.5 library is missing version information. You must ignore the error, which is really only a warning message, when you want to work on Fedora, PostgreSQL 11, and Python 3.

Written by maclochlainn

March 2nd, 2022 at 12:41 am

MySQL PHP Transaction

without comments

My students liked the MySQL Transaction post but wanted one that showed how an external web application would interact with MySQL in the scope of a transaction. So, I put a little PHP function together that write across two related tables in the context of a transaction. It uses mysqli (MySQL Improved Extension) to connect PHP to the MySQL database.

The function is barebones and uses the oldest approach of hidden inputs to maintain context between rendered forms using an HTML POST method. The hidden inputs are preceded with “h_” and snake case is used for variable names.

The function only writes to two tables. It writes to the member table and when that completes successfully to the contact table. The function:

  • Submits credentials from a file and raises an error when they don’t work.
  • Initializes a SQL statement.
  • Disables auto commit.
  • Starts a transaction.
  • Defines a first SQL statement with placeholders.
  • Binds local variables to the first SQL statement’s placeholders.
  • Rolls back the transaction when the first statement fails and continues to the next SQL statement when first statement succeeds.
  • Defines a second SQL statement with placeholders.
  • Binds local variables to the second SQL statement’s placeholders.
  • Rolls back the transaction when the second statement fails and commits the work when the second statement succeeds.
  • Closes a SQL statement.

The code for the PHP function is:

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/*
||  Function Name: update_membership
|| ----------------------------------------------------------------------
||  No return, treated as a procedure, or method returning a void.
|| ----------------------------------------------------------------------
*/
function update_membership(
    $h_account_number
  , $h_member_type
  , $h_credit_card_number
  , $h_credit_card_type
  , $account_number
  , $member_type
  , $credit_card_number
  , $credit_card_type
  , $h_first_name
  , $h_middle_name
  , $h_last_name
  , $h_contact_type
  , $first_name
  , $middle_name
  , $last_name
  , $contact_type) {
 
  // Include the credentials file if omitted.
  include_once("MySQLCredentials.inc");
 
  // Assign credentials to connection.
  $mysqli = new mysqli(HOSTNAME, USERNAME, PASSWORD, DATABASE);
 
  // Check for connection error and print message.
  if ($mysqli->connect_errno) {
    print $mysqli->connect_error."<br />";
    print "Connection not established ...<br />";
  }
  else {
    // Initial statement.
    $stmt = $mysqli->stmt_init();
 
    // Disable auto commit when you want two plus statements run.
    $mysqli->autocommit(FALSE);
 
    // Set the transaction guarantee.
    $mysqli->begin_transaction(MYSQLI_TRANS_START_READ_WRITE);
 
    // Declare a static query.
    $sql = "UPDATE   member\n"
         . "SET      member_type = ?\n"
         . ",        credit_card_number = ?\n"
         . ",        credit_card_type = ?\n"
         . "WHERE    account_number = ?\n"
         . "AND      member_type = ?\n"
         . "AND      credit_card_number = ?\n"
         . "AND      credit_card_type = ?\n";
 
    // Prepare statement.
    if ($stmt->prepare($sql)) {
      $stmt->bind_param(
          "sssssss"
         , $member_type
         , $credit_card_number
         , $credit_card_type
         , $account_number
         , $h_member_type
         , $h_credit_card_number
         , $h_credit_card_type); } 
 
    // Attempt query and exit with failure before processing.
    if (!$stmt->execute()) {
 
      // Rollback or undo the transaction.
      $mysqli->rollback();
 
      // Print failure to resolve query message.
      print $mysqli->error."<br />\n";
      print "Failed to resolve query ...<br />\n";
    }
 
    // Declare a static query.
    $sql = "UPDATE   contact\n"
         . "SET      first_name = ?\n"
         . ",        middle_name = ?\n"
         . ",        last_name = ?\n"
         . ",        contact_type = ?\n"
         . "WHERE    first_name = ?\n"
         . "AND      middle_name = ?\n"
         . "AND      last_name = ?\n"
         . "AND      contact_type = ?\n";
 
    // Prepare statement.
    if ($stmt->prepare($sql)) {
      $stmt->bind_param(
          "ssssssss"
        , $first_name
        , $middle_name
        , $last_name
        , $contact_type
        , $h_first_name
        , $h_middle_name
        , $h_last_name
        , $h_contact_type); } 
 
    // Attempt query and exit with failure before processing.
    if (!$stmt->execute()) {
 
      // Rollback or undo the transaction.
      $mysqli->rollback();
 
      // Print failure to resolve query message.
      print $mysqli->error."<br />";
      print "Failed to resolve query ...<br />";
    }
    else {   
      /*  Manually commiting writes when you have disabled the
      ||  default auto commit setting, explained above.
      || ------------------------------------------------------------
      ||  You would add the following command to commit the 
      ||  transaction.
      ||  ------------------------------
      ||   $mysqli->commit();
      || ------------------------------------------------------------
      */
      $mysqli->commit();
 
      // Close the transaction.
      $mysqli->close();
    }
  }
}

Line 41 disables auto commit and line 44 starts the transaction. Each statement is managed with the subsequent statement nested inside a block of code that is only reachable when the prior statement succeeds. While this only uses the member and contact table, it could use any number of tables. The natural alternative is building an updatable view.

As always, I hope this helps anybody looking for a code complete example.

Written by maclochlainn

June 29th, 2021 at 5:23 pm

MySQL Transaction Scope

without comments

The idea of ACID transactions are a basic feature of SQL’s individual Data Manipulation Language (DML) commands, like the INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements. Transactions across two or more tables are a natural extension of ACID compliance features provided by DML commands. However, they require a structured programming approach, like a store procedure or like API implemented in an imperative language.

Surprisingly, transaction management wasn’t covered well in Alan Beaulieu’s Learning SQL because he only provided pseudo code logic. While I thought troubleshoot some broken MySQL SQL/PSM logic would be a good learning experience for students, it wasn’t. So, I wrote this sample code to show how to achieve an all or nothing transaction across four tables.

The code for this example on transaction management lets you perform the important tasks necessary to effect transaction management:

  • You must disable autocommit in the scope of the session.
  • You must use an imperative programming language like SQL/PSM or Python, et cetera.
  • You must identify an error thrown in a series of DML transactions, rollback all completed work, and exit the scope of the program unit.

This SQL defines the four tables:

/* Drop and create four tables. */
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS one, two, three, four;
CREATE TABLE one   ( id int primary key auto_increment, msg varchar(10));
CREATE TABLE two   ( id int primary key auto_increment, msg varchar(10));
CREATE TABLE three ( id int primary key auto_increment, msg varchar(10));
CREATE TABLE four  ( id int primary key auto_increment, msg varchar(10));

Unfortunately, there’s no way to simply transaction management from the MySQL Command-Line Interface (CLI) because you need to build the logic that manages success and failure. It requires that you create a procedure using MySQL’s SQL/PSM (Persistent Stored Module) or another imperative programming language. You might think why can’t you just write an anonymous block program, like you can do in other stored procedural languages. The answer is simple. You can’t write anonymous blocks in MySQL’s SQL/PSM because they adhere to ANSI SQL-2003 (or more accurately ISO/IEC 9075-4:2003).

The following code block does:

  • Conditionally drops the locking() procedure.
  • Sets the default semicolon (;) delimiter to a double-dollar ($$), which lets you use the semicolon as statement and block terminators.
  • Declares a locking() procedure with the following:
    • Sets a parameter list with four IN-mode parameters.
    • Declares an EXIT handler that undoes any writes before an error in a sequence of DDL commands, like the INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statements. The EXIT handler then aborts completion of the rest of the procedure. (MySQL 13.6.7.2 Declare … Handler Statement)
    • Disables autocommit in the scope of the session.
    • Starts a transaction context and inserts data into four tables as a transaction. The continue handler picks up processing when one of the INSERT statements fails with a 1406 error code. The 1406 error code represents an error that occurs because the data is too long for a column’s width.
    • When all elements of the procedure complete, you commit the work.
  • Sets the double-dollar delimiter back to the default semicolon.
/* Conditionally drop procedure. */
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS locking;
 
/* Set delimiter to $$ to allow ; inside the procedure. */
DELIMITER $$
 
/* Create a transaction procedure. */
CREATE PROCEDURE locking(IN pv_one   varchar(10)
                        ,IN pv_two   varchar(10)
                        ,IN pv_three varchar(10)
                        ,IN pv_four  varchar(10))
  BEGIN
    /* Declare an EXIT Handler when a string is too long
       for a column. Undo all prior writes with a ROLLBACK
       statement. */
    DECLARE EXIT HANDLER FOR 1406 
      BEGIN
        ROLLBACK;
      END;
 
    /* Disable autocommit. */
    SET AUTOCOMMIT=0;
 
    /* Start transaction scope. */	   
    START TRANSACTION;
 
    /* A series of INSERT statement. */
    INSERT INTO one   (msg) VALUES (pv_one);
    INSERT INTO two   (msg) VALUES (pv_two);
    INSERT INTO three (msg) VALUES (pv_three);
    INSERT INTO four  (msg) VALUES (pv_four);
 
    /* Commit transaction set. */
    COMMIT;
  END;
$$ 
 
/* Reset delimiter to ; for SQL statements. */
DELIMITER ;

The next block tests the locking() procedure. The first and third calls are successful but the second one fails because the third parameter is too long for the msg column in the three table. The error triggers the EXIT handler in the locking() procedure.

/* Call locking procedure. */
CALL locking('Donald','Goofy','Mickey','Pluto');
CALL locking('Squirrel','Chipmunk','Monkey business','Raccoon');
CALL locking('Curly','Larry','Moe','Shemp');

The query block below:

/* Select from tables, which should be empty. */
SELECT * FROM one;
SELECT * FROM two;
SELECT * FROM three;
SELECT * FROM four;

Returns the following, which shows only the first and third test cases succeed:

+----+--------+
| id | msg    |
+----+--------+
|  1 | Donald |
|  2 | Curly  |
+----+--------+
2 rows in set (0.01 sec)
 
+----+-------+
| id | msg   |
+----+-------+
|  1 | Goofy |
|  2 | Larry |
+----+-------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
 
+----+--------+
| id | msg    |
+----+--------+
|  1 | Mickey |
|  2 | Moe    |
+----+--------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
 
+----+-------+
| id | msg   |
+----+-------+
|  1 | Pluto |
|  2 | Shemp |
+----+-------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

As always, I hope this helps those trying to write transactions across multiple tables.

Written by maclochlainn

March 16th, 2021 at 10:01 am

MySQL Self-Join

with 4 comments

I’m switching to MySQL and leveraging Alan Beaulieu’s Learning SQL as a supporting reference for my Database Design and Development course. While reviewing Alan’s Chapter 5: Querying Multiple Tables, I found his coverage of using self-joins minimal.

In fact, he adds a prequel_film_id column to the film table in the sakila database and then a single row to demonstrate a minimal self-join query. I wanted to show them how to view a series of rows interconnected by a self-join, like the following:

SELECT   f.title AS film
,        fp.title AS prequel
FROM     film f LEFT JOIN film fp
ON       f.prequel_id = fp.film_id
WHERE    f.series_name = 'Harry Potter'
ORDER BY f.series_number;

It returns the following result set:

+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| film                                         | prequel                                      |
+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets      | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone        |
| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban     | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets      |
| Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire          | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban     |
| Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix    | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire          |
| Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince       | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix    |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince       |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 |
+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Then, I thought about what questions the students might ask. For example, why doesn’t the query return the first film that doesn’t have a prequel. So, I took the self-join to the next level to display the first film having no prequel, like this:

SELECT   f.title AS film
,        IFNULL(
           CASE
             WHEN NOT f.film_id = fp.film_id
             AND      f.prequel_id = fp.film_id THEN fp.title		   
           END,'None') AS prequel
FROM     film f LEFT JOIN film fp
ON       f.prequel_id = fp.film_id
WHERE    f.series_name = 'Harry Potter'
ORDER BY f.series_number;

The CASE operator in the SELECT-list filters the result set by eliminating rows erroneously returned. Without the CASE filter, the query would return the original Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone film matched agains a NULL and all of the other sequels. The CASE operator effectively limits the result set for the LEFT JOIN to only the following data:

+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| film                                         | prequel                                   |
+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone        | NULL                                         |
+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+

The IFNULL() built-in function lets you replace the NULL value returned as the prequel’s title value. The IFNULL() function substitutes a 'None' string literal for a NULL value. The query returns the following result set:

+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| film                                         | prequel                                      |
+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone        | None                                         |
| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets      | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone        |
| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban     | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets      |
| Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire          | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban     |
| Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix    | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire          |
| Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince       | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix    |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince       |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 |
+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
8 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Alan’s modification of the sakila.film table had the following two related design flaws:

  • It didn’t provide a way to guarantee the ordering of films with prequels because relational databases don’t guarantee ordered result sets unless you use an ORDER BY clause, which typically requires a column to order.
  • It didn’t provide a way to isolate a series of films.

I modified the film table differently by adding the series_name, series_number, and prequel_id columns. The series_name column lets you group results and the series_number column lets you order by a preserved sequence that you store as part of the data The prequel_id column lets you connect to the prequel film, much like the backward portion of a doubly linked list.

The new sakila.film table is:

+----------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+------+-----+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Field                | Type                                                                | Null | Key | Default           | Extra                                         |
+----------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+------+-----+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| film_id              | smallint unsigned                                                   | NO   | PRI | NULL              | auto_increment                                |
| title                | varchar(255)                                                        | NO   | MUL | NULL              |                                               |
| description          | text                                                                | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
| release_year         | year                                                                | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
| language_id          | tinyint unsigned                                                    | NO   | MUL | NULL              |                                               |
| original_language_id | tinyint unsigned                                                    | YES  | MUL | NULL              |                                               |
| rental_duration      | tinyint unsigned                                                    | NO   |     | 3                 |                                               |
| rental_rate          | decimal(4,2)                                                        | NO   |     | 4.99              |                                               |
| length               | smallint unsigned                                                   | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
| replacement_cost     | decimal(5,2)                                                        | NO   |     | 19.99             |                                               |
| rating               | enum('G','PG','PG-13','R','NC-17')                                  | YES  |     | G                 |                                               |
| special_features     | set('Trailers','Commentaries','Deleted Scenes','Behind the Scenes') | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
| last_update          | timestamp                                                           | NO   |     | CURRENT_TIMESTAMP | DEFAULT_GENERATED on update CURRENT_TIMESTAMP |
| series_name          | varchar(20)                                                         | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
| series_number        | int unsigned                                                        | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
| prequel              | int unsigned                                                        | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
+----------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+------+-----+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
16 rows in set (0.21 sec)

After adding the three new columns, I inserted eight rows for the original Harry Potter films. You can use the following script in the MySQL client (mysql) to add the columns and insert the data to test the preceding queries:

-- Use sakila database.
USE sakila;
 
-- Add a prequel_id column to the sakila.film table.
ALTER TABLE film
ADD (series_name    varchar(20)),
ADD (series_number  int unsigned),
ADD (prequel_id     int unsigned);
 
-- Set primary to foreign key local variable.
SET @sv_film_id = 0;
 
-- Insert Harry Potter films in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Sorcerer''s Stone'
,'A film about a young boy who on his eleventh birthday discovers, he is the orphaned boy of two powerful wizards and has unique magical powers.'
, 2001
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 152
, 19.99
,'PG'
,'Trailers'
,'2001-11-04'
,'Harry Potter'
, 1
, NULL );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 2nd film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'
,'A film where Harry returning to Hogwarts, still famous and a hero, when strange things start to happen ... people are turning to stone and no-one knows what, or who, is doing it.'
, 2002
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 160
, 19.99
,'PG'
,'Trailers'
,'2002-11-15'
,'Harry Potter'
, 2
, @sv_film_id );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 3rd film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'
,'A film where Harry, Ron, and Hermione return for their third year at Hogwarts and are forced to face escaped prisoner, Sirius Black.'
, 2004
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 141
, 19.99
,'PG'
,'Trailers'
,'2004-06-04'
,'Harry Potter'
, 3
, @sv_film_id );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 4th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'
,'A film where where Harry Potter''s name emerges from the Goblet of Fire, and he becomes a competitor in a grueling battle for glory among three wizarding schools - the Triwizard Tournament.'
, 2005
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 157
, 19.99
,'PG'
,'Trailers'
,'2005-11-18'
,'Harry Potter'
, 4
, @sv_film_id );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 5th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'
,'A film where Lord Voldemort has returned, but the Ministry of Magic is doing everything it can to keep the wizarding world from knowing the truth.'
, 2007
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 138
, 19.99
,'PG-13'
,'Trailers'
,'2007-07-12'
,'Harry Potter'
, 5
, @sv_film_id );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 6th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince'
,'A film where Voldemort is tightening his grip on Hogwarts and it is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry and Dumbledore work to find the key to unlock the Dark Lord''s defenses.'
, 2009
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 153
, 19.99
,'PG'
,'Trailers'
,'2009-07-15'
,'Harry Potter'
, 6
, @sv_film_id );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 7th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1'
,'A film where Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission to track down and destroy the Horcruxes - the keys to Voldemort''s immortality.'
, 2010
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 146
, 19.99
,'PG-13'
,'Trailers'
,'2010-11-19'
,'Harry Potter'
, 7
, @sv_film_id );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 8th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2'
,'A film where Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission to track down and destroy the Horcruxes - the keys to Voldemort''s immortality.'
, 2011
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 130
, 19.99
,'PG-13'
,'Trailers'
,'2011-07-15'
,'Harry Potter'
, 8
, @sv_film_id );

You can put the following commands into a SQL script file to revert the sakila.film table to its base configuration:

DELETE FROM film WHERE film_id > 1000;
ALTER TABLE film DROP COLUMN series_name;
ALTER TABLE film DROP COLUMN series_number;
ALTER TABLE film DROP COLUMN prequel_id;
ALTER TABLE film AUTO_INCREMENT = 1000;

As always, I hope this helps those looking for how to solve a new problem.

Written by maclochlainn

November 22nd, 2020 at 4:03 pm