Easy way to export a SQL table without access to the server or phpMyADMIN

Question

I need a way to easily export and then import data in a MySQL table from a remote server to my home server. I don't have direct access to the server, and no utilities such as phpMyAdmin are installed. I do, however, have the ability to put PHP scripts on the server.

How do I get at the data?

I ask this question purely to record my way to do it

Answer 1

You could use SQL for this:

$file = 'backups/mytable.sql';
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * INTO OUTFILE '$file' FROM `##table##`");

Then just point a browser or FTP client at the directory/file (backups/mytable.sql). This is also a nice way to do incremental backups, given the filename a timestamp for example.

To get it back in to your DataBase from that file you can use:

$file = 'backups/mytable.sql';
$result = mysql_query("LOAD DATA INFILE '$file' INTO TABLE `##table##`");

The other option is to use PHP to invoke a system command on the server and run 'mysqldump':

$file = 'backups/mytable.sql';
system("mysqldump --opt -h ##databaseserver## -u ##username## -p ##password## ##database | gzip > ".$file);