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Embedding a MySQL Server in C/C++ or Java applications

Posted by Lenz Grimmer on

Last week at CeBit I once again had a conversation with an application developer that was not aware that it's possible to embed the MySQL Server inside an application instead of running it as a separate process. I experienced something similar at FOSDEM recently, while talking with the Amarok developers - how come that this feature is so little known? In fact, there are two possibilities for embedding MySQL (and both of them are licensed under the GPL): the first one is using the libmysqld embedded library, which is suitable if you are developing C/C++ applications:

The embedded MySQL server library makes it possible to run a full-featured MySQL server inside a client application. The main benefits are increased speed and more simple management for embedded applications.

The embedded server library is based on the client/server version of MySQL, which is written in C/C++. Consequently, the embedded server also is written in C/C++.

The API is identical for the embedded MySQL version and the client/server version.

Especially consider the last sentence - it's actually fairly easy to create an application that supports connecting to both an embedded or a standalone server instance! Here are some related links to get you going:

If you're a Java developer, you should consider taking a look at our Connector/MXJ product - this allows you to embed a MySQL server in your Java application:

MySQL Connector/MXJ is a Java Utility package for deploying and managing a MySQL database. Deploying and using MySQL can be as easy as adding an additional parameter to the JDBC connection url, which will result in the database being started when the first connection is made. This makes it easy for Java developers to deploy applications which require a database by reducing installation barriers for their end-users.

MySQL Connector/MXJ makes the MySQL database appear to be a java-based component. It does this by determining what platform the system is running on, selecting the appropriate binary, and launching the executable. It will also optionally deploy an initial database, with any specified parameters.

Included are instructions for use with a JDBC driver and deploying as a JMX MBean to JBoss.

Some related links to further information/help:

Does your application make use of an embedded MySQL Server already? Please let me know! I'd love to learn more about the use cases and experiences you have made.

 

 

 

Speaking about RPM packaging at the TU Harburg, Germany this Thursday

Posted by Lenz Grimmer on

Back when I still worked at SuSE, I was in charge of maintaining a number or packages of the distribution (actually, you should still be able to find traces of my work in the RPM changelogs). Nowadays, I maintain a number of packages for openSUSE and other distributions on the openSUSE Build Service, which is just brilliant for this purpose.

If you happen to live in northern Germany and are interested to learn more about the RPM package manager and how to build packages, consider coming to the TU Harburg this coming Thursday (March 13th). At 19:00, I will give a presentation about this topic in building, D, room D1023 (in cooperation with the Hamburg branch of the German Unix User Group). More information (in German) can be obtained from here.

See you there!

 

 

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