phpMyAdmin: "mysql extension missing" error

Question

pset7: I receive the following error when trying to open phpMyAdmin:

"the mysqli extension is missing. Please check your PHP configuration. See our documentation for more information."

I previously had to change the permissions to redirect to the C$50 finance page (which now works) and to get my login/password (since the (i) doesn't show up on the website)- but I can't figure out how to get this working. phpMyAdmin fails either when I go to the https://ide50-username.cs50.io/phpmyadmin direction, or try directly from the ide50 menu.

Any advice would be very helpful. Thanks!

Answer 1

We all know that phpMyAdmin can be flaky sometimes. Unfortunately, I can't tell you how to fix it -- but I can tell you how to use mysql50 shell from the command line. Try stuff like this:

mysql50 shell
SHOW DATABASES;
USE pset7;
SHOW TABLES;
DESCRIBE users;
SELECT * FROM users;
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users;
quit

It's rock-solid and reliable, and it will help you get used to the way professional database administrators run things (not with mysql50 shell per se, but with mysql -h localhost -u user_name -p which is another way of getting to the same shell prompt).

Absolutely everything that can be done with phpMyAdmin can also be done from the mysql shell prompt. For example, you can paste the commands in a file like pset7.sql or pset8.sql directly into this prompt, and they will run just fine. Other things might be easier to figure out by pointing and clicking, but they are also possible with a little more research. Meanwhile, you can get a lot of stuff done this way while you wait to see if phpMyAdmin fixes itself.