One of the great features of Shard-Query is the ability to use MySQL proxy to access resultsets transparently. While this is a great tool, many people have expressed reservations about using MySQL Proxy, an alpha component in their production environment.

I recognize that this is a valid concern, and have implemented an alternate method of retrieving resultsets directly in the MySQL client, without using a proxy. This means that any node can easily act as the “head” node without any extra daemon, instead of having to run many proxies.

The sq_helper() routine has been checked into the git repository and is available now.

The function takes a few parameters:

• sql to run
• shard-query schema name (empty string or null for default schema)
• schema to store temp table in
• temp table name (where results are sent to)
• return result (boolean, 1 returns …