The latest from the MySQL community

When you build an offline-first app, the question is what happens to a change while there is no network. The answer is a queue that writes to IndexedDB first, pushes to MySQL, and clears the local copy only after the server confirms. The library versions behind that run are Express 5.2.1 and mysql2 3.24.4, both […]

Subtitle: Schema design, embedding workflows, hybrid search, and performance tradeoffs explained.

Quick Recap from Part 1

In Part 1, we introduced the MyVector plugin — a native extension that brings vector embeddings and HNSW-based approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) search into MySQL. We covered how MyVector supports scoped queries (e.g., WHERE user_id = X) to ensure that semantic search remains relevant, performant, and secure in real-world multi-tenant applications.

Now in Part 2, we move from concept to implementation:

• How to store and index embeddings
• How to design embedding workflows
• How hybrid (vector + keyword) search works
• How HNSW compares to brute-force search
…

MySQL HeatWave is the only fully managed MySQL database service that combines transactions, analytics, machine learning, and GenAI services, without ETL duplication. Also included is MySQL HeatWave Lakehouse, which allows users to query data in object storage, MySQL databases, or a combination of both. Users can deploy MySQL HeatWave–powered apps on a choice of public […]

TL;DR Percona Server for MySQL now offers experimental support for stored programs in the JS language. This free and open source alternative to Oracle’s Enterprise/Cloud-only feature enables users to write stored programs in a more modern, convenient, and often more familiar language. It is still in active development, and we would very much like your […]

Here’s a quick catalog for my students of PowerShell, JavaScript, and Python examples connecting to MySQL:

• MySQL Powershell Connection with .Net Library Example
• MySQL Powershell Connection with ODBC DSN Example
• MySQL Powershell with CSV File Write Example
• MySQL Powershell with Dialog for Dynamic Connection Inputs
• MySQL Node.js Introduction without Bind …

Is SQL, or Structured Query Language, a programming language? That’s a great question! A question that many answer with emphasis: “No, SQL is not a programming language!” There are some who answer yes; and they usually qualify that answer with something like: “SQL is a programming language designed to communicate with relational databases.”

It strikes me that those saying “yes” are saying that SQL is only a collection of interface methods to read from and write to a database engine. Those saying SQL is not a programming language often qualify that a programming language must have conditional logic and iterative structures, which don’t exist in SQL.

There’s a third group that are fence sitters. They decline to say whether SQL is a programming language, but they also say individuals who only write SQL aren’t programmers. That’s a bit harsh from my perspective.

Before …

While I blogged about how to setup Node.js and MySQL almost two years ago, it was interesting when a student ran into a problem. The student said they’d configured the environment but were unable to use Node.js to access MySQL.

The error is caused by this import statement:

const mysql = require('mysql') 

The student got the following error, which simply says that they hadn’t installed the Node.js package for MySQL driver.

internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:638
    throw err;
    ^

Error: Cannot find module 'mysql'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:636:15)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:562:25)
    at Module.require (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:692:17)
    at require (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:25:18)
    at Object. (/home/student/Data/cit325/oracle-s/lib/Oracle12cPLSQLCode/Introduction/query.js:4:15)
    at Module._compile …

I’ve been using MySQL 8 on Linux for a couple years but the Linux repository version didn’t install the new MySQL Shell. So, I discovered the new MySQL Shell when I installed MySQL 8 (8.0.21) on Windows to teach my student how to use it to learn SQL commands. I encourage you to read the full MySQL Shell document.

The following is a tutorial to provision a student user and studentdb database in MySQL. It uses the MySQL Shell (mysqlsh) and stages for uploads of comma-separated values files.

After installing MySQL on the Windows 10 OS, open the Window OS Command Line Interface (CLI) shell by entering the following in the search field at the bottom left:

cmd

It launches a CLI interface to the Windows OS. The cmd (command) utility opens the CLI in the following …

A student question: Does JavaScript make context switching for web-based applications obsolete? Wow! I asked what that meant. He said, it means JavaScript replaces all other server-side programming languages, like PHP, C#, or Python. I asked the student why he believed that. His answer was that’s what two interviewing managers told him.

I thought it would be interesting to put the idea to a test. Below is a Node.js script that acts as a utility that queries the MySQL database with substitution variables in query. It also returns a standard out (stdout) stream of the MySQL query’s results. It also supports three flag and value pairs as arguments, and optionally writes the results of the MySQL query to a log file while still returning result as the stdout value. All errors are written to the standard error (stderr) stream.

The Node.js solution is completely portable between Windows …

Sometimes, you just half to chuckle. A couple folks felt that I didn’t give enough information in my post showing how to configure a small Node.js application that could access a MySQL database. Specifically, they wanted me to explain the following:

1. Configure your Express.js and MySQL development in a single Node.js application.
2. How to convert the list of RowDataPacket objects as elements of data, which is really just simple JavaScript knowledge.
3. How to bind variables into the query.

Like the other blog post, this one assumes you’ve performed a global install of Node.js on a Linux server. If you’re unfamiliar with how to perform a global Node.js installation, I cover how to do it in this …