Should have been :

One of the things I have always had problems with is transferring data from MySQL <-> PgSQL using the two current Navicats.

I’ve been using MacPorts for a long time, but recently (couple of months ago) I ran into some problems upgrading mySQL, and even though their support is usually very fast, the maintainer was on vacation for a few days and I found myself needing an alternative. Usually there are plenty of people that are willing to help, plus I have installed the components I use many times, but the problem I ran into was not a common install/setup problem. The upgrade problem has since been fixed, but I decided to try some other alternatives anyway.

I cannot complain about the whole MacPorts experience, It has given me great flexibility, but it definitely requires quite a bit more effort than double clicking on a DMG and dragging to the Apps folder, but it is flexible and powerful.

Anyway I installed XAMPP about a month ago but over the period of a few days as I began porting my virtual hosts, httpd.conf, php.ini settings etc, things would get screwed up, probably mostly issues with permissions and in no time I was trashing and re-installing again.

After about the third time I wrote a script that read in all the permissions on a freshly installed package, and as time went by I could re-run it and compare with the original clean install permissions data, and make adjustments. The script provided a simple way to view, compare, and restore any and all permissions very easily, and it helped me considerably.

I never spent enough time figuring out what I was screwing up that created all the problems, but I do not blame them on XAMPP.

I think XAMPP is probably a fine, fine product that has a huge effort behind it, some very talented and dedicated people, and the problems I experienced were caused by my own buffoonery (trying to change too many things to quickly), I DO NOT blame the problems on XAMPP, I intend to try it again when I have more time.

Along with having to come up with something simpler, I had made up my mind to switch from my own framework to Zend Framework, and Zend Server CE was designed to work with it so I decided to try it.

I am retired so everything that I do is for my own use, mostly to keep my mind active, nevertheless I’ve been programming the Mac pretty much 10-14 hours a day since 1987, and this stuff is important to me. I try getting away from programming and do some other things like fly my airplane, but I never manage to stay away…

I have been running ZEND Server CE for a couple of weeks now, I am proceeding more slowly on adding things from my previous environment, and so far everything is going very well. I have also begun using phpMyAdmin which is very nicely integrated with Zend Server CE, where previously I had been using mySQL Navicat and PgSQL Navicat. I really like phpMySQL very much.

One of the things I have always had problems with is transferring data from MySQL PgSQL using the two current Navicats. I have struggled with different delimiters, and schemes and one Navicat will fail importing from the other Navicat’s export. I’ve pretty much exhausted myself trying to get that to work. I think they have a new version of Navicat that handles both MySQL and PgSQL from one application instead of using two separate Navicat Applications. Maybe that will solve the problem. But anyway for now I am happy to be learning phpMyAdmin.

The only problem I’ve run into with phpMyAdmin so far is that when I create a table using the SQL dialog, it creates the table and the Triggers, but when I click on the [Create PHP Code] link nothing happens, the code must be going into the great void. It would be nice to get that to work. I have searched the entire drive for anything that was saved within the last five minutes, immediately after clicking on [Create PHP Code] to see if maybe it was being written to some obscure directory, but didn’t have nay luck. I am using Safari, maybe I will try Firefox and see it that helps.

I am running OS X on an iMac24 for development, and OS X Server on another iMac24.

Sorry I made this so lengthy…

Best Regards,

Bill Hernandez
Plano, Texas

I am the Product Manager for Zend Server (well, one of a team), and I’d like to start by saying your review is very helpful. We’ve had numerous discussions on some of the points you raise, and I must say this sort of feedback will seriously help improve the product in the future to make it more Mac friendly (which we definitely intend to do).

I’m a bit curious about setting up things taking half an hour – this is something I did not expect. If you could elaborate that would be great. If you don’t want to do it here, feel free to drop me a line to [my first name] dot e at zend dot com.

You didn’t post a website but if you’ve got a blog and you write up a review, I’ll link to it if you send it to me (or post it as a comment). :-)