Meeting MySQL community in Paris - November 18, 2008

I will meet the MySQL community in Paris on November 18, 2008 at 19:30. I will speak about MySQL Proxy Wizardry, and discuss with the community about any subject that will come up. The place: 1 rue royale, 227 Bureaux de la Colline 92210 Saint-Cloud Bâtiment D 9ème étage Tel : 01 78 15 24 00

Baltimore MySQL meetup - November 13

The Baltimore MySQL Meetup is scheduled for November 13th at 6pm The place: Lotame Solutions, Inc. 6085 Marshalee Drive Suite 210 Elkridge, MD 21075

We'll talk about MySQL Proxy, and anything else that looks suitable, depending on the crowd's requests.
Thanks to Greg Haase for organizing.

New York MySQL meetup - November 11

The New York MySQL Meetup is scheduled for November 11th at 6pm The place: Suspenders Restaurant 111 Broadway at Thames St New York, NY 10006 212-732-5005

We'll talk about MySQL Proxy, and anything else that looks suitable, depending on the crowd's requests.
Thanks to Philip Antoniades for the organization.

OSCON 2008 - Getting in touch with the open source makers

For some reasons, I have never been able to attend OSCON so far. I have been going to the MySQL Users Conference almost every year in April, and that usually left me without a great desire of crossing the Atlantic again. This year is different. I have crossed the Atlantic already three times, and yet I am about to board a plane once more, heading for the Portland, Oregon.

And for some lucky circumstances, I am also a speaker.
I will join Ronald Bradford on the podium, to speak about (surprise surprise!) MySQL Proxy, from architecture to implementation.
I will have also my hands full in the evenings. There will be plenty of BoFs (including two that I will host) and parties, social gatherings, competitions, which I plan to enjoy for my personal enlightenment, not only to fulfill my duties.
I am looking forward to meet old friends and to make new ones.

Creative MySQL hacking and Summer of Code

You can hack the MySQL server in three ways:

• Changing the server code. This is straightforward. Download the code, and make the changes you need. If you need the change only for a limited period, this is enough. If the change must be persistent, then you should try to make it accepted. The Code Contribution Program may be for you.
• Creating a plugin or a UDF. Using the plugin interface or the UDF API you can extend the server in many ways. UDFs require that you (and the user) be able to compile the additional code. Plugins require compiling code only from the author.
• Mixing the existing hooks. This means being creative bu stretching the intended purpose of simple components of the server or external tools. This is how you can hack the server and create new features using stored routines, events, engines like federated, blackhole, archive, and external tools like MySQL Proxy. This is like composing chess puzzles, where you are given the basic rules, and you have to achieve clever results. This sort of jigsaw puzzle hacking is my favorite.

I am considering some of this latest hacking ideas for the incoming Summer of Code.
If you have any ideas on this department and you would like to pursue them, please send a message to the SoC mailing list. I will be glad to discuss them.

OpenFest 2007

The OpenFest 2007 is under way in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event is hosted in an elegant building in Sofia center and it's packed with enthusiastic open source lovers.
The star of the show was Georg Greve president of the EFF Europe. A passionate speaker, he gathered a huge audience just at the start of the event.
Then, during break, the organizers called for an impromptu press conference, where Georg, Jonas Öberg, Erik Josefsson, Domas Mituzas, snd yours truly enjoyed the spotlight for a hour, while asked about recipes to win the ongoing battle between good and evil in the software industry.
I had a session about getting started with MySQL Proxy, which got me a full hall and a great degree of interest. (slides)
After that, Domas had a packed room with standing audience when he presented his talk about Wikipedia.
The evening was closed at a local restaurant where we were treated with free beer, of which everyone took advantage during the ongoing discussion on good and evil.

A very enjoyable experience.

Speaking at the OpenFest - Sofia

I was invited to talk at the OpenFest in Sofia, Bulgaria, and I gladly accepted.
Despite having worked four years in Balkan states, I have never been to Sofia before, and I welcome the chance.
I will present a session about Getting started with MySQL Proxy. The Proxy has advanced a lot since I wrote the getting started article, not only in terms of development (it has!) but also in terms of acceptance and experimentation.
I will show some consolidated usage, and some magic, which is good for advertising.
Since this is my first visit to Bulgaria, I got to learn some words of the local language. And since I was at it, I taught some to the Proxy as well.
How?
I won't anticipate anything, but the Proxy interacts politely in half a dozen languages now. If you are near Sofia, come and see!

Getting started with MySQL Proxy

Did you notice that there is a new component among MySQL products? No? Perhaps you have been on vacation, then.
MySQL Proxy is an exciting tool for anyone willing to get new features now without waiting for new server major releases.
Using the Proxy you can filter queries, create new commands, create customized logs, play with the operating system from any database client, and much more.
Interested? Read Getting started with MySQL Proxy

MySQL as universal server

With all the discussion going on about MySQL Proxy, we may forget that there are alternatives.
Today in the MySQL Dev Zone there is an article about a different proxy. It's more than that, actually. It is a Perl Module implementing the MySQL client/server protocol.
With this tool, you can emulate some of MySQL Proxy features, and you can do something more. For example, you can use Federated tables with non-MySQL database servers. The article features an example where a table from SQLite and a table from PostgreSQL are queried as if they were normal MySQL tables.

Your first macros with MySQL Proxy

You may have noticed the excitement about MySQL Proxy. But perhaps you failed to realize what you can do with it.
Here's a simple tutorial that will guide you through your first Proxy experience. You will be able to use macros with the standard mysql client.

Assuming that you are working on the box where your MySQL server is, do the following:

1. Download and unpack MySQL Proxy
2. download the query rewriting tutorial and save it as rewrite.lua
3. start the proxy
   /path/to/sbin/mysql-proxy --proxy-lua-script=rewrite.lua --proxy-profiling
4. from another terminal, fire the mysql client
   mysql -u USERNAME -pPASSWORD -h 127.0.0.1 -P 4040

Now you can use your client as usual, with a few additions. The rewrite.lua script implements three macros (cd, ls, who, corresponding respectively to USE, SHOW FULL TABLES, and SHOW PROCESSLIST).

mysql> cd test;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select schema();
+----------+
| schema() |
+----------+
| test     |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> cd mysql;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select schema();
+----------+
| schema() |
+----------+
| mysql    |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Look at that! We send a macro (cd test) to the server. The proxy catches it, and turns it into "use test". The server executes it, unaware of the manipulation in between. Let's try the others:

mysql> ls mysql;
+---------------------------+
| Tables_in_mysql           |
+---------------------------+
| columns_priv              |
| db                        |
| func                      |
| help_category             |
| help_keyword              |
| help_relation             |
| help_topic                |
| host                      |
| proc                      |
| procs_priv                |
| tables_priv               |
| time_zone                 |
| time_zone_leap_second     |
| time_zone_name            |
| time_zone_transition      |
| time_zone_transition_type |
| user                      |
+---------------------------+
17 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> who;
+----+-------------+-----------------+-------+---------+------+-------+------------------+
| Id | User        | Host            | db    | Command | Time | State | Info             |
+----+-------------+-----------------+-------+---------+------+-------+------------------+
|  4 | datacharmer | localhost       | bugs  | Sleep   | 1522 |       | NULL             |
| 11 | gmax        | localhost:50630 | mysql | Query   |    0 | NULL  | SHOW PROCESSLIST |
+----+-------------+-----------------+-------+---------+------+-------+------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

And now we add our own macro to the list. Stop the proxy. Edit rewrite.lua, and just before the line saying

elseif command == "who" then

add these three lines, implementing a info macro, which corresponds to "SELECT USER(), NOW()":

                elseif command == "info" then
                       proxy.queries:append(1, string.char(proxy.COM_QUERY) .. "SELECT USER(), NOW()" )
                       return proxy.PROXY_SEND_QUERY

Restart the proxy, and try your new macro:

mysql> info;
+----------------+---------------------+
| USER()         | NOW()               |
+----------------+---------------------+
| gmax@localhost | 2007-06-27 10:24:00 |
+----------------+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Isn't it cool? And that's just the beginning.

MySQL Proxy - An excellent excuse to learn a new language

If you are as curious as I am about technology, you would have been intrigued when the MySQL proxy entered the radar. So I followed this promising jewel from its first inception as source only (and for internal distribution) until its release with a full series of binaries.

The recent announcement has made it official. MySQL Proxy is a full fledged supported product, and it's ready to use.
You just have to get the binaries and use it.
If you feel like experimenting (and there is no reason to get the proxy if you aren't) you can have a look at the sample lua scripts available on the Forge and play with them. You may notice that there is one snippet that I created. If you are thinking of calling me for lua lessons, think again. When I wrote that example, my entire production with lua amounted to three scripts, and the total length of my lua experience could be measured in hours.
Having used at least a dozen languages (including the usual suspects Pascal, C, C++, and Perl, but also things like Sather), a new scripting language does not scare me. I believe that I am going to see more of this lua, and I believe that lots of MySQL users are going to become proficient lua speakers in the near future.
Good job, Jan!

Users, give the proxy a try. And if you can't figure out what to do with it, stay tuned. I have a couple of article on this subject, and not only about this proxy, coming soon.