NEVER NEVER NEVER give hired help access to your database - it's too easy for someone to accidentally delete a table in a point and click interface, and it's too easy for someone with malicious intentions to simply drop/truncate tables.

Just do what I do - have them email you all of their CREATE TABLE statements and you'll execute them. Then you can create a separate user with permissions only on the tables they need access t, then revoke that access when they're done. This way they'll never have access to anything but what you're hiring them to work on.

If he says he needs to see how data is stored in other tables, etc. then you can give him a design view of your database - you don't need access to see relevant table structures.

Can you guys tell I used to design banking systems yet? :P

Also, this SHOULD go without saying, but generally it's a good idea just to force your developers to give you their code and then you can make a stored procedure that executes the code. There should never be any application written that uses SELECT/UPDATE/INSERT statements and interacts directly with the tables, ever. It should ALWAYS be done through stored procedures, and you can grant execute permissions to the procedure.

okay, thanks DV. Emailing 'create table' statements sounds good. You lost me on the stored procedure part though. Hopefully once the tables are in he can just upload the data.

It depends on how complicated your database is going to be. If you already have a database with data in it, you don't want to give access to anything but the tables they need access to. If that's not an issue, then all you'll need to do is create the tables yourself and then give him access to do what he needs to do with them.

Yes, this is completely from scratch. I just want him to be able to use phpmyadmin so he can set it all up himself. But right now the only way I can see to gain entrance to it is through the control panel. When I just try to login to the URL that the control panel normally accesses, I get the following error message:

Notice: Undefined index: pma_cookie_dbname in /usr/local/nf2/share/php/phpmyadmin/libraries/auth/cookie.auth.lib.php on line 322

Warning: mysql_list_dbs(): Unable to save MySQL query result in /usr/local/nf2/share/php/phpmyadmin/libraries/common.lib.php on line 821

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /usr/local/nf2/share/php/phpmyadmin/libraries/mysql_wrappers.lib.php on line 36

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/local/nf2/share/php/phpmyadmin/libraries/auth/cookie.auth.lib.php:322) in /usr/local/nf/share/php/phpmyadmin/index.php on line 43

this is for

Welcome to phpMyAdmin 2.4.0
MySQL 5.0.24a-log running on MySQL Server Farm 2

I've read [phpmyadmin.net...] but not making any progress. Cookies are enabled in my browser...

Any thoughts?

I think the problem might be with the new netfirms host. In the support Q&A's they say:

If you encounter the above error, please ensure that you are connecting to your MySQL database with a password that is no more than 8 alpha-numeric characters.

Over 8 characters is not the problem. I am waiting to hear back from them -- will try calling.

I finally got some advice from tech support concerning the error messages. It appears that the phpmyadmin won't work on the external URL but he recommended and tested the connection using HeidiSQL -- he says its better that phpmyadmin. Great!