Exporting Structure and Data (Backup) - Mastering phpMyAdmin 3.4 for Effective MySQL Management - page 119

Exporting Structure and
Data (Backup)
Keeping good backups is crucial to a project. Backups consist of up-to-date backups
and intermediary snapshots taken during development and production phases. The
export feature of phpMyAdmin can generate backups, and can also be used to send
data to other applications.
Please note that phpMyAdmin's export feature produces backups
on demand and it is highly recommended to implement an
automatic and scripted backup solution which takes backups on
a regular schedule. The precise way to implement such a solution
depends on the server's OS.
Dumps, backups, and exports
Let us first clarify some vocabulary. In MySQL documentation, you will encounter
the term dump , and in other applications, backup or export . All these terms have the
same meaning in the phpMyAdmin context.
MySQL includes mysqldump —a command-line utility that can be used to generate
export files. But the shell access needed for command-line utilities is not offered by
every host provider. Also, access to the export feature from within the web interface
is more convenient. This is why phpMyAdmin offers the export feature with more
export formats than mysqldump. This chapter will focus on phpMyAdmin's
export features.