Importing Structure and Data - Mastering phpMyAdmin 2.8 for Effective MySQL Management - page 125

Importing Structure and Data
In this chapter, we will learn how to bring back exported data that we might have
created for backup or transfer purposes. Exported data may also come from authors
of other applications, and could contain the whole foundation structure of these
applications and some sample data.
The current phpMyAdmin version (2.8.2) can directly import files containing
MySQL statements (usually having a .sql suffix, but not necessarily so) and CSV
files (comma-separated values, although the separator is not necessarily a comma).
There is also an interface to the MySQL LOAD DATA INFILE statement, enabling us to
load text files containing data, also called CSV. The binary field upload covered in
Chapter 6 can be said to belong to the import family.
Importing and uploading are synonyms in this context.
Since phpMyAdmin version 2.7.0, there is an Import menu in the Database view and
in the Table view that regroups import dialogs, and an Import files menu available
inside the Query window (as explained in Chapter 12).
The default values for the Import interface are defined in $cfg['Import'] .
Before examining the actual import dialog, let's discuss some limits issues.
Limits for the Transfer
When we import, the source file is usually on our client machine, so it must travel to
the server via HTTP. This transfer takes time and uses resources that may be limited
in the web server's PHP configuration.