phpBB and MT using the same DB?

August 27, 2005 7:28 AM

I want to install phpBB on my website, but I have a basic question to which I haven't been able to find the answer yet. If I am using a MySQL database behind MT for my weblog, can I install phpBB on the same database and assume it will just build additional tables in MySQL? Or does it require a completely separate database that would be addressed differently?

Also if you could distinguish between "could do" and "should do" (or should not do) I would appreciate it.

posted by mikel to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Yes, it adds additional tables. It does not require a separate database. There is a config setting to tell it what prefix to use for the tables it creates so that it does not collide with any existing tables.
posted by Lokheed at 8:00 AM on August 27, 2005

It doesn't require a separate database, but that's how things usually work (this is the "should do"). Unless you're paying per database, I'd avoid having two apps' tables in the same database -- I can't think of anything to be gained from it, and separating things from each other is exactly why the idea of multiple databases exists in the first place.

I'd doubly recommend giving phpbb its own database if you're planning on using any mods that touch the database. I wouldn't trust mod authors to have tested their stuff in that arrangement, even if phpbb itself is tested that way.
posted by mendel at 8:13 AM on August 27, 2005

Er, I just reread the question, and I should clarify something: one instance of MySQL will happily handle multiple databases, so if you were wondering if running phpbb required running two copies of MySQL -- no, you'll never need to do that.
posted by mendel at 8:14 AM on August 27, 2005

Lokheed is right, you can use the "table prefix" setting if you want to combine multiple applications' tables into one database and not worry about two of them wanting to have a table of the same name. Though normally as mendel said you don't want to do this, as it's customary mysql hygeine to give each application its own database.
posted by Rhomboid at 8:47 AM on August 27, 2005

While it's customary to use a separate mysql database for each application, a nice benefit of sharing a single database is you can use MTSQL to pull data from a second web application in to MT and use MT's template engine to dynamically combine content from the two web apps.
posted by jeanmari at 10:32 PM on August 27, 2005