Webonizer Database Configuration Utility

The Webonizer Database Configuration Utility allows you to make changes to the basic MySQL settings on your site. Take extra care in using this tool, as it can adversely affect the ability for your site to function—errors made to your database settings can cause your site to stop functioning.

One of the main reasons for this tool is to help transition your site from one server to another. By using this tool, you can point your current server to the new server for the data—which will mean that no data is lost during DNS updates. The tool can also be used if you are choosing to store your data on a separate server for optimization purposes.

To get to this utility, you must login to the site as the super administrator, go to Administration in your Site Links. At the bottom of Administration is a link for this utility.

Below is a list of the settings that can be modified.

• Database Name – This is the name of the database you are using. If you misspell this name, your site will cease to work.
• Database User Name – This is the username for the user that has access to your database named above.
• Database Password – This is the password that allows the username listed above to use the database listed above.
• Host Address or IP – This is the address of the MySQL host. By default, this should be set to “localhost” which is the name designated for the host of the server that is currently hosting the site. If you are hosting the site on another server, you should enter the IP address of that host.
• FTP Username – This is the username for your FTP account for this domain. Currently, this setting is not needed; it does not have a current implementation. Future versions of Webonizer may create systems for FTP tools.
• Local Files – This setting must be set to “on” or “off”. When set to “on” Webonizer will allow users with the appropriate permission to load media files and images to documents. When set to off, no media files can be added or deleted from the current server. (You should set this to off on your old server during migration from one server to another. Failure to do so could cause files to be associated to documents in the new server database, but no files to be loaded to the new server.)

Updating and even viewing Database utility is risky. You should never view this page on a public computer because roving eyes could see your database credentials. Also, since the settings will change the database login variables for Webonizer altogether, you can actually cause the site to stop working if the information is inaccurate (Webonizer checks to see if the connection can be made with the information you supply, but Webonizer cannot verify that you are giving the right database name and user with the proper permissions).