How to Create a Database for Time Tracker

This page describes how to create and populate a MySQL database for Time Tracker. See Installation Guide for installation instructions.

This procedure involves several steps:

• Creating db in MySQL console.
• Granting access permissions to a specific user.
• Populating the database (creating tables, indexes, etc.)

Creating Database

Login to MySQL console.

 $ mysql -h localhost -u root -p

Then, in MySQL console, use the create database statement:

 mysql> CREATE DATABASE timetracker CHARACTER SET = 'utf8mb4';

At this point the database named timetracker is created without access permissions. You can see whether it exists by issuing the show databases command. It must be in the list that follows.

 mysql> show databases;
 +--------------------+
 | Database           |
 +--------------------+
 | information_schema |
 | mysql              |
 | performance_schema |
 | timetracker        |
 +--------------------+
 4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

To exit MySQL console type exit;

 mysql> exit;

Granting Permissions

In order for Time Tracker script to have access to the database you need to grant access permissions. In MySQL console we can use something like this:

 mysql> GRANT ALL ON timetracker.* TO 'ttuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'ttpassword';

In the example above, we have granted all privileges to timetracker db to a MySQL user account ttuser from localhost whose password is ttpassword.

The second step is to define the same values for DSN in Time Tracker config.php file. For example:

define('DSN', 'mysql://ttuser:ttpassword@localhost/timetracker?charset=utf8mb4');

By this point we have an empty database with an account that is allowed to use it.

Populating Database

To populate timetracker database, use your browser and go to dbinstall.php script in the root of your installation directory.

After clicking the Create button, the database should be populated. Internally, it executes mysql.sql script from Time Tracker distribution. By this point Time Tracker should be ready for use.

Do not forget to remove dbinstall.php after successful install.

Time Tracker FAQ