To connect to a database through PEAR::DB, you have to create a valid DSN - data source name. This DSN consists in the following parts:

• phptype: Database backend used in PHP (i.e. mysql , odbc etc.)
• dbsyntax: Database used with regards to SQL syntax etc. When using ODBC as the phptype, set this to the DBMS type the ODBC driver is connecting to. Examples: access, db2, mssql, navision, solid, etc.
• protocol: Communication protocol to use ( i.e. tcp, unix etc.)
• hostspec: Host specification (hostname[:port])
• database: Database to use on the DBMS server
• username: User name for login
• password: Password for login
• proto_opts: Maybe used with protocol
• option: Additional connection options in URI query string format. options get separated by &

The format of the supplied DSN is in its fullest form:

 phptype(dbsyntax)://username:password@protocol+hostspec/database?option=value

Most variations are allowed:

 phptype://username:password@protocol+hostspec:110//usr/db_file.db phptype://username:password@hostspec/database phptype://username:password@hostspec phptype://username@hostspec phptype://hostspec/database phptype://hostspec phptype:///database phptype:///database?option=value&anotheroption=anothervalue phptype(dbsyntax) phptype

The currently supported database backends are:

 dbase  -> dBase fbsql  -> FrontBase (functional since DB 1.7.0) ibase  -> InterBase (functional since DB 1.7.0) ifx    -> Informix msql   -> Mini SQL (functional since DB 1.7.0) mssql  -> Microsoft SQL Server (NOT for Sybase. Compile PHP --with-mssql) mysql  -> MySQL (for MySQL <= 4.0) mysqli -> MySQL (for MySQL >= 4.1) (requires PHP 5) (since DB 1.6.3) oci8   -> Oracle 7/8/9 odbc   -> ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) pgsql  -> PostgreSQL sqlite -> SQLite sybase -> Sybase

With an up-to-date version of DB, you can use a second DSN format

 phptype(syntax)://user:pass@protocol(proto_opts)/database

If your database, option values, username or password contain characters used to delineate DSN parts, you can escape them via URI hex encodings:

 : = %3a   / = %2f   @ = %40 + = %2b   ( = %28   ) = %29 ? = %3f   = = %3d   & = %26

Please note, that some features may be not supported by all database backends. Please refer to the PEAR DB extensions status document located at: /pear/base/dir/DB/doc/STATUS to get a detailed list about what features are supported by which backend.

Example

 mysql://user@unix(/path/to/socket)/pear

 pgsql://user:pass@tcp(localhost:5555)/pear

 sqlite:////full/unix/path/to/file.db?mode=0666

 sqlite:///c:/full/windows/path/to/file.db?mode=0666

 mysqli://user:pass@localhost/pear?key=client-key.pem&cert=client-cert.pem

 odbc(access)://admin@/datasourcename

 odbc(access)://admin@/datasourcename?cursor=SQL_CUR_USE_ODBC