Connect a MySQL or MariaDB database

MySQL and MariaDB share one adapter. Where they differ, it is noted below.

Connection string

mysql://user:password@host:3306/database

Parameter	Notes
ssl / sslmode	Required by most managed providers (PlanetScale, RDS, Aiven).
Database name	Required. MySQL’s “database” is what PostgreSQL calls a schema — Adminium introspects the one you name.

Percent-encode anything exotic in the password.

A read-only user

CREATE USER 'adminium_ro'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'a-strong-password';
GRANT SELECT ON mydb.* TO 'adminium_ro'@'%';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Narrow '%' to Adminium’s actual source host if you can — 'adminium_ro'@'10.0.1.%'.

The probe reports read-only role, and you get a read-only app with a banner saying so.

A read-only user forces a separate meta store

Adminium must write its adminium_* tables somewhere, and a SELECT-only user cannot host them. Same-database placement is refused with META_PLACEMENT_INVALID at connect time. See Read-only sources & the meta database.

A read-write user

CREATE USER 'adminium_rw'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'a-strong-password';
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON mydb.* TO 'adminium_rw'@'%';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

For same-database meta placement, the user also needs DDL on its own database:

CREATE DATABASE adminium_meta;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON adminium_meta.* TO 'adminium_rw'@'%';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Then point ADMINIUM_META_URL at mysql://adminium_rw:…@host:3306/adminium_meta.

What the probe reports

Connected — 41 ms · 8.0.36 · read-only role

MariaDB reports its own version string (10.11.6-MariaDB); Adminium adapts introspection accordingly.

What Adminium reads

Schema only: tables, columns and types, primary and foreign keys, unique constraints, indexes, ENUM and SET definitions, AUTO_INCREMENT flags, and column comments — all from information_schema. ENUM columns become select inputs; foreign keys become navigable relations.

MySQL-specific notes worth knowing

Foreign keys need InnoDB. MyISAM tables declare no foreign keys, so Adminium sees no relationships to follow and generates flat tables instead of linked detail pages. Check with:

SELECT table_name, engine FROM information_schema.tables
WHERE table_schema = 'mydb' AND engine <> 'InnoDB';

TINYINT(1) is how MySQL spells boolean. Adminium treats it as one, which is right almost always — and wrong if you genuinely store 0–127 in a TINYINT(1). Override the field type if so.

Zero dates. 0000-00-00 is not a date any client can represent. If your schema still allows them, expect nulls where those values are.

Case sensitivity depends on the host filesystem. lower_case_table_names differs between a Linux server and a macOS one; a schema that introspects on one may not on the other. This bites during migrations more than during introspection.

Troubleshooting

Access denied for user — the user exists but not for the host Adminium is connecting from. MySQL identity is user and host: 'adminium_ro'@'localhost' and 'adminium_ro'@'%' are different users.

Public Key Retrieval is not allowed — MySQL 8’s caching_sha2_password over a non-TLS connection. Enable TLS, or use mysql_native_password for this user.

No relationships in the generated app — see the InnoDB note above.