Synchronizing data and structure

In earlier phpMyAdmin versions, it was possible to achieve some synchronization of the structure and data between two databases on the same server or on different servers, but this required manual operations. It was (and still is) possible to export structure and/or data from one database and import in another one. We can even visually compare the structure of two tables and adjust them according to our needs. However, comparing the two databases to ascertain what needs to be imported had to be done with the developer's own eyeballs. Moreover, differences in structure between the databases were not taken into account, possibly resulting in errors when a column was missing in the target table.

The synchronize feature of phpMyAdmin permits much flexibility, by taking care of the initial comparison process and, of course, by performing the synchronization itself. We will first discuss the reasons for synchronizing, and then examine and experiment with all the...