Enabling transformations

We define transformation as a mechanism by which all the cells related to a column are transformed at browse time, using the metadata defined for this column. Only the cells visible on the current results page are transformed.

The use of this feature is controlled by the $cfg['BrowseMIME'] directive in config.inc.php. The default value of this directive is TRUE, meaning that transformations are enabled. However, the phpMyAdmin configuration storage must be in place (refer to Chapter 1) as the metadata necessary for the transformation is not available in the official MySQL table structure. It's an addition made especially for phpMyAdmin.

Note

The transformation logic itself is coded in PHP scripts, stored in libraries/transformations, and is called using a plugin architecture. In the documentation section on phpMyAdmin's home site (currently at http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/docs.php), there is a link pointing to additional information for developers who would like...