DEV Community: Lanqi Gao

Deploy MySQL to Cloudflare

Lanqi Gao — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 12:07:55 +0000

Step 1: Register a Cloudflare account.
Step 2: Enter the existing domain.
Step 3: Change your nameserver and follow the steps that Cloudflare provided. (It may take up to 24hr. If you are in a rush do it as soon as possible)

Deploy of MySQL to DRF(Django Rest Framework)

Lanqi Gao — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 11:54:54 +0000

What configration dose the Database need

Engine

The engine used by the database.

Name

Name of your database

Host

Service name in Docker

Port

The local address used by the computer operating system.

User

MySQL account username

Pasword

MySQL account password

Options

A place where you can plug in an initial command like SQL Mode.

What is SQL mode?

SQL Mode is a set of rules provided by MySQL to control SQL syntax compatibility and error-handling behavior.

For example:

Should invalid data cause the insertion to fail, or be silently ignored?

Should data types be strictly checked, or automatically converted?

These behaviors are determined by the SQL Mode.

SQLite is the default database for PyCharm.

To import MySQL, you will have to type in command like this

from athlib import Path
import pymysql
pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb()
from datetime import timedelta

Overall procedure (assume you are using Windows 11, using the command line and a virtual environment.)

Part 1: Install MySQL Server (If on mac os)

Step 1:

brew install mysql
brew services start mysql

Part 2: Create MySQL Database & User

Step 2: Open MySQL Shell

mysql -u root -p

Step 3: Run SQL Commands

CREATE DATABASE myproject_db CHARACTER SET utf8mb4;
CREATE USER 'myuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'mypassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON myproject_db.* TO 'myuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Part 3: Set Up Django Project

Step 4: Create & Activate Virtual Environment

python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate

Step 5: Install Django and DRF

pip install django djangorestframework

Step 6: Start Django Project

django-admin startproject myproject
cd myproject

Step 7: Start a Django App

python manage.py startapp myapp

Part 4: Install Required Python Packages

Step 8:

pip install django djangorestframework pymysql

Part 5: Start Django App

Step 9:

cd myproject
python manage.py startapp myapp

Part 6: Configure Django to Use MySQL

Step 10:
In my project, in settings.py.

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
        'NAME': 'myproject_db',
        'USER': 'myuser',
        'PASSWORD': 'mypassword',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '3306',
        'OPTIONS': {
            'init_command': "SET sql_mode='STRICT_TRANS_TABLES'",
        },
    }
}

Step 11:
In myproject/__init__.py

import pymysql
pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb()

Part 7: Register App and CORS Settings

Step 12:
In settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'rest_framework',
    'myapp',
    'corsheaders',
]

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'corsheaders.middleware.CorsMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    ...
]

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']
CORS_ALLOW_ALL_ORIGINS = True

Part 8: Create a Model and Migrate

Step 13:
In myapp/models.py

from django.db import models

class Student(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

Step 14:

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

Part 9: Run Server on Local Network

Step 15: Start the server with IP access

python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

Use ipconfig in CMD to check your local IP (e.g., 192.168.1.5)

Part 10: Frontend Fetch Testing

Step 16:
In your frontend project

export const API_BASE = "http://192.168.1.5:8000/";

fetch(API_BASE + "api/students/")
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(data => console.log(data))
  .catch(err => console.error("Fetch failed", err));

Step 17: Browser Test
Visit: http://192.168.1.5:8000/ in your web browser.

MySQL Basic Knowledge Points

Lanqi Gao — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 07:55:06 +0000

What is MySQL?

MySQL is a widely used, open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Besides relational database there are non relational database the differences are listed below.

The difference between relational database ot non-relational databases

Feature	Relational (RDBMS)	Non-Relational (NoSQL)
Data Model	Tables (rows + columns)	Documents, key-value, graphs
Schema	Rigid (must define in advance)	Flexible / dynamic
Joins	Supported	Not typical (uses nesting or refs)
Scalability	Vertical	Horizontal
Transactions	Strong (ACID)	Weaker (BASE/Eventual Consistency)
Best for	Structured, consistent data	Unstructured, large-scale data
Examples	MySQL, PostgreSQL	MongoDB, Redis, Cassandra

Basic usage of MySQL

1: Connect to MySQL

From the command line:

mysql -u root -p

-u root: login with the root user

-p: it will prompt you to enter the password

From Python (optional):

import mysql.connector

conn = mysql.connector.connect(
    host="localhost",
    user="root",
    password="your_password",
    database="school_db"
)

🧠 Explanation: Before doing anything with MySQL, you need to connect. The CLI is the most direct way for local development.

Database Operations

Create a new database:

CREATE DATABASE school_db;

View all databases:

SHOW DATABASES;

Delete a database:

DROP DATABASE test_db;

🧠 Explanation: These commands let you manage the top-level containers of your data.

Table Operations

Create a table:

USE school_db;

CREATE TABLE students (
    id INT PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
    name VARCHAR(100),
    age INT,
    email VARCHAR(100)
);

View table structure:

DESCRIBE students;

Modify table (add a column):

ALTER TABLE students ADD gender VARCHAR(10);

Delete table:

DROP TABLE students;

🧠 Explanation: This is about creating and modifying the structure inside your database.

Data Operations (CRUD)

Insert data:

INSERT INTO students (name, age, email) VALUES ('Alice', 20, 'alice@example.com');

Query data:

SELECT * FROM students;

Update data:

UPDATE students SET age = 21 WHERE name = 'Alice';

Delete data:

DELETE FROM students WHERE name = 'Alice';

🧠 Explanation: These are the most commonly used commands—managing the actual content of your tables.

Conditional Queries, Sorting, Pagination, Aggregation

Conditional query:

SELECT * FROM students WHERE age > 18;

Sorting:

SELECT * FROM students ORDER BY age DESC;

Pagination (show 10 results starting from the 21st):

SELECT * FROM students LIMIT 10 OFFSET 20;

Aggregation (average age):

SELECT AVG(age) AS avg_age FROM students;

🧠 Explanation: These help you refine and summarize your results, which is crucial for reports, analytics, or APIs.