Northwind MySQL Challenge

A pre-populated MySQL database and practice exercises.

Getting Started

This exercise requires you to install docker on you macine. Docker allows us to run applications inside containers. You can read more about containers here.

Installing Docker

Ubuntu

Update your software database:

sudo apt update

Remove any old versions of docker that might be on your system:

sudo apt remove docker docker-engine docker.io

Install docker:

sudo apt install docker.io

Check docker version:

docker --version

Windows and Mac

Docker requires a Linux kernal in order to run. This can be emulated on Windos and Mac. The easiest way to do this is to install Docker Desktop. You will need to have Docker Desktop running in order to use docker commands in your terminal.

Install MySQL Workbench

For this challenge we will be using MySQL Workbench. Windows and Mac users can download it from here. Linux users can run:

sudo apt install mysql-workbench

Getting the Database Running

Run the container

docker run -d -p 3307:3306 --name northwind -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=supersecret manchestercodes/northwind

Finally you can confirm the container is built and running by opening a shell inside it. This uses the exec command:

docker exec -it northwind bash

The -it option asks docker to open an interactive shell, and then we set the terminal promt to bash.

From here we can open mysql and check the database has been created:

mysql -uroot -p

You will then be prompted for the root user password. Type in supersecret and hit return. (characters you entered won't be shown on terminal, just type away and hit enter)

Check database has been created:

show databases;

You should see the following:

+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mysql              |
| northwind          |
| performance_schema |
| sys                |
+--------------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

That's everything we need to do inside the container. Type in exit; to close MySQL and then again (without the ;) to exit the container. It will continue to run in the background.

Working on the database

Open up MySQL-Workbench and connect it to local instance 3303 if it's listed under "MySQL connections”.You will need to enter the root user password supersecret.

If the connection is not automatically shown, you can create one by clicking the + button and filling the fields:

- Connection Name: `northwind`
- Username: leave it as `root`
- Port: leave it as `3307`
- Password: `supersecret`

Click Test Connection and then OK.

In the bottom right of the screen you will see the northwind database. Right click on it and set it as your default schema.

Check that you are able to send queries to the database by entering some thing like:

SELECT * FROM employees;

Click the lightning bolt and confirm that the query returns employee information.

Running the image on M1 Mac

Run the image

docker run -d -p 3307:3306 --name northwind -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=supersecret manchestercodes/northwind:m1

Please ignore the MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD environment variable we passed above.

Accessing the database

You can connect MySQL Workbench or any other DB GUI to this version of the database with the following settings:

- Username: user
- Port: 3307
- Password: password