Topic awaiting preservation: mysql backup thru php/html interface

does anyone know if it as at all possible to backup a MySQL database and/or table using php. here is my scenario:

i have a html page which i want to use to run backups in php. i want to choose the table/database in a form and on the next page have that database/table backed up to a txt file using php.

does anyone know if this is at all possible???

can i simply run the mysql command "...outfile [source]" (i think) and load it into a mysql_query()

thanks in advance

there's already a tool out there to do it. Go to Sourceforge and look up 'phpmyadmin'. In there you can select your MySQL database and export it and all it's contents and structure out to a .sql file.

yeah i know that, sorry should have been a little clearer.

my client wants an easy to use automated backup facility. i was hoping to create a html interface using php, so click a button and its done at the end of the day

is the server you're on running UNIX? (or linux, doesn't matter)...becuase if you are you can take the URL path you would normally use to run the export functions and feed it into a cron job so it will run automatically at a certain time every day.