MySQL Vs. GoDaddy: The ASP.Net Work-Around

So again, something I have come across many times over is people still having trouble connecting to MySQL databases GoDaddy Windows hosting accounts. First and foremost, traditional methods do not allow for this. But why you ask? The MySQL connector itself requires a full GoDaddy has their servers limited to medium trust for security reasons. Thus, a full trust DLL will then always throw an error in a medium trust environment. This explains most all of the errors people get when trying to go about things in this manner.

Fortunately, some brilliant man went through and recompiled the DLL to work in a medium trust environment and completely saved the day for all parties interested. I personally have been using the recompiled DLL for quite some time and have never once come across a single problem with it. I wish I knew who took the time to do it though, I certainly would love to shake his hand and I GoDaddy probably would too.

So, with this all having been said now lets go over some things real quick that you should NOT do. Do GoDaddy complaining that your MySQL database is not working with your Windows Hosting account. Unless there is a server malfunction they can do nothing for you. They are aware that MySQL when used with ASP.Net requires full trust which they also know their servers do not have. Next, do not call them asking to be moved to a server that does allow full trust. For this you will most likely get laughed at. Or at least they will laugh at you in their heads because that are actually too polite to do that to your face.

What do you do then, you ask? I have the compiled DLL available for you here and to make things even easier, I will show you how to use it. To make it even better, the average time it will take you to upgrade to this method will probably be less time than it takes GoDaddy customer service and get someone on the phone; it is that easy.

First: Download the file [MySQL.Data.zip ~56.4 KB] and then upload it to the “/bin” directory of your project directory.

Second: Insert the following code into your web.config file to apply the connection string globally to your project.

Third: Insert the following code into whichever page of your project you are making the data connections from.

At the end of the day what you should then have is a system that properly makes use of the recompiled DLL file and allows you to take advantage of all of the benefits of using MySQL GoDaddy Windows hosting account. Afterall, they do give you about 10 times as many MySQL databases as they do MSSQL databases so you should probably get used to using them. If you need a little extra help, feel free to let me know and I will see what I can do. I just don’t want to see any more people GoDaddy network over something as simple as a MySQL connector.