Building data entry forms and reports for MySQL involves using HTML and a Web programming language such as PHP to create the front-end forms and reports, and using a database connection technology ...

Now you have an existing MySQL database, so you can write the PHP code to perform the preceding steps. Begin with the search form. The code for this plain HTML form is shown in Listing 11.1.

If you still think MySQL is too entrenched to be moved from its spot as the number one, open-source DBMS, you might to look at what Wikipedia is doing.