In the previous recipe, we used the shortest way to connect to a MySQL server, that is, by hardcoding the credentials that are required for authentication in the connect method. While this is a fast approach for early development, we definitely do not want to expose our MySQL server credentials to anyone. Instead, we want to grant permission to specific users so that they can access databases, tables, views, and related database commands.
A much safer way to be authenticated by a MySQL server is by storing the credentials in a configuration file, which is what we will do in this recipe. We will use our configuration file to connect to the MySQL server and then create our own database on the MySQL server.
We will use this database in all of the recipes in this chapter.