MySQL driver implement natively in Crystal, without relying on external libraries.

Check crystal-db for general db driver documentation. crystal-mysql driver is registered under mysql:// uri.

Using a natively implemented library has a significant performance improvement over working with an external library, since there is no need to copy data to and from the Crystal space and the native code. Initial tests with the library have shown a 2x-3x performance boost, though additional testing is required.

Also, going through the MySQL external library blocks the Crystal thread using it, thus imposing a significant penalty to concurrent database accesses, such as those in web servers. We aim to overcome this issue through a full Crystal implementation of the MySQL driver that plays nice with non-blocking IO.

This driver is a work in progress. It implements mysql's binary protocol to create prepared statements. Contributions are most welcome.

Add this to your application's shard.yml:

dependencies:
  mysql:
    github: crystal-lang/crystal-mysql

require "mysql"

# connect to localhost mysql test db
DB.open "mysql://root@localhost/test" do |db|
  db.exec "drop table if exists contacts"
  db.exec "create table contacts (name varchar(30), age int)"
  db.exec "insert into contacts values (?, ?)", "John Doe", 30

  args = [] of DB::Any
  args << "Sarah"
  args << 33
  db.exec "insert into contacts values (?, ?)", args: args

  puts "max age:"
  puts db.scalar "select max(age) from contacts" # => 33

  puts "contacts:"
  db.query "select name, age from contacts order by age desc" do |rs|
    puts "#{rs.column_name(0)} (#{rs.column_name(1)})"
    # => name (age)
    rs.each do
      puts "#{rs.read(String)} (#{rs.read(Int32)})"
      # => Sarah (33)
      # => John Doe (30)
    end
  end
end

When running this example, if you get the following exception:

Unhandled exception: Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client (Exception)

You have two options, set a password for root, or (most recommended option) create another user with access to test database.

CREATE USER 'test'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'yourpassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON test.* TO 'test'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
quit

Then use the example above changing the DB.open line to

DB.open "mysql://test:yourpassword@localhost/test" do |db|

The connection string has the following syntax:

mysql://[user[:[password]]@]host[:port][/schema][?param1=value1&param2=value2]

Connection query params:

• encoding: The collation & charset (character set) to use during the connection. If empty or not defined, it will be set to utf8_general_ci. The list of available collations is defined in MySql::Collations::COLLATIONS_IDS_BY_NAME