Written by Admin on 2025-05-06

How to Download WordPress Database using PHP

Downloading WordPress database is an essential task when you want to migrate your website from one server to another or want to create a local backup of your website. If you are a developer or a website owner who wants to download the database easily, you can use PHP to accomplish this task.

Here are the steps you need to follow to download WordPress database using PHP:

Step 1: Connect to the WordPress Database

To connect to the WordPress database, you need to add the following code to your PHP script:

<?php define('DB_NAME', 'your_database_name'); define('DB_USER', 'your_database_user'); define('DB_PASSWORD', 'your_database_password'); define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); $connection = mysqli_connect(DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME); ?>

Replace the values with your own database name, user, and password.

Step 2: Retrieve the Database Tables

Once you are connected to the database, you need to retrieve the tables in the database. You can do this by using the following code:

$tables = array(); $result = mysqli_query($connection, 'SHOW TABLES'); while($row = mysqli_fetch_row($result)) { $tables[] = $row[0]; }

This code will retrieve all the tables in the database and store them in an array.

Step 3: Backup the Tables

Now that you have retrieved the tables, you need to backup them. You can do this by using the following code:

foreach($tables as $table) { $result = mysqli_query($connection, 'SELECT * FROM '.$table); $output = ''; $num_fields = mysqli_num_fields($result); $row2 = mysqli_fetch_row(mysqli_query($connection, 'SHOW CREATE TABLE '.$table)); $output .= "\n\n".$row2[1].";\n\n"; for ($i = 0; $i < $num_fields; $i++) { while($row = mysqli_fetch_row($result)) { $output .= 'INSERT INTO '.$table.' VALUES('; for($j=0; $j<$num_fields; $j++) { $row[$j] = addslashes($row[$j]); $row[$j] = preg_replace("/\n/","\\n",$row[$j]); if (isset($row[$j])) { $output .= '"'.$row[$j].'"' ; } else { $output .= '""'; } if ($j<($num_fields-1)) { $output .= ','; } } $output .= ");\n"; } } $filename = $table.'_'.date('Y-m-d_H-i-s').'.sql'; $handle = fopen($filename,'w+'); fwrite($handle,$output); fclose($handle); }

This code will backup each table in the database and store them in individual SQL files.

Step 4: Download the Backup Files

Finally, you can download the backup files by using the following code:

foreach($tables as $table) { $filename = $table.'_'.date('Y-m-d_H-i-s').'.sql'; header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream'); header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: Binary"); header("Content-disposition: attachment; filename=\"".$filename."\""); readfile($filename); }

This code will prompt the user to download each backup file.

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned how to download WordPress database using PHP. With these steps, you can easily backup your website's database and move it to a different server or create a local backup.