Deep Dive
Config file stores connection details
Bassem reminds viewers that the config file opened in Visual Studio holds all the connection info. On Windows localhost setups, you'll find root user with an empty password. On Mac, the user is root with password root. The key variable here is the database name — whatever you named it in phpMyAdmin locally. This is the foundation for understanding what needs to change when you go live.
Database names must change for online hosting
When you move to an online server, the database name can't stay the same as your local version. Instead, cPanel forces you to use a name derived from your domain or your cPanel username. Bassem gives an example: if your cPanel user is 'basem_my', the new database name becomes 'basem_my_db'. This isn't arbitrary — it's cPanel's naming convention to avoid conflicts across users on shared hosting.
Creating the database in cPanel Database Wizard
Head to cPanel and find Database Wizard. Enter your new database name following cPanel's rules. When prompted for username and password, use the same credentials from your local config file — this keeps things simple and prevents you from accidentally locking yourself out. Once you hit next, the database is created but empty, ready to receive your data. Copy the exact credentials to match your config file on the live server.