KonaKart needs a JDBC-compliant database. For the community edition of KonaKart you must use either MySQL (with the InnoDB engine to get support for transactions), MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, DB2 or MS SQL Server but if you would like KonaKart to be supported on any other database please contact us. MySQL works well with KonaKart and is free so this makes a popular choice. You can obtain MySQL from http://www.mysql.com/.
Check the specific notes for each database to verify that the database you plan to use is fully supported (see below in this FAQ) or whether you might have to take a few additional manual steps to load the database objects.
Once the database is installed, create a new database user for KonaKart then either run the installation wizard which will (optionally) load up the database ready for using KonaKart, or if you prefer, execute the SQL script appropriate for your chosen database manually. The database initialization scripts are provided for all supported databases under the database directory under your KonaKart installation directory.
Starting with the upgrade from KonaKart v2.2.0.0 to v2.2.0.1 there will always be an upgrade script provided that can be run on your database without risking the loss of your existing data (although it is always recommended to backup your database on a regular basis). The upgrade script will apply all the database changes that are required to upgrade a database being used for a specified KonaKart version to the next.
As an example a script called upgrade_2.2.0.0_to_2.2.0.1.sql is provided that will upgrade your database being used on a KonaKart v2.2.0.0 system to one suitable for a KonaKart v2.2.0.1 system.
If you chose to skip KonaKart releases for whatever reason, you will have to apply the upgrade scripts for all intermediate releases - upgrade scripts for all supported versions are planned to be shipped with all future releases.
Another option is to run the full database creation script (see above) which is always provided for every release. Note that this has the disadvantage of clearing away all of the data you may have set up for your KonaKart store (eg. your special configuration data, your catalogs etc) so will probably not be the preferred option for existing storekeepers.