MySQL Improved Extension (Mysqli)
The mysqli extension allows you to access the functionality provided by MariaDB and above. More information about the MariaDB Database server can be found at http://www.mysql.com/
An overview of software available for using MariaDB from PHP can be found at , "Overview"
Documentation for MariaDB can be found at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/.
Parts of this documentation included from MariaDB manual with permissions of Oracle Corporation.