Perhaps the easiest interface into any database could be the way PHP works seamlessly with MySQL. The language is easy to learn for anyone with a little programming experience. The interface into the database is integrated very tightly with the language itself making database interaction very easy. To get started, I would suggest reading two things. First, read the PHP documentation. Section I is a short tutorial, Section II gives installation help, Section III describes the language itself (read this carefully, it is very helpful), Section IV and Section V discuss some advanced features that you will want after you get your feet wet such as database security and persistent connections.
Another nice set of tutorials can be found at http://www.php-mysql-tutorial.com/. These tutorials go over everything from making basic database connections to a building a complete shopping cart application. The explainations are clear and all of the code is available for testing on your own system.
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