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Handling MySQL Connection Pooling Issues in a Cross-Platform Mobile App

👀 Views: 1196 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-09-13
mysql flutter mobile-app Dart

I'm integrating two systems and Can someone help me understand I'm stuck on something that should probably be simple. Currently developing a cross-platform mobile application using Flutter with a MySQL backend, I've run into some frustrating connection pooling issues. The app frequently connects and disconnects from the database, which impacts performance significantly. I've implemented connection pooling using the `mysql1` Dart package, which should ideally manage connections efficiently, but it seems to struggle with concurrent requests. Here’s a snippet of my database connection logic: ```dart import 'package:mysql1/mysql1.dart'; class Database { static final Database _instance = Database._internal(); factory Database() => _instance; MySqlConnection? _connection; Database._internal(); Future<MySqlConnection> get connection async { if (_connection == null) { _connection = await MySqlConnection.connect(ConnectionSettings( host: 'your-host', port: 3306, user: 'your-user', db: 'your-db', password: 'your-password', )); } return _connection!; } } ``` In my app, multiple users can perform actions that require querying the database. However, when two or more clients try to connect at the same time, I often receive a `MySqlException` indicating that the connection limit has been reached. To tackle this, I attempted to increase the `max_connections` setting in my MySQL configuration (my.cnf), but that didn’t yield any noticeable improvement. Here’s the line I added: ```ini [mysqld] max_connections = 300 ``` I’ve also considered adjusting the pooling parameters in Dart, but the documentation is sparse. I’ve tried setting a connection timeout in the `ConnectionSettings` but still see inconsistent behavior. Another issue is that I’m unsure whether I should create a new connection instance for every request or reuse the existing one, especially when users are rapidly sending requests. What’s the best practice for handling database connections in a mobile environment? Are there any recommendations for optimizing MySQL connections in a cross-platform setup, especially when using Flutter? Any insights or code examples would be greatly appreciated! For context: I'm using Dart on macOS. Any ideas what could be causing this? I'd be grateful for any help. I recently upgraded to Dart stable. I'm open to any suggestions.