Sorry if this is off topic, but I remember having this exact issue when I was learning Ruby, maybe I can provide some clarity. For raw access to your MySQL dat

Sorry if this is off topic, but I remember having this exact issue when I was learning Ruby, maybe I can provide some clarity. For raw access to your MySQL database, the gem 'mysql2' is preferred (github with a simple tutorial: https://github.com/brianmario/mysql2 https://github.com/brianmario/mysql2). mysql2 seems to have taken it's interface design from Perl's DBI, which is cool if you're used to that but might feel a little foreign. If you'd like something that gives you a little more help, or there's substantial business logic in your script, take a look at ActiveRecord. This StackOverflow question (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16683903/sinatra-mysql-and-activerecord http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16683903/sinatra-mysql-an...) has a nice example of how you might set up your script to use AR. My email's in my profile if you'd like any future help.