title: What are some good tools for data analysis / database visualisation / reporting
body: <p>I have developed a web application driven by a mysql database that stores information about users, site usage, photo uploads (its a photo based site) etc. I have multiple databases storing data for different aspects of the site. I want to be able to produce reports for some of the questions I will have about how the site is growing and how it is being used. For example, how many new users have uploaded over a certain number of photos this month. </p>
  
  <p>What tools are available to analyse databases - i have been using a trial version of microsoft access and exporting each of the database as an xml file and importing to access, where I created the relationships and used the query wizard to generate some queries and reports. These are the activities I want to do and they produced the reports I want to have. I also want to be able to run queries across databases...</p>
  
  <p>What other tools to people use for this sort of task with mysql databases? Is there any good advice / training materials about the workflow for creating such reports and managing this activity over time - eg should I take weekly exports of databases and run the queries to generate the reports? </p>
  
  <p>What are people's experiences of this type of task?</p>
  
  <p>all advice, input welcome.</p>