Export Magento Product Categories to custom table

[sourcecode language="php"]
<?php

ini_set('max_execution_time', 1500);
error_reporting(-1);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);

require_once 'app/Mage.php';
umask(0);
Mage::app()->setCurrentStore(Mage_Core_Model_App::ADMIN_STORE_ID);
$userModel = Mage::getModel('admin/user');
$userModel->setUserId(0);


$categories = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCollection()
        ->addAttributeToSelect('id')
        ->addAttributeToSelect('name')
        ->addAttributeToSelect('url_key')
        ->addAttributeToSelect('url')
        ->addAttributeToSelect('is_active');

foreach ($categories as $category) {

    $entity_id = $category->getId();
    $name = mysql_real_escape_string($category->getName());
    $url_key = $category->getUrlKey();
    $url_path = $category->getUrl();
    $is_active = $category->getIsActive();
    $now = time();

    $catids = array();
    foreach ($category->getParentCategories() as $parent) {
        $catids[] = $parent->getId();
    }
    unset($catids[count($catids) - 1]);

    $parent = NULL;
    if (empty($catids)) {
        $parent = NULL;
    } else {
        $parent = array_pop($catids);
    }

$con = mysql_connect("HOST", "USER", "PASSWORD");
mysql_select_db("DB", $con) or die("");

mysql_query("INSERT INTO `categories`(`id`, `name`, `slug`, `parent_id`, `enabled`, `modified_at`, `modified_by`) VALUES ('$entity_id', '$name', '$url_key', '$parent' ,'$is_active', '$now', 1)")  or die(mysql_error());
}

[/sourcecode]

Survey of the Best Online Mapping Tools for Web Developers: The Roadmap to Roadmaps

Survey of the Best Online Mapping Tools for Web Developers: The Roadmap to Roadmaps

Change Database Collation with PHP

This little sql statement can change the collation in your database including tables, columns and everywhere. This is something phpMyAdmin can not handle completely.

Credits goes to original poster.

[sourcecode language="php"]

$conn1=new MySQLi("localhost","root","","exam_db");
if($conn1->connect_errno){
    echo mysqli_connect_error();
    exit;
}
$res=$conn1->query("show tables") or die($conn1->error);
while($tables=$res->fetch_array()){
    $conn1->query("ALTER TABLE $tables[0] CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci") or die($conn1->error);
}
echo "The collation of your database has been successfully changed!";

$res->free();
$conn1->close();


[/sourcecode]