You shouldn't need shell if you have access to web based
management such as phpmysqladmin. Most of my web hosting
clients who run databases neither have nor want shell.

Perhaps the mysql lives on another machine. you need to
talk to your hoster.

If your host does not give you mysql (LAME LAME LAME),
get another host. (such as me. hehe)

Another alternative is for you to run the MySQL server
on your own machine, but you'd need to have 24/7 on and
a pretty fast pipe. A third alternative is to find freehosting with
mysql that allows remote connections. then you could have your
website on the... uhhhh... challenged host and your mysql database on
another. But honestly I wouldn't even consider a webhost that
doesn't have some RDBMS. That's like a restaurant that doesn't serve food.

>
>
> Here's my situation:
>
> 1. The webserver does not have mysql
> 2. I do not have shell access to the web server
>
> Does metabase provide a 'flat-file' style for database access? I see
> that there's SQLite support, but I think SQLite requires shell/telnet
> access to the server?
>
> Any advice?
>