libreoffice ver 6.2 mysql server ver 5.7 I am new to doing this thank you for all your help
Hello,
Have in past used Native (direct), JDBC and ODBC connections from Base to MySQL and a bit of testing with Native and JDBC with MariaDB.
Using JDBC will require Java to be installed and some oppose doing this. ODBC requires more knowledge to set up. Native connection is the easiest but actually a reason I abandoned MySQL for personal use in favor of PostgreSQL.
You do not mention your OS but I am on Linux. In earlier versions of LO you installed an extension for native connection to MySQL. My personal applications were developed around this set-up. In current LO versions the Native connector is a MariaDB connector. This is now part of the LO package and I have not found a method to override it with the connector I was using. This seems to works fine in many cases. For me it created problems with my macros. This is why I switched (along with other advantages using PostgreSQL).
Native is typically faster since it is specifically designed for the communication between the DB and a particular application.
If you want something stable and do not want Java installed use ODBC.
My experience was to test all and see what fit my needs best. Each situation can be different.