diff --git a/MySQLdb/connections.py b/MySQLdb/connections.py
index 1511024f..faf3bf6b 100644
--- a/MySQLdb/connections.py
+++ b/MySQLdb/connections.py
@@ -266,6 +266,48 @@ def string_decoder(s):
                 self.autocommit(autocommit)
         self.messages = []
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def _parse_endpoint(connection_string):
+        db_info = connection_string.replace('mysql://', '').strip()
+
+        user, pwd = None, None
+        if '@' in db_info:
+            auth_info, db_info = db_info.split('@')
+
+            user = auth_info
+            if ':' in auth_info:
+                user, pwd = auth_info.split(':')
+
+        db = None
+        if '/' in db_info:
+            db_info, db = db_info.split('/')
+
+        host = db_info
+        port = None
+        if ':' in db_info:
+            host, port = db_info.split(':')
+
+        return host, port, user, pwd, db
+
+    @classmethod
+    def string_connection(cls, connection_string, **kwargs):
+        host, port, user, pwd, db = cls._parse_endpoint(connection_string)
+
+        kwargs['host'] = host
+        if port:
+            kwargs['port'] = port
+
+        if user:
+            kwargs['user'] = user
+
+        if pwd:
+            kwargs['password'] = pwd
+
+        if db:
+            kwargs['database'] = db
+
+        return cls(**kwargs)
+
     def autocommit(self, on):
         on = bool(on)
         if self.get_autocommit() != on:
diff --git a/tests/capabilities.py b/tests/capabilities.py
index 31aa398e..bbeb41d8 100644
--- a/tests/capabilities.py
+++ b/tests/capabilities.py
@@ -21,10 +21,13 @@ class DatabaseTest(unittest.TestCase):
     create_table_extra = ''
     rows = 10
     debug = False
+
+    def get_connection(self):
+        return connection_factory(**self.connect_kwargs)
     
     def setUp(self):
         import gc
-        db = connection_factory(**self.connect_kwargs)
+        db = self.get_connection()
         self.connection = db
         self.cursor = db.cursor()
         self.BLOBUText = u''.join([unichr(i) for i in range(16384)])
diff --git a/tests/test_MySQLdb_capabilities.py b/tests/test_MySQLdb_capabilities.py
index f1887575..0076b2be 100644
--- a/tests/test_MySQLdb_capabilities.py
+++ b/tests/test_MySQLdb_capabilities.py
@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@
 from contextlib import closing
 import unittest
 import MySQLdb
-from MySQLdb.compat import unicode
 from MySQLdb import cursors
+from MySQLdb.compat import unicode
 from configdb import connection_factory
 import warnings
 
@@ -199,6 +199,74 @@ def test_binary_prefix(self):
                     c.execute('SELECT CHARSET(%s)', ('str',))
                     self.assertEqual(c.fetchall()[0][0], 'utf8')
 
+    def endpoint_from_params(
+            self, host, port=None, user=None, pwd=None, database=None, **kwargs
+    ):
+        auth = ''
+        if user:
+            auth = '{}:{}@'.format(user, pwd) if pwd else '{}@'.format(user)
+
+        db_port = ':{}'.format(port) if port else ''
+        db_name = '/{}'.format(database) if database else ''
+
+        # mysql://user:pwd@host:port/db_name
+        return 'mysql://{}{}{}{}'.format(auth, host, db_port, db_name)
+
+    def parse_connection_tests(
+            self, host='fake-host.com', port=None, user=None, pwd=None, db=None
+        ):
+
+        endpoint = self.endpoint_from_params(host, port, user, pwd, db)
+        found = self.connection._parse_endpoint(connection_string=endpoint)
+
+        self.assertEqual(host, found[0])
+        self.assertEqual(port, found[1])
+        self.assertEqual(user, found[2])
+        self.assertEqual(pwd, found[3])
+        self.assertEqual(db, found[4])
+
+    def test_string_connection_parser_full(self):
+        self.parse_connection_tests(
+            host='fake-host.com', port='3308',
+            user='fake', pwd='123456', db='testing'
+        )
+
+    def test_string_connection_host(self):
+        self.parse_connection_tests(host='my-host.gov')
+
+    def test_string_connection_user(self):
+        self.parse_connection_tests(user='fake-user')
+
+    def test_string_connection_user_pwd(self):
+        self.parse_connection_tests(user='fake-user', pwd='mypwd123')
+
+    def test_string_connection_port(self):
+        self.parse_connection_tests(port='3330')
+
+    def test_string_connection_database(self):
+        self.parse_connection_tests(db='db_fake')
+
+    def test_string_connection_port_database(self):
+        self.parse_connection_tests(port='1029', db='db_fake')
+
+
+class test_MySQLdb_string_connection(test_MySQLdb):
+
+    def get_connection(self):
+        try:
+            from configparser import ConfigParser
+        except ImportError:
+            from ConfigParser import ConfigParser
+        from configdb import conf_path
+        from MySQLdb.connections import Connection
+
+        config = ConfigParser()
+        config.readfp(open(conf_path))
+        endpoint = self.endpoint_from_params(
+            **{k: v for k, v in config.items('MySQLdb-tests')}
+        )
+        return Connection.string_connection(endpoint, **self.connect_kwargs)
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     if test_MySQLdb.leak_test: