Question

I am creating a simple Web Application in PHP for my college project. I am using the MySQL database.

I connect to the database in login.php. After connection I assign the connection to $_SESSION[“conn”] and then redirect to main.php.

In main.php I write $conn = $_SESSION[“conn”]. But the connection in $conn does not work.

I thought that as the login.php script ends, the connection gets closed. So I tried using mysql_pconnect instead of mysql_connect but that too does not work.

I know I can reconnect to the database in every PHP file. But I don’t want to do this. I want to use the same connection in all PHP files.

Answer 1

Instead of saving the DB connection in a session you should make the connection calls in a separate file such as db.php and then require it from each of your scripts. For example, place your connection in db.php:

mysql_connect('...', '...', '...');
mysql_select_db('...');

and then bring it in in login.php:

require('db.php');
$res = mysql_query('...');

You can then do the same for each PHP file that needs access to the DB and you’ll only ever have to change your DB access credentials in one file.