Question

I’m using HostMonster as my web host and I’m trying connect to a database I created using MySQL inside of HostMonster. In order to call that database in my website do I need to use PHP? Or is there a way to create a javascript OnClick function that can call the database. I’m not using ASP.Net so it’s not quite as simple as I would like it. Just curious if the best solution is PHP, if so I guess I should go learn it.

Answer 1

You do not HAVE to use PHP to connect to a MYSQL database. Also, you can’t connect to your database using only client-side javascript (ie. an onClick() function). You need to use a server side language, PHP is one choice.

To connect to a MYSQL database on hostmonster using PHP you will need to know your credentials that use to log into phpMyAdmin from your cpanel. Once you have made the connection you can then select the MYSQL database that you created. Once the database is selected you can query it using the “mysql_query” function in PHP. The following code does all of that and stores the results of the MYSQL query in a PHP variable called $result.

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("www.yourdomain.com","phpMyAdmin_username","phpMyAdmin_password");
if (!$con)
  {
  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
  }

mysql_select_db("mysql_database_name", $con);

$query = "SELECT * FROM TableName"
$result = mysql_query($query);

?>

Now you’ve got the results of the query inside the PHP variable $result and you can use it anyway you like.

If you put this in your ‘public_html’ folder and named it ‘index.php’ or ‘index.html’ this would automatically be run when someone went to http://www.yourdomain.com.

You can find a great tutorial series on PHP here http://thenewboston.org/list.php?cat=11.