Oracle 9i log on function

[franky71]

Hi there,
I am trying to connect to Oracle 9i DB and generally it works without problem, however if i create a log on function like this

function logon
{ global ($conn)
OCILogon(\"username\",\"password\")
}

I get connected to the database within the function, but i cannot reuse the $conn.

I want to call the logon function from other functions or from the main script like this:

//main script
logon;
$istatement = \"SELECT * FROM user_tables\";
OCIparse($conn, $istatement);
OCIexecute($istatement)

Does anyone have any idea how to have the log on in a function that can be called from anywhere in the script??
Thanks for your help.

PS I am using Oracle 9i, PHP 4.2.1, WinXP, Apache 1.3.2