Functions - Functions On There Own

[berridgeab]

Hi All, my first post 😃

I am writing a PHP driven site. I wish for the site to rely on common include files for common tasks such as: -

Connecting to a Database
Displaying Data Sources

I have one file which has the database connecting code called: -

DatabaseConnect.php3: -

Consists of a function called OpenConnection(Simply connects to a database) & Close Connection(Closes a connection to a database).

<?PHP

function OpenConnection(){
	//DATABASE VARIABLES
	$password='root';
	$hostname='localhost';
	$databasename='DrumBase';

//CONNECT TO DATABASE
$connection = @mysql_connect($hostname, $password);

//SELECTS THE DATABASE THAT WE WISH TO USE
mysql_select_db($databasename);
}

function CloseConnection()
{	
	//CLOSE CONNECTION
	mysql_close();
}

?>

Default.php3: -

Consists of the HTML page, and the PHP code to include the file above.

<?PHP
include_once("http://localhost/Test/PHP/DatabaseConnect.PHP3");
OpenConnection();
?>

How come when I try to run the function 'OpenConnection' the page generates the error: -

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: openconnection() in C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs\Test\default2.php3 on line 6

I thought all that 'include' function did was replace the specified code with the 'include function'. Shouldn't the OpenConnection() function run since the code for it has been placed in the file by the 'include' function?

Thanks for any help in advance!

[drawmack]

try using require once instead of include once. It may tell you that the problem is the path to the include file. Also when testing be sure to put error_reporting(E_ALL) at the top of the script so you'll see notices and warnings regardless of the server settings.

[berridgeab]

Ok, I tried using: -

include_once()
include()
require_once()
require()

They are all still coming up with the same error. Does PHP even let the programmer store a function in a seperate PHP file and then use that function from another PHP file (As long as the function file has been included)? I'd find PHP real crappy if it didn't let you put functions into separate files.

[Sgarissta]

Don't pass the URL to the file into include. Pass the local path....so something like

/home/someuser/www/yourfile.php

instead of

[url]http://someuser.somedomain/yourfile.php[/url]

[TheDefender]

Just a side note...

From PHP Manual:
The link to the server will be closed as soon as the execution of the script ends, unless it's closed earlier by explicitly calling mysql_close().

You don't necessarily need to close the connection, unless you are desiring to do so before the execution of the script's end...

[darkfunkel]

the way you were including basically meant it was including a blank file, including the local file (unparsed) allows the functions to work

[berridgeab]

Oh ok, Ill give it a go, Thanks all for ya help ! =D