Help needed with connections to MySQL

[peterv3]

I built a little utility in PHP that connects to a MySQL database. I have 5 PHP files in the project, one of which I use for connecting to the database.

<?php
// CONNECTDB.PHP - Updated: Friday March 18, 2011 - 8:45 PM
$link  = mysql_connect('127.0.0.1', 'tester1', 'testuser', 'PROJECT1');
if (!$link) {
   die ('Connect failed: ' . mysql_error());
   exit();
} else {
// select the database
   $db_selected = mysql_select_db('PROJECT1', $link);
   if (!$db_selected) {
      die ('Database Selection failed: PROJECT1 ' . mysql_error());
   }
}

I use this as an include file for the other PHP files. it works just fine, but I want to use mysql_close to disconnect when I'm done. Problem is, that the $link variable is local to this include file, so I can't put $mysql_close($link) in the one of the other files to close the connection when I've finished processing. Can someone explain how I can do this? (I'm new to PHP and passing variables between include files is something I haven't figured out yet.) If there's some required reading about variables out on the web somewhere, let me know that too please!
Thanks in advance,
Peter V.

[bradgrafelman]

peterv3 wrote:

Problem is, that the $link variable is local to this include file

No it isn't. Variables declared in the global scope of an include()'ed script are available in the including script's global scope as well.

[peterv3]

I defer to your knowledge of variables, and thank you for your answer. Unfortunately, that rules out what I thought was the cause of my problem.

Can you tell me why I'm get this error when I try to close the connection:

Warning: mysql_close() expects parameter 1 to be resource, null given in /Users/peterv/Sites/LP2/books_form1.php on line 7

This is the beginning of the books_form1.php mentioned in the error message:

<?php
//mybooks_form.php - Updated: Tuesday January 4, 2011 - 2:53 PM
if(isset($_POST['formoption']))
{
   include('./INCLUDES/process_switch.php');
   mysql_close($link);
   if ($formoption == "List") {  // Prevents redisplaying form for list opt.
      exit;
   }
}
?>

What this should be doing is when the form is processed, calling the process_switch, which has a call to dbconnect.php. If I understand you correctly, shouldn't the mysql_close function work without error because the $link variable in the include file would be global? I appreciate your assistance with this.

[bradgrafelman]

What does process_switch.php look like?

[peterv3]

process_switch.php

<?php
// Updated: Thursday December 3, 2009 - 7:57 PM
  include('./INCLUDES/dbconnect.php');
//
// Determine processing by screenid.
  $screenid = $_POST['screenid'];
//  $formoption: search, add, etc.
  $formoption=$_POST['formoption'];
  $title=$_POST['title'];
//
  switch ($screenid) {
  case 'authors_form1.php':
//echo "Process Authors\n";
       include('./INCLUDES/process_authors.php');
       break;
  case 'books_form1.php':
//       if ($title == "" && $formoption != "List") { // Process authors.
//          include('./INCLUDES/process_authors.php');
//       } else {          // Process books.
          include('./INCLUDES/process_books.php');
//       }
       break;
  case 'authors':
       include('./INCLUDES/display_authors.php');
       break;
  case 'books':
       include('./INCLUDES/display_books.php');
       break;
  default:
       $display_block = "Error - no option selected.";
}
?>

[bradgrafelman]

The only suggestion I can make is to change the include's to [man]require[/man] (or [man]require_once[/man], whichever is more appropriate) and see if any errors occur.

Speaking of errors, do you have display_errors (or log_errors) set to On and error_reporting set to E_ALL?