Connection to MySQL/MariaDB for PHP

MySQL and MariaDB are highly popular open source databases, used by developers all over the world. Follow the instruction below to learn how to connect your PHP application, hosted within the platform, to one of these DB servers:

create environment
connect to database
check connection
execute request
additional configurations

Environment Creation

1. Log into your PaaS account and create an environment with MySQL or MariaDB database server (both are available within the SQL wizard section).

create PHP MySQL environment

In order to provide a connection example, we’ve added Apache PHP application server.

2. After environment creation, you’ll get an email with the MySQL (or MariaDB) administration and connection details:

email MySQL connection details

3. Return to your dashboard and click the Open in Browser button for the appropriate database node (either MySQL or MariaDB).

Log into the opened admin panel using credentials you’ve received in the above-mentioned email.

4. Go to the Databases tab and Create a new database (e.g., mysqldb).

MySQL create new database

Now, you can deploy your application (either from archive or GIT/SVN repository) to the created environment.

Connection to the Database

Once your project is successfully deployed, you need to connect it to your database. For that, your application should be appropriately configured, for example using the inbuilt MySQLi (MySQL Improved) extension.

Refer to the linked official documentation page for the full list of available functions, while we’ll overview just the basic ones below:

1. To get a connection string for accessing your MySQL/MariaDB node:

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mysqli_connect('{host}', '{user}', '{password}', '{db_name}');

The appropriate placeholders should be substituted with your connection data from the MySQL or MariaDB node:

{host} - link to your DB node without protocol part
{user} and {password} - database admin credentials (for production usage, it’s recommended to create a dedicated account with the appropriate permissions)
{db_name} - name of required database (e.g. the previously created mysqldb one)

2. For switching to different database within the same server, use the next function:

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mysql_select_db('{connect}','{db_name}');

Here, the {connect} should be substituted with the connection string obtained using the above-described mysqli_connect function.

3. In order to close a connection to your database, execute the following:

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mysqli_close( );

Note: You need to specify the necessary functions in every *.php page, which should be connected to the database.

Checking the Connection

In order to ensure everything works fine, you can check the connection using this code:

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<?php
$link = mysqli_connect('{host}', '{user}', '{password}', '{db_name}');
//if connection is not successful you will see text error
if (!$link) {
       die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
//if connection is successfully you will see message below
echo 'Connected successfully';
 
mysqli_close($link);
?>

Note: Do not forget to substitute {host}, {user}, {password} and {db_name} in the connection string with the corresponding values (as it is described in the Connection to the Database section).

If everything is OK, you’ll get the following message, when this page is opened in browser.

MySQL database connected

Executing a Simple Request

And here is an example on how to execute a simple request to your database and output it onto a table.

The plain PHP script below will establish a connection to your database server (do not forget to specify the appropriate hostname and credentials), connect to the default mysql database it contains, read the values from the help_topic table and display them in a self-generated table.

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<?php
// Connection checking:
$link = mysqli_connect('{host}', '{user}', '{password}', '{db_name}');
if (!$link)
{
    echo "<h2>MySQL Error!</h2>";   
    exit;
}
 
// Switch to a different database:
$db="mysql";
mysqli_select_db($link, $db);
// table header output:
echo "<table border=\"1\" width=\"100%\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFE1\">";
echo "<tr><td>Value1</td><td>Value2</td><td>Value3</td>";
// SQL-request:
$q = mysqli_query ($link, "SELECT * FROM help_topic;");
// table-result output
for ($c=0; $c<mysqli_num_rows($q); $c++)
{
    echo "<tr>";
    $f = mysqli_fetch_array($q); // Returns an array that corresponds to the fetched row and moves the internal data pointer ahead.
    echo "<td>$f[0]</td><td>$f[1]</td><td>$f[5]</td>";
    echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
?>

As a result, you’ll receive a kind of index for all available MySQL functions with links to the instructions on their using.

database connection example applicatiom

Great! Now you can easily connect your PHP application to the MySQL or MariaDB database.

Useful to Know

The platform also lets you extend your MySQL/MariaDB servers functionality by following the appropriate instructions in our documentation: