Cannot connect to MYSQL in MAMP using PHP

Question

I just installed MAMP and have created a MYSQL database. I can access it via PHPMYADMIN.

In my php page I have this, pasted directly from the MAMP webstart page--

$user = 'root';
$password = 'root';
$db = 'local_db';
$host = 'localhost';
$port = 3306;

$link = mysql_connect(
   "$host:$port", 
   $user, 
   $password
);
$db_selected = mysql_select_db(
   $db, 
   $link
);

The resulting page stops at this point, won't print anything below these instructions.

I've tried changing the port in the MAMP preferences. I also included or die("Could not connect"); after the first line, but still don't get any text after the link data in the page.

I checked online, and others with the problem at least see the die text. I don't get that.

I haven't changed any passwords or data other than mess with the port number.

Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Please give the following a try, I have developed and tested it locally, functionality within has been documented to help you understand what is going on in every step.

    /**
    *
    * Modern method of connecting to a MySQL database and keeping it simple.
    *
    * If you would like to learn more about PDO,
    * please visit http://php.net/manual/en/book.pdo.php
    * 
    */

    //Set up database connection constants, so they cannot be changed.
    define('DBHOST','127.0.0.1'); //Change this to the ip address of your database
    define('DBNAME','test'); // Change this to the database name you are trying to connect to.
    define('DBUSER','databaseuser'); // Insure this user is not the root user!!!!
    define('DBPASS','databasepassword'); // Insure this is not the root password!!!!

    //Let's try to connect to the database first.
    try {
        //Initiate a new PDO object called $MYDB and pass it the proper information to make
        //the connection
        $MYDB = new PDO("mysql:host=".DBHOST.";dbname=".DBNAME."", DBUSER, DBPASS);

        //If we are successful show it :D for the test page, if this is for production you should not show this.
        echo "Database connection was successful.";

        //If this does not worth catch the exception thrown by PDO so we can use it.
    } catch(PDOException $e) {
        //Show that there was an issue connecting to the database.  Do not be specific because,
        //user's do not need to know the specific error that is causing a problem for security
        //reasons.
        echo "Oh, sorry there was an issue with your request please try again.";

        //Since we had an issue connecting to the database we should log it, so we can review it.
        error_log("Database Error" . $e->getMessage());
    }

    //Since this is 100% php code we do not need to add a closing php tag
    //Visit http://php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.phptags.php for more information.

If you have any issues with this please attempt to break it up into smaller pieces while reviewing the PDO documentation.