Separating database config from connection - php

Question

I'm trying to make a connection to the database while having the database config information saperated from the connection.
This is the code I wrote
db config information:
$config = array(
"database" => array(
"host" => "host",
"username" => "username",
"password" => "password",
"name" => "name",
)
);
define("databse_config", $config["database"]);
$config normaly also contains other information not relevant to the question ,that is why I have defined "database_config".
database connection:
require_once "config.php";
define("DB_HOST", databse_config['host']);
define("DB_USERNAME", databse_config['username']);
define("DB_PASSWORD", databse_config['password']);
define("DB_NAME", databse_config['name']);
function connect()
{
$dbhost = DB_HOST;
$dbuser = DB_USERNAME;
$dbpass = DB_PASSWORD;
$dbname = DB_NAME;
try {
$conn = new PDO("mysql:host=$dbhost;dbname=$dbname", $dbuser, $dbpass);
$conn->exec("set names utf8");
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
return $conn;
} catch (PDOException $e) {
echo 'Connection failed: ' . $e->getMessage();
}
}
connect();
The problem I keep running in to is that wile trying to execute the function the page keeps loading and eventualy outputs the following error:
Connection failed: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Connection timed out
I'm fairly new to PDO so I also tried the same while using mysqli, which gave the same result.
Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Connection failed: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Connection timed out
This means php tried to establish a TCP/IP connection to your database server AND FAILED. You provided a DB_HOST hostname that's unreachable by network from the location of your php program.
The hostname value could be missing, or it could be wrong. If you provided it by name (mysql-server.example.com), this error message tells you the DNS name lookup succeeded.
So your php sends out a request to the server for a TCP/IP connection. That request never gets a response. That means there's a firewall somewhere blocking the connection, or that there's no network route from your php program to the network.
This all means the $dbhost value is wrong in your new PDO() operation.
Your code could be simplified a lot like this with no loss of modularity. sprintf() helps. Simpler is better for troubleshooting.
require_once "config.php";
function connect()
{
try {
$connectionString = sprintf ("mysql:host=%s;dbname=%s",
database_config['host'],
database_config['name']);
$conn = new PDO($connectionString,
database_config['username'],
database_config['password']);
$conn->exec("set names utf8");
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
return $conn;
} catch (PDOException $e) {
echo 'Connection failed: ' . $e->getMessage();
}
}
connect();
And you can echo $connectionString; to see what's in it, and make sure it isn't something bizarre.