PDO/PHP LoginScript ending in error 500 using MAMP - php

Question

I've been trying for a while now to get my loginscript working and i can't seem to find the issue, either im just blind or there's something else going on here.
It doesn't matter if i input the correct credentials or not into the form, i still end up getting a lovely error 500.
Any ideas?
The DB connect funtion:
function db_connect() {
if i move this column-->
$server = 'localhost';
$uname = 'root';
$passw = 'password';
$datab = 'database';
/* check connection */
try{
$conn = new PDO("mysql:host=$server;dbname=$datab;", $uname, $passw);
} catch(PDOException $e) {
die( "Connection failed: " . $e->getMessage());
}
<---
return $conn; /added this as suggested, still returns NULL.
}
The login file:
include('../lib/functions.php'); //This is correct!
db_connect();
<-- HERE, it works -->
Earlier had an issue where my password hash during register was faulty, so password_verify($_POST['password'], $results['passw'])had no effect, always returning false even with correct input.
if(!empty($_POST['username']) && !empty($_POST['password'])):
$records = $conn->prepare('SELECT uname,passw FROM users WHERE uname = :user AND passw = :pass');
$records->bindparam(':user', $_POST['username']);
$records->bindparam(':pass', $_POST['password']);
$records->execute();
$results = $records->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
if(count($results) > 0 && password_verify($_POST['password'], $results['passw']) && $_POST['username'] == $results['uname']) //Also tried removing the &&-->username area incase two and statements were wrong without any luck {
die('It works!');
} else {
die('OR NOT!');
}
endif;

Answer 1

Your db_connect() function defines $conn in it's own scope. So, variable $conn is local. And after db_connect() ends executing $conn just disappears.
Outside this function $conn is simply NULL.
Return $conn to outer scope from your function:
function db_connect() {
$server = 'localhost';
$uname = 'root';
$passw = 'password';
$datab = 'database';
/* check connection */
try{
$conn = new PDO("mysql:host=$server;dbname=$datab;", $uname, $passw);
} catch(PDOException $e) {
die( "Connection failed: " . $e->getMessage());
}
return $conn; // here
}
And in your script:
include('../lib/functions.php'); //This is correct!
$conn = db_connect();
// other codes