Connecting site to phpMyAdmin database - php

Question

I have a website that has forms, images, text, etc. I want extract data from the forms and keep a record of them in mySQL. In order to do this do I need to change the file extension from '.html' to '.php'? And if so then will this effect any inline css?
Also, when I need to connect to the server via the php, how to I know the database username, database password, and the database host?
I have go daddy as the web host, and use the CPanel they provide to access the phpmyadmin
Thanks - any help is highly appreciated!
This is the PHP code I have so far, and I keep getting error alerts when I run the test through XAMPP:

Answer 1

mysql_connect() is already deprecated please consider using mysqli or PDO.
PDO . database connection example :-
You should create a separate class containing the functions for basic operation in database and keep that file separate from your other code , just inherit the class and use the connection and function .
<?php
try {
$dbh = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=test', $user, $pass);
foreach($dbh->query('SELECT * from FOO') as $row) {
print_r($row);
}
$dbh = null;
} catch (PDOException $e) {
print "Error!: " . $e->getMessage() . "<br/>";
die();
}
?>

Answer 2

As the other answer stated, use pdo or mysqli instead of 'mysql`.
A good way to use PDO is to put the connection code within a file, and include this file anywhere you need to make use of the database.
Let's call this file dbconnector.php.
try
{
$conn = new PDO($connectionString, 'root', '');
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
}
catch(PDOException $e)
{
echo $e->getMessage();
}
Now, wherever you want to use database, just use :-
include 'dbconnector.php'
Now, you can access the connection variable via $conn.
Read more on PDO.
http://www.phpro.org/tutorials/Introduction-to-PHP-PDO.html