Can't connect to database in php - php

Question

I have a database running on my server with phpmyadmin but I can't connect with it. Here is an example:
$user_name = "xxxxx";
$password = "xxxxx";
$database = "xxxxx";
$host = "db.xxxx.nl";
$db_handle = mysql_connect($host, $user_name, $password);
$db_found = mysql_select_db($database);
But this doesn't seem to work. If I try to insert some values into a table it still stays empty.
$sql = "INSERT INTO tbl_forum
(
title,
name,
content,
lastname,
post_image
)
VALUES
(
'{$_POST['contactsubject']}',
'{$_POST['contactname']}',
'{$_POST['contactmessage']}',
'{$_POST['contactlastname']}',
'{$_FILES["contactBrowse"]["name"]}'
)";
Am I doing something wrong?

Answer 1

I'm going to completely rewrite your code. As you are clearly new to databases within PHP, there is absolutely no reason not to use the new mysqli API.
Your connection should look something like this;
$mysqli = new mysqli($host,$user_name,$password,$database);
if ($mysqli->connect_errno) echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . $mysqli->connect_error;
This will create a new database object called $mysqli (or you can call it what you like, such as $db).
You can then prepare your SQL statement and execute it. In the code below, we have 5 parameters that are represented in the SQL as ?, and then we bind the variables to those 5 parameters. The first argument in bind_param tells the API the 5 parameters are 5 strings (hence s x5). For integers, use i;
if($query = $mysqli->prepare("INSERT INTO tbl_forum (title,name,content,lastname,post_image) VALUES (?,?,?,?,?)")) {
$query->bind_param('sssss',$_POST['contactsubject'],$_POST['contactname'],$_POST['contactmessage'],$_POST['contactlastname'],$_FILES["contactBrowse"]["name"]);
$query->execute();
}
else {
echo "Could not prepare SQL: " . $mysqli->error;
}
Assuming all your connection information is correct, this will insert your information into the database as required.
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I think the last value '{$_FILES["contactBrowse"]["name"]}' has some problem. Try this and get the sql after preparing(echo $sql;) to debug by your self.
$file_name = $_FILES["contactBrowse"]["name"];
$sql = "INSERT INTO tbl_forum
(
title,
name,
content,
lastname,
post_image
)
VALUES
(
'{$_POST['contactsubject']}',
'{$_POST['contactname']}',
'{$_POST['contactmessage']}',
'{$_POST['contactlastname']}',
'{$file_name}'
)";