$mysqli variable works on Server but not on localhost - php

Question

On my server I include 'config.php' in each function and it works perfectly, however when I do the same on my LOCALHOST the variable $mysqli cannot be found, will the PHP version differ from server to localhost? The paths are both 100% correct.
The error is as follows;
Notice: Undefined variable: mysqli in
C:\Users\PC\Documents\XAMPP\htdocs\php\myfunctions.php on line 20
config.php
$mysqli = new mysqli('localhost', 'userone', 'password', 'iitb');
The connection obviously changes when I use server
myfunctions.php
<?php
class News
{
function getLatest()
{
include 'config.php'; // WHERE TO PUT THIS CANNOT FIND MYSQL
$time = date('Y-m-d G:i:s', strtotime("-1 week"));
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT ForumId, ForumTitle, ForumPostText FROM `forum` WHERE `PostDate` > ? ORDER BY PostDate desc LIMIT 5 ");
$stmt->bind_param('s', $time);
$stmt->execute();
$stmt->bind_result($ForumId, $ForumTitle, $ForumPostText);
$stmt->store_result();
if ($stmt->num_rows() == 0) {
echo "<p>No latest article available</p>";
} else {
while ($row = $stmt->fetch()) {
echo '<p class="posttitle">' . $ForumTitle . ' </p>';
echo '<p class="posttext">' . substr($ForumPostText, 0, 93) . ' ...</p>';
}
$stmt->free_result();
}
}
function mostPopular()
{
include 'config.php'; // WHERE TO PUT THIS CANNOT FIND MYSQL
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT ForumId, ForumTitle, ForumPostText FROM forum ORDER BY Views DESC LIMIT 5");
$stmt->execute();
$stmt->bind_result($ForumId, $ForumTitle, $ForumPostText);
$stmt->store_result();
if ($stmt->num_rows() == 0) {
echo "<p>No latest article available</p>";
} else {
while ($row = $stmt->fetch()) {
echo '<p class="posttitle">' . $ForumTitle . ' </p>';
echo '<p class="posttext">' . substr($ForumPostText, 0, 93) . ' ...</p>';
}
$stmt->free_result();
}
}
}

Answer 1

Rather than having include 'config.php'; // WHERE TO PUT THIS CANNOT FIND MYSQL in each of your functions, add the $database parameter Eg function mostPopular($database){... and change $mysqli-> to $database->
Then when you call the functions, pass the database through mostPopular($database)
On an unrelated note: You may also find it easier to have the functions return an array rather than echo HTML so that your functions just get the data format it and return values. (It also means you can get away from echoing full HTML.
Here is an example using your mostPopular function
Function:
function mostPopular($databaseName){
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT ForumId, ForumTitle, ForumPostText FROM forum ORDER BY Views DESC LIMIT 5");
$stmt->execute();
$stmt->bind_result($ForumId,$ForumTitle,$ForumPostText);
$stmt->store_result();
$returnData = array();
if($stmt->num_rows() > 0){
$i = 0;
while($row = $stmt->fetch()){
$returnData[$i]['ForumId'] = $ForumId;
$returnData[$i]['ForumTitle'] = $ForumTitle;
$returnData[$i]['ForumPostText'] = substr($ForumPostText, 0,93) . ' ...';
++$i;
}
$stmt->free_result();
}
}
return $returnData;
}
Use:
<div id="mostPopular">
<?php
$mostPopular = mostPopular($mysqli);
if(count($mostPopular) === 0){
?>
<p>No latest article available</p>
<?php
} else {
foreach($mostPopular as $Popular){
?>
<p class="posttitle"><?php echo $Popular['ForumTitle'];?></p>
<p class="posttext"><?php echo $Popular['ForumPostText'];?></p>
<?php
}
}
?>
</div>

Answer 2

The problem is that the config.php script is not started with the PHP start tag of
<?php
The config file should be like this:
<?php
$mysqli = new mysqli('localhost', 'userone', 'password', 'iitb');
EDIT: Make sure also to check the php_short_tags. It could be that the config.php file starts with a short tag <? and the short_open_tag is disabled on your localhost server.