I am using VB eversince I started in programming.. But unavoidable instances urge me to stop. Now, when I'm back I just found out that so many new prog'g language are being used... I've chosen VB.Net and PHP... VB.Net have been much easier since i know VB. But PHP, i had hard time learning it... In fact, i am having problems just downloading it. It was downloaded but it's not working.. How come? Have any idea what the problem coul be? And is there any faster way i could learn PHP??? I had no problems with the code. But I have problems in connecting it to MySQL... I think i've declared the right connection like this

$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db);

But it just didn't work... Please help me....

Can you correctly access the mysql console, and does your php pages work on the server. What is the actual error msg.

I've found no probems using ADODB (VB v6) to connect to mySQL (ISAM) v4 tables via the myODBC v3.5 driver. I assume that VB.NET will behave similar. Working with PHP requires a server (I prefer using a local server for development) to attach to mySQL tables. I suggest using APACHE because it's free, and PHP, mySQL and Apache are so closely "packaged". I also recommend using winMySQLAdmin, mySQLFront or Mascom's mySQL for development.

1) Do you see the apache "homepage" when you send http://localhost/ to the browser? If not, the local server is not up, or installed incorrectly.

2) If you see the homepage, send <?php phpinfo() ?> to the server and see if you get back the phpinfo page. If not, the server is not configured for .PHP files. I've spent hours here searching for stupid things. If you're online, the server may not be set up for PHP and mySQL.

3) Check the php.ini file for non_default [MYSQL] settings.

4) If you see the Apache homepage, and phpinfo page, verify that your php file has the correct host name, account and password, AS FOUND IN your PHP database. If I've typed the following correctly, this module will test if you can "touch" your mySQL database, and if not, what the error is:

<?php
$host = "hostname";
$user = "mySqlAccount";
$password = "mySqlPassword";

mysql_connect($host, $user, $password);
$status = "show_status";
$result = mysql_query($status);

if ($result == 0)
echo("error ". mysql_errno() . ";" . mysql_error() . ";
elseif (mysql_num_rows($result) == 0 )
echo("Query Executed Successfully");
?>