Re: php/mysql web question

> hi... > > if an app has a webpage that has to interface/display data from a mysql > db, > does the app have to essentially do a new db_connection for each time that > a > user accesses the page during the session. > > as far as i can tell, it does. > > in other words, the page would need to look something like: > > <? > start the page > do the db_connect > do the db_query > process the information from the db/tbl > close the db_connection > ?> > > the only reason i ask is that it would be nice/good if there was some way > of > opening a connetion once for a given session (save bandwidth) as well as > somehow saving data from the db/tbl (short of using session vars) Hi Bruce, Basically what you're asking about is persistent connections from PHP to MySQL, which are performed using mysql_pconnect(). In the pseudo-code outline you have above, you don't need to perform the 'close the db_connection' step. Each time a page loads that has a mysql_pconnect statement, it will check to see if an existing (or persisted) connection is available, and will use it instead of creating a new connection, if one does. If no persisted connection is found to be available, mysql_pconnect goes ahead and creates the connection, and persists it for future connection attempts. Each page should still probably perform the mysql_pconnect function, since unless you have a very statically defined interaction of pages, you may not be able to guarantee that a connection already exists when a particular page is loaded. Don't forget that while closing the db connection isn't necessary on a page-by-page basis when using persistent connections, you should still habitually free recordsets either at the bottom of the page, or at a point in your code where you know they are no longer needed. Hope this helps a little. Much warmth, Murray --- "Lost in thought..." http://www.planetthoughtful.org