Connecting na your Database

There are two ways na connect to a database:

Automatically Connecting

The "auto connect" feature will load and instantiate the database class with every page load. To enable "auto connecting", add the word database na the library array, as indicated in the following file:

application/config/autoload.php

Manually Connecting

If only some of your pages require database connectivity you can manually connect na your database by adding this line of code in any function where it is needed, nebo in your class constructor na make the database available globally in that class.

$this->load->database();

If the above function does not contain any information in the first parameter it will connect to the group specified in your database config file. For most people, this is the preferred method of use.

Available Parameters

The database connection values, passed either as an array nebo a DSN string.
TRUE/FALSE (boolean). Whether na return the connection ID (see Connecting to Multiple Databases below).
TRUE/FALSE (boolean). Whether na enable the Active Record class. Set to TRUE by default.

Manually Connecting na a Database

The first parameter of this function can optionally be used na specify a particular database group from your config file, nebo you can even submit connection values for a database that is not specified in your config file. Examples:

To choose a specific group from your config file you can do this:

$this->load->database('group_name');

Where group_name is the name of the connection group from your config file.

To connect manually na a desired database you can pass an array of values:

$config['hostname'] = "localhost";

$config['username'] = "myusername";

$config['password'] = "mypassword";

$config['database'] = "mydatabase";

$config['dbdriver'] = "mysql";

$config['dbprefix'] = "";

$config['pconnect'] = FALSE;

$config['db_debug'] = TRUE;

$config['cache_on'] = FALSE;

$config['cachedir'] = "";

$config['char_set'] = "utf8";

$config['dbcollat'] = "utf8_general_ci";



$this->load->database($config);

For information on each of these values please see the configuration page.

Or you can submit your database values as a Data Source Name. DSNs must have this prototype:

$dsn = 'dbdriver://username:password@hostname/database';



$this->load->database($dsn);

To override default config values when connecting with a DSN string, add the config variables as a query string.

$dsn = 'dbdriver://username:password@hostname/database?char_set=utf8&dbcollat=utf8_general_ci&cache_on=true&cachedir=/path/to/cache';



$this->load->database($dsn);

Connecting na Multiple Databases

If you need na connect to more than one database simultaneously you can do so as follows:

$DB1 = $this->load->database('group_one', TRUE);

$DB2 = $this->load->database('group_two', TRUE);

Note: Change the words "group_one" and "group_two" na the specific group names you are connecting to (or you can pass the connection values as indicated above).

By setting the second parameter na TRUE (boolean) the function will return the database object.

When you connect this way, you will use your object name na issue commands rather than the syntax used throughout this guide. In other words, rather than issuing commands with:

$this->db->query();
$this->db->result();
etc...

You will instead use:

$DB1->query();
$DB1->result();
etc...

Reconnecting / Keeping the Connection Alive

If the database server's idle timeout is exceeded while you're doing some heavy PHP lifting (processing an image, for instance), you should consider pinging the server by using the reconnect() method before sending further queries, which can gracefully keep the connection alive nebo re-establish it.

$this->db->reconnect();