A simple php script to open a connection to a database
$dbhost = 'localhost'; $dbuser = 'db username'; $dbpass = 'db password';
$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or die ('Error connecting to mysql');
$dbname = 'db name'; mysql_select_db($dbname); ?>
Save this as <something>.php and then whenever you want to access the database, just add
include '<something>.php'
to the top of a php script and the database can be queried using standard sql commands.