It's worrying when a web site that's been rock solid starts giving intermittent problems - and even more worrying when those intermittent problems just fade away and you're left unsure as to what was the cause of them. I'm afraid I'm the sort who wonders if and when the issue will return.

And so it was yesterday, when we were failing to connect to our databases from our web site - quite a serious situation as we use the databases throughout the site for "back lists", for tailoring pages to suit each individual's stated country and languages, and to help prevent denial of service attacks. And the failure was ugly, too.

As an short term measure, I've put in a couple of re-tries on the connection, and I've caught and flagged the mysql warnings by adding an extra @ in front of the MySQL connection and query calls in the PHP. Failures are now flagged with a neat warning in the page head, so that any of us who sees that message will be able to note / act on it, and customers get a professional message and not a page that, frankly, looked broken.

But this morning, it's a crisp and bright start and running fine.
(written 2006-03-15 07:28:36)

 H113 - Using MySQL Databases in PHP Pages
  [2628] An example of an injection attack using Javascript - (2010-02-08)
  [2561] The future of MySQL - (2010-01-03)
  [2447] MySQL stored procedures / their use on the web from PHP - (2009-10-10)
  [2432] Using print_r in PHP to explore mysql database requests - (2009-10-01)
  [2320] Helping new arrivals find out about source code examples - (2009-08-03)
  [2259] Grouping rows for a summary report - MySQL and PHP - (2009-06-27)
  [2071] Setting up a MySQL database from PHP - (2009-03-08)
  [1983] Keeping PHP code in database and running it - (2009-01-09)
  [1561] Uploading to a MySQL database through PHP - examples and common questions - (2008-03-02)
  [1010] Dates, times, clickable diarys in PHP - (2006-12-28)
  [947] What is an SQL injection attack? - (2006-11-27)
  [937] Display an image from a MySQL database in a web page via PHP - (2006-11-22)
  [915] Paging through hundreds of entries - (2006-11-05)
  [723] Viewing images held in a MySQL database via PHP - (2006-05-17)
  [666] Database design - get it right from first principles - (2006-04-02)
  [581] Saving a MySQL query results to your local disc for Excel - (2006-01-29)
  [572] Giving the researcher power over database analysis - (2006-01-22)
  [515] MySQL - an FAQ - (2005-12-03)
  [104] mysql_connect or mysql_pconnect in PHP? - (2004-10-30)

H201 - PHP and MySQL for Content Management
  [1745] Moodle, Drupal, Django (and Rails) - (2008-08-08)
  [1576] Making PHP and MySQL training relevant to the course delegates - (2008-03-15)
  [1555] Advanced Python, Perl, PHP and Tcl training courses / classes - (2008-02-25)

S161 - Data Access and Security in MySQL
  [2647] Removing duplicates from a MySQL table - (2010-02-22)
  [2263] Mysqldump fails as a cron job - a work around - (2009-06-30)
  [2204] Images in a database? How big is a database? (MySQL) - (2009-05-28)
  [1131] MySQL - Password security (authentication protocol) - (2007-04-02)
  [535] MySQL permissions and privileges - (2005-12-20)
  [401] What is an SQL injection attack? - (2005-08-02)
  [193] The wrong MySQL - (2005-01-29)
  [192] Current MySQL and PHP paths and upgrades - (2005-01-28)

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