It was late Wednesday afternoon. I was getting ready to go home after a long day at work when I decided to view the web based application I'm currently working on. I navigated to the location folder and opened my draft webpage. It was coded like this:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
table,td, th {border: 3px inset red;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "";
$dbname = "atdatabase";
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password,$dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
echo "Connected successfully";
//retrieve data from database
$sql = "SELECT id, lastname, firstname FROM members ORDER By lastname";
$result = $conn->query($sql);
//if there are records, display them in an html table
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
// output data of each row
echo "<table>";
echo "<tr><th>" . "ID Number" . "</th>" . "<th>" . "Lastname" . "</th>" . "<th>" . "Firstname" . "</th></tr>";
echo "<tr>";
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
echo "<td>" . $row["id"]. "</td>" . "<td>" . $row["lastname"]. "</td>" . "<td>" . $row["firstname"]. "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
} else {
echo "0 results";
}
//close the connection to mysql
$conn->close();
?>
</body>
</html>
According to my code, the page is supposed to retrieve data from a database and display it in a table on the webpage. But when I checked the output on my browser, I saw the html table, but the data I was expecting was nowhere to be found. I knew nothing was wrong with my code, because this was perfectly functional the day before. And no, I never changed anything on my original code. So that eliminates debugging errors as a potential solution to my dilemma.
The next suspect was PHP itself. I checked my WAMPP server and located the log for PHP errors. There I saw this line repeated multiple times:
unable to load dynamic library 'c:/wamp/bin/php/php5.5.12/ext/php_ldap.dll'
Now how could this have happened. I never did anything new, except upgrade my Office version from 2007 to 2013. I thought maybe that's what got my PHP dll's messed up. So I tried searching for a possible fix on the net using the exact error message as my search keywords. I found several suggestions that according to their authors would help me solve the problem. Here are some of those suggested solutions:
- Check if the dll's mentioned in the error message are indeed in their correct folders. If they're not there, then download them and paste them on their correct locations.
- Add the php.exe path to the Path variable under Environment Variables.
- Reinstall the Visual C++ IE.
- Uninstall your WAMPP. Reinstall Visual C++ IE, and then reinstall your WAMPP.
Believe it or not, I tried all of them and yet none of them worked. I checked my PHP log and saw that the error message was no longer there. Therefore, it was no longer PHP's fault. But upon opening my test webpage on a browser, I still didn't see the data which was supposedly to be retrieved from the database and displayed in a table. I was so frustrated. I decided to let this go for the meantime. I shut my PC down and went home like a wounded warrior from a loosing battle.
Then came the following morning. I still couldn't get my mind off the issue like it was some thorn poking my throat. I had to get rid of it. I had to solve it. I became desperate. It was time to use "System Restore". If I couldn't solve this, then I might as well travel back in time when everything was running perfectly. That was exactly 2 days ago. I opened the System Restore app, and was ready to gain back my sanity when lo and behold, I had zero restore points. Blank. Null. Nothing. I was already desperate, and by now I was also feeling hopeless. I thought, there's no shame in giving up. I could just succumb to the wrath of whatever digital devil has latched onto me. I should just lay down the sword, and surrender. And then occurred to me. Like a blinding light, it flashed through my brain. I saw it out of thin air. Holy crap how could I have been so stupid. That was it. That was the answer. How in the world could I have forgotten, to type "localhost" on the address bar before the actual name of the php file. It wasn't missing dll's, nor an incorrect path variable, nor a corrupted Visual C++ ie that messed up my webpage. It was my own brain that did it. Yes, I am blaming my brain. It played a trick on me, and it got me good.
The moral lesson of the story: Not all problems that look complicated, require a complicated solution. Sometimes, you'll realize that you knew the answer all along.
