Includes not being displayed on page

[bbram]

I have a very simple page, where I use the include statement that includes my connection string.  The connection string and a variables are not being passed to my test server - (WAMP).  My include file is below

$server = "servername";
$username = "username";
$password = "";
$database = "dbname";
$portNumber = 3308;

$link = mysqli_connect($server,$username,$password,$database,$portNumber); 

if(!$link)
{
    echo "cannot connet to the server";
}

else
{
	echo "This works";
}


echo "Hi";

 I am including this file with the following code:

 

include ("includes/connect.inc");

 

My site is not connecting to the database, and is not displaying "This works", or "Hi".   Do you have any pointers on how to get this connect?

 

[gw1500se]

Did you check your httpd log? Do you have all error reporting turned on? I'm guessing that the path in the include is wrong.

error_reporting(E_ALL);

 

[mac_gyver]

4 hours ago, bbram said:

I use the include statement

use 'require' for things your code must have for it to work. this will stop code execution if the required file could not be found and prevent follow-on errors in code trying to use things that don't exist.

4 hours ago, bbram said:

My include file is below

do you have an opening <?php tag in the file?

4 hours ago, bbram said:

connect.inc

use a .php extension for this file. by using .inc for the extension, anyone can browse to the file and get the raw php code in it, exposing your database connection credentials. by using a .php extension, the php code would instead be executed if someone browsed to it and they cannot see the raw php code.

[bbram]

I changed the file name to connect.php

 

I do have <? and ?> in my connect file

 

I also changed to use the following  
require 'includes/connect.php';
 

I also added echo $server and my page is telling me that i have an undefined error

Still I am not sure what the problem is

[mac_gyver]

1 hour ago, bbram said:

I do have <?

that's not what i posted.

php's short opening php tag may not be enabled and shouldn't be used anyway.

what does the 'view source' in your browser of the main page show?

[bbram]

Ok I saw what you meant...I added <?php to the front and was getting an error message.  I apparently changed my DB name sometime and forgot to update code.

Thanks for helping with this.