public static function get_connection($dsn, $db_user, $db_pass) { if (self::$connected == true) { return self::$connection; } try { self::$connection = new PDO($dsn, $db_user, $db_pass, array(PDO::ATTR_PERSISTENT => false)); } catch (PDOException $e) { self::freichat_debug("unable to connect to database. Error : " . $e->getMessage()); //die(); //do not die return false; //instead return false } self::freichat_debug("connected to database successfully"); self::$connection->exec("SET CHARACTER SET utf8"); self::$connection->exec("SET NAMES utf8"); self::$connected = true; return self::$connection; }