protected static function init() { // load configfile $config = $GLOBALS['config']; if (self::$INSTANCE == null) { self::$INSTANCE = new mysqli($config['DBHOST'], $config['DBUSER'], $config['DBPASSWORD'], $config['DBNAME']); if (self::$INSTANCE->connect_errno) { print "DATABASE: MySQL connection failed: " . self::$INSTANCE->connect_error; } self::$INSTANCE->query("SET NAMES utf8;"); } return self::$INSTANCE; }