public static function connect()
{
MySQLConnection::$db_connection = mysqli_init();
$connected = @mysqli_real_connect(MySQLConnection::$db_connection, MySQLConfiguration::host, MySQLConfiguration::username, MySQLConfiguration::password, MySQLConfiguration::database, MySQLConfiguration::port, MySQLConfiguration::socket, MYSQLI_CLIENT_COMPRESS);
if (!$connected) {
//Output error details
Error::halt(503, 'service unavailable', 'Temporarily unable to process request. Failed to establish a connection with MySQL. Please retry.');
}
}
