01.09.2026 | Dominik Wille

Test PHP database connection without Drupal

test-db.php
<?php

include('web/sites/default/settings.php');

$dbHostName = $databases['default']['default']['host'];
$dataBaseName = $databases['default']['default']['database'];
$dbUserName = $databases['default']['default']['username'];
$dbPassword = $databases['default']['default']['password'];
$dbPort = $databases['default']['default']['port'];

$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host='.$dbHostName.';port='.$dbPort.';dbname='.$dataBaseName.'', $dbUserName, $dbPassword, array(
  // PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CA    =>'ca.cert',
  PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_VERIFY_SERVER_CERT => TRUE
  )
);

$query = $pdo->query('SHOW TABLES;');
print_r($query->fetchAll());

return $pdo;

Issue:

You need to debug the database connection.

A standalone script – for example a monitoring, backup, or migration helper – needs direct database access without bootstrapping the full Drupal framework. Duplicating database credentials in the script is undesirable since they would need to be kept in sync with settings.php.

Solution:

The snippet provided allows PHP debugging. Use it to check whether your database connection works on PHP level.

The script includes settings.php directly, which populates the $databases array as Drupal itself does during bootstrap. Credentials are then read from $databases['default']['default'], avoiding hardcoded or duplicated connection details.

A PDO connection is built from these values. PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_VERIFY_SERVER_CERT => TRUE enforces SSL certificate verification on the connection – relevant when the database host requires or supports TLS, such as many managed hosting environments.

Since settings.php is plain PHP, including it outside of Drupal's bootstrap process only defines variables and does not require Drupal's autoloader or dependency injection container.

php
mysql
databases
copy-paste
settings

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Weitere DevBits

21.11.2025 | Peter Majmesku

PHP 8.5 New Features: Pipe Operator and URI Extension

The New URI Extension

php_8.5_examples_uri_extension.php
<?php

##### URI Extension #####

// PHP 8.4 way

$components = parse_url('https://php.net/releases/8.4/en.php');

var_dump($components['host']);
// string(7) "php.net"

// PHP 8.5 URI Extension

use Uri\Rfc3986\Uri;

$uri = new Uri('https://php.net/releases/8.5/en.php');

var_dump($uri->getHost());
// string(7) "php.net"

The New Pipe Operator

php_8.5_pipe_operator.php
<?php

##### Pipe Operator #####

// PHP 8.4 way

$title = ' PHP 8.5 Released ';

$slug = strtolower(
    str_replace('.', '',
        str_replace(' ', '-',
            trim($title)
        )
    )
);

var_dump($slug);
// string(15) "php-85-released"

// PHP 8.5 Pipe Operator 

$title = ' PHP 8.5 Released ';

$slug = $title
    |> trim(...)
    |> (fn($str) => str_replace(' ', '-', $str))
    |> (fn($str) => str_replace('.', '', $str))
    |> strtolower(...);

var_dump($slug);
// string(15) "php-85-released"
php
13.11.2025 | Dominik Wille

Don't list a widget for a field type.

CustomWidget.php
  public static function isApplicable(FieldDefinitionInterface $field_definition) {
    if (isset($field_definition->getDisplayOptions('form')['type'])) {
      return $field_definition->getDisplayOptions('form')['type'] == 'slot_content_weights';
    }

    return FALSE;
  }

php
widgets
fields