-- connection functions
local function connect( )

    local user = "BLA_server"
    local password = "BLA"

    connection = dbConnect ( "MySQL", "dbname=BLA_server;host=159.253.0.5;port=3306", user, password )
    if connection then
        return true
    else
        outputDebugString ( "Connection with the MySQL database failed", 1 )
        return false
    end
end



local function query( str, ... )

    if ( ... ) then
        local t = { ... }
        for k, v in ipairs( t ) do
            t[ k ] = escape_string( tostring( v ) ) or ""
        end
        str = str:format( unpack( t ) )
    end

    local result = dbQuery( connection, str )
    if result then
        for num = 1, max_results do
            if not results[ num ] then
                results[ num ] = { r = result, q = str }
                return num
            end
        end
        dbQuery( result )
        return false
    end
    return false
end