// Do we have a valid database connection and have we selected a database?
public function databaseSelected()
{
    if(!$this->isConnected()) return false;
    $result = mysql_list_tables($this->name, $this->db);
    return is_resource($result);
}

public function connect()
{
    $this->db = @mysql_connect($this->host, $this->username, $this->password) or $this->notify('Failed connecting to the database with the supplied connection details. Please check the details are correct and your MySQL user has permissions to access this database.<br/><br/>(host: '.$this->host.', user: '.$this->username.', pass: ********)');
    if($this->db === false) return false;
    mysql_select_db($this->name, $this->db) or $this->notify();             if($this->isConnected())
    {
        mysql_set_charset('UTF-8', $this->db);
        $this->query("SET NAMES utf8");
    }

    return $this->isConnected();
}