<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";

// Create connection, errors suppressed
$conn = @new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
if ($conn->connect_error) {
	exit();
}
$online = 0;
try {
	$result = $conn->query("SELECT COUNT(`online`) as online_ppl FROM `characters` WHERE `online`='1'");
	if (($result !== false) && ($result->num_rows > 0)) {
		$row = $result->fetch_assoc();
		$online = $row['online_ppl'];
		$result->free();
	}
} finally {
	$conn->close();
	file_put_contents("online.txt", $online);
}
?>