file_put_contents(…, FILE_APPEND) to log is a bad idea and you know it, but it’s sometimes good enough, or you just don’t get paid enough to make something serious. I just let you make it a tiny bit more serious, a whole lot more dependable, and still just change a single line of code.
/// Creates a table called $table as (id, when, message) if none such exists, and inserts a row with $message in it.
/// If no connection details are given, it uses the current database connection. Same goes for $database and $when.
///
/// @returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.
///
/// @example mysql_put_contents("orders", "I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER?", "mysite", NULL, "127.0.0.1:3306", "mysite_user", "secret") or die(mysql_error());
/// @example mysql_put_contents("guestbook", "Longcat says: I'm loooooooooooong") or die("Errorz!");
function mysql_put_contents($table, $message, $database = NULL, $when = NULL, $host = NULL, $user = NULL, $pass = NULL) {
if($host)
mysql_connect($host, $user, $pass);
if($database)
mysql_select_db($database);
$qry = "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `$table` (
`id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
`when` TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW(),
`message` TEXT NOT NULL
);";
$result = mysql_query($qry);
if($result === FALSE)
return FALSE;
$qry = "INSERT INTO `$table` VALUES(NULL, ".($when ? $when : 'NULL').", '".mysql_real_escape_string($message)."');";
$result = mysql_query($qry);
if($result === FALSE)
return FALSE;
return TRUE;
}