Connecting to an external MySQL database.

<?php
$option['driver']   = 'mysqli';         // Database driver name
$option['host']     = 'db.myhost.com';  // Database host name
$option['user']     = 'fredbloggs';     // User for database authentication
$option['password'] = 's9(39s£h[%dkFd'; // Password for database authentication
$option['database'] = 'bigdatabase';    // Database name
$option['prefix']   = 'abc_';           // Database prefix (may be empty)

$db = & JDatabase::getInstance( $option );
?>