I am learning Laravel which I am using as the backend, with a wordpress database. I am at the step of building a Laravel API to communicate with the WP database. So, I created a WP project and took note of the database settings in cPanel, which I then used to update the Laravel .env file. I ran "php artisan serve", and the laravel page was there. All fine and dandy. So I proceeded to add wordpress files inside the laravel project and configured wordpress inside laravel public/index.php file using define('WP_USE_THEMES', false); then required the wp-blog-header.php file...I got an error saying the wp-config file was missing. So, I downloaded the wp-config.php file from my WP cPanel, and added it to Laravel wordpress folder, leaving the wp-config-example.php file as is. This brought me to the database error: "Error connecting a database connection". The strange thing though is that my Wordpress site that has the database where I am trying to connect Laravel loads fine, no errors, error only appears on Laravel's localhot:8000. I am not sure if this is a WP or Laravel issue but I have tried debugging from either approach.
Setup: Wordpress 5.1.1, PHP7.2.1 Laravel5+
I have tried a few solutions on here and on google to no avail.Eg problems with database connection in laravel 5
https://www.rosehosting.com/blog/error-establishing-a-database-connection/
I think it is important to mention that the initial .env file edit(ie using cPanel database credentials) to connect to the WP database worked fine. But I noticed that the wp-config file that I had downloaded from cPanel, had different DB settings from those in cPanel and hence the .env, execept for the database name. So I edited the wp-config to look like .env, and vice-versa, still no dice. Any solutions?
Here is the .env file using cPanel credentials.
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=sql201.epizy.com
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=epiz_23436343_w767
DB_USERNAME=epiz_23436343
DB_PASSWORD=KJYN75fiOnM5S
Here is the wp-config. (I have left both cPanel and the original credentials there for comparison, but I was commenting out as neeeded)
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define( 'DB_NAME', 'epiz_23436343_w767' );
/** MySQL database username */
define( 'DB_USER', '23436343_3' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'epiz_23436343' );
/** MySQL database password */
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', '(po5n5S(85' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'KJYN75fiOnM5S' );
/** MySQL hostname */
define( 'DB_HOST', 'sql201.byetcluster.com' );
define( 'DB_HOST', 'sql201.epizy.com' );
/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8mb4' );
I am officially stuck and any help would be much appreciated.