Can't Connect to Database

[geosite]

I hiave a page that I'm using to display just one cell from a MySQL table - a cell in a field that contains articles about states and nations. Let's say the page is named alaska.php, and it has a big include in the body section. The include, in turn, includes another page with the following:

<?php
$todayDate = date("m-d-Y");
?>
<?php require_once('../../../../Connections/World.php');
mysql_select_db($database_World, $World);
$query_Statesarticles = "SELECT statesarticles.ArticleS from statesarticles WHERE statesarticles.SCode = '{$mycode}'";
$Statesarticles = mysql_query($query_Statesarticles, $World) or 
die(mysql_error());
// send it to mysql (step 2.)
while ($row_Statesarticles = mysql_fetch_assoc($Statesarticles) )
 {
// loop throught the resulting record set and display each row (step 4.)
  echo $row_Statesarticles['ArticleS'];
}
?>

When I was tweaking the code, trying to get it to work, I frequently got "No Database Selected" error messages. They were often triggered when I refereshed the page; everything would work fine until I refreshed it, when I got an error message. If I refreshed it again, then everything would once again be OK.

Finally, it was working perfectly - then I must have done something wrong, and "No Database Selected" is permanently displayed. The table is named statesarticles, and I'm selecting a cell from the ArticleS field. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Also, does my code look good for my purpose? I thought I might need the "loop through" function for displaying a single cell, but I couldn't remove it without wrecking everything.

Thanks.

[geosite]

I just stumbled across the solution, but it raises another question.

I'm using Dreamweaver. Over on the right, I can click a + under "Applications" to see a visual representation of my database connection. When I clicked on the connection, it was empty - no tables were listed. They had been listed earlier.

I deleted the connection, re-connected, and everything works fine now. But why would a database connection "lose" its tables in the first place? And how could I connect to databases without using Dreamweaver in the first place? When it makes a connection, I think it creates a new file, right?