arrowchat can't access db

[asinsh]

My arrowchat setup worked fine with phpbb for a long time but stopped working a while ago. I thought I had figured out when I realized I had forgotten to update the db password in arrowchat/includes/config when I changed that db password for my forum, but when I finally fixed that it didn't help. I turned on error reporting and I see the following three lines repeating in my php error log:

[09-Jul-2019 18:48:44 America/Detroit] PHP Deprecated: mysql_real_escape_string(): The mysql extension is deprecated and will be removed in the future: use mysqli or PDO instead in /home/xyz/public_html/abcforum/arrowchat/includes/classes/class_database.php on line 687

[09-Jul-2019 18:48:44 America/Detroit] PHP Warning: mysql_real_escape_string(): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO) in /home/xyz/public_html/abcforum/arrowchat/includes/classes/class_database.php on line 687

[09-Jul-2019 18:48:44 America/Detroit] PHP Warning: mysql_real_escape_string(): A link to the server could not be established in /home/xyz/public_html/abcforum/arrowchat/includes/classes/class_database.php on line 687

So my two questions are:
- how do I have arrowchat use mysqli rather than mysql extension (though this is obviously not the problem) and

- why isn't arrowchat properly reading my db_username and db_password entries in arrowchat/includes/config?

Thanks for any help.

[Jason]

If you're getting an access denied error then there is no other reason other than the username and password do not exist on that table for that server.

I would recommend a reinstall of the latest version as MySQLi is automatically used if it available.

[asinsh]

I did a clean remove (including wiping out the arrowchat db entries) and then I did a clean reinstall so I now have arrowchat 2.2 running on my phpbb3.0.14 forum. I am no longer getting php errors but I still can't see any chatbox (or anything else arrowchat related when on the regular forum). That's true even though in the arrowchat admin area it is set to allow users to see each other (as per the default). Here are some things I can confirm that suggest that the integration is correct:

- in arrowchat admin manage users area, I can look up specific users and it correctly returns them with their user_id

- when I go to [site]/arrowchat/debug/, all items are marked green and it correctly reports my own user_id

- I set bootstrap to report all errors and, unlike before, I am no longer getting erros in my php error log

I can also confirm that I turned on the push service and entered the keys I got when I logged into arrowchat and went to https://www.arrowchat.com/push/

And I can confirm that my overall_header and overall_footer templates have the correct arrowchat code in the correct places and I flushed the cache. (In fact, I can confirm that when I view the phpbb forum pages on my browser using its show source function that code is there in the right place). Not surprising since I haven;t changed these since before when everything was working.

The settings I am using are all the default ones (allowing registered users to chat with each other), and I am logged on at the same time that other registered users show up as online.

So, not sure what to try next. Thoughts?