PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION, PDO::ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE => PDO::FETCH_ASSOC, PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES => false, ]; try { $pdo = new PDO($dsn, DB_USER, DB_PASS, $options); } catch (PDOException $e) { error_log('Database connection error: ' . $e->getMessage()); die(json_encode(['success' => false, 'message' => 'Service temporarily unavailable.'])); } } return $pdo; }