[Sat Dec 31 19:14:39.401041 2022] [cgi:error] [pid 9360:tid 1864] 
[client 127.0.0.1:61019] AH01215: Can't locate object method "connect" via package "DBI" 
at ../htdocs/mydir/my_mysql.pl line 621.: C:/xampp/cgi-bin/myscript.cgi

##</code><code>##

use DB;

our $database = 'script_db';
our $db_user_name = 'script_user';
our $db_password = 'my_secure_pw';
our $dsn = "DBI:mysql:$database:localhost";

# . . . {snip}

#FOLLOWING LINE PRODUCES ERROR WITH XAMPP
my $dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $db_user_name, $db_password, {
    mysql_enable_utf8 => 1
    }) or die "Can't connect to the DB: $DBI::errstr\n";
    $dbh->{PrintError} = 1;
    $dbh->{RaiseError} = 1;
    $quest = $dbh->prepare($statement, { RaiseError => 1}) or die "Cannot prepare statement! $DBI::errstr\n";
    $quest->execute();