my $user = '1'; #or whatever default value you want

print $query->header("text/html"),


$query->start_html(-title => "Database Test"),

$query->h1("Database Test"),

$user = $query->param("username"),

my  $db_handle = DBI->connect("dbi:mysql:database=test;host=localhost;user=root;")
  or die "Couldn't connect to database: $DBI::errstr\n";