diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 0b76939..ffd6450 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-*/.env
+*.env
 /vendor/
diff --git a/includes/functions.php b/includes/functions.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/includes/sql.php b/includes/sql.php
index 9830455..2030961 100644
--- a/includes/sql.php
+++ b/includes/sql.php
@@ -1,5 +1,28 @@
 <?php
-function get_article_cards() {
-  
+// phpdotenv initialization
+require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';
+$dotenv = Dotenv\Dotenv::createImmutable(__DIR__ . '/..');
+$dotenv->safeLoad();
+
+// Use environment variables for the database password and IP address.
+// $db_user = $_ENV['DATABASE_USER'];
+$db_pass = $_ENV['DATABASE_PASSWORD'];
+
+define('HOST', 'localhost');
+define('USER', 'root');
+define('PASS', $db_pass);
+define('DB', 'vintagecodingdotnet');
+
+function get_article_cards()
+{
+    $conn = mysqli_connect(HOST, USER, PASS, DB);
+
+    /*
+     * $query = 'SELECT * FROM articles;';
+     *
+     * $results = mysqli_query($conn, $query);
+     * while ($row = mysqli_fetch_row($results)) {
+     *     echo $row['article_name'];
+     * }
+     */
 }
-?>
diff --git a/index.php b/index.php
index ca79af3..756646f 100644
--- a/index.php
+++ b/index.php
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <?php
-  include_once('includes/components/head.php');
-  echo '<h1>Hello cruel world!</h1>';
-  include_once('includes/components/foot.php');
-?>
+include_once ('includes/components/head.php');
+include_once ('includes/sql.php');
+get_article_cards();
+include_once ('includes/components/foot.php');
diff --git a/scripts/initdb.sh b/scripts/initdb.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..8d47ac8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/initdb.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+create_db() {
+    mariadb -u root -p -e "CREATE DATABASE vintagecodingdotnet;"
+    mariadb -u root -p -e "USE vintagecodingdotnet; CREATE TABLE articles (article_id INT PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT, article_name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL);"
+    mariadb -u root -p -e "USE vintagecodingdotnet; INSERT INTO articles (article_name) VALUES ('test'), ('another test'), ('a third test');"
+}
+
+create_db