Can i establish an alternative db connection despite of existing Yii-framework db conection

Question

We do application in yii framework working with mysql db connection defined in config.php file. Yet for some reason we want to connect to other server mysql db. Can i do it just this way (without using existent connection):

public function init_db() 
{ 
    $db_handler = mysqli_connect('http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx', 'name', 'password', 'db_name');
    $db_handler->set_charset('utf8');

    // check connection 
    if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
        throw new Exception ("Error connecting to DB : " . mysqli_connect_error()  );
    }              

    // set autocommit to off 
    mysqli_autocommit($db_handler, FALSE);

    mysqli_query ($db_handler, "set time_zone='Europe/Minsk'");

    return $db_handler;
}

As i try it, i get the error: mysqli_connect(): php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: hostname nor servname provided, or not known

on this line $db_handler = mysqli_connect('http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx', 'name', 'password', 'db_name');

Is there any workaround, hack to get short time connection to fetch some data from external server (not localhost)?

UPDATE

I've just run into this tread. Yet as i try:

$connection=new CDbConnection($dsn,$username,$password);
$connection->active=true;

the yii issues CDbException:

CDbConnection failed to open the DB connection: could not find driver

Answer 1

In your config file just add another connection settings:

    'db' => array(
        'connectionString' => 'mysql:host=127.0.0.1;dbname=test',
        ....
    ),
    'otherDb' => array(
        'connectionString' => 'mysql:host=127.0.0.1;dbname=test2',
        ....
    ),

And use it like Yii::app()->otherDb