I was never successful in connecting to an external database and displaying results when I was working on v1.10:
https://forum.osticket.com/d/92479-connecting-to-external-database/5
My problem was that I couldn't get it to connect to the specific table (ok in connecting to the database).
Has there been any progress in making this option easier or better documentation?
This is not a feature in osTicket so it would not be a matter of "making this option easier or better documentation".
You are trying to perform a modification to the system, which is really outside the scope of what we can help support.
Based solely on the names you've given your variables: are you using Oracle via mysqli commands? Probably better to switch to pdo, if you can.
I've had issues with error messages as well, the default bootstrap settings turn them all off, so you'll have to turn them all back on again to see them (while developing). Perhaps you can post your file to a pastebin/gist or similar and share the link? (Scrub any credentials though)
As trying to determine how a piece of code is supposed to work without context is quite hard.
