What steps can be taken to ensure a smooth transition from a local development environment to a live system when using PHP and MySQL?

To ensure a smooth transition from a local development environment to a live system when using PHP and MySQL, it is important to properly configure database connection settings, ensure all necessary files are uploaded to the live server, and update any absolute paths in the code to reflect the live server's environment.

// Database connection settings
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database_name";

// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}