what's the best way to access another database?

[delia]

I need to pull some limited information for a dropdown list in a sidebox. This information comes from another database on the site.

I see 2 ways to go:

1 is to pull that information in a separate php script and upload it to a new table in the zen database. I thought this would be the easiest but I'm having php writer's block (dang arrays)

So the other way is doing it within the cart itself - in the module for the sidebox. I did try this but it's killing off the sideboxes that fall after it because of my inability to switch from one database connection back to the original.

So I need advice on the best way to do this and then probably some tips on how to do it!

[delia]

Since I got no answers, I wrote a script to pull the information from the extra database and inserted it into zen database and we're using a cron job to update the zen table.