Searching with MATCH(), AGAINST() and AS score with mysqli and php

Question

Below is the code I am using to search my table. I have made the relevant columns FULLTEXT in the table. This doesn't return me anything. Can someone tell me what it is that i'm doing wrong? Thanks in advance.

$sql = 'SELECT id, person_name, classroom, school, MATCH (person_name, classroom, school) AGAINST (?) AS score FROM images WHERE MATCH(person_name, classroom, school) AGAINST(?) ORDER BY score DESC';

$stmt = $db_connection->prepare($sql);

$stmt->bind_param('ss',$keyword,$keyword);

$stmt->execute();

$stmt->store_result();
$stmt->bind_result($id,$uname,$class,$school);

$xml = "<data>".PHP_EOL;

while($stmt->fetch()){

    $xml .= "   <person>".PHP_EOL;
    $xml .= "       <id>$id</id>".PHP_EOL;
    $xml .= "       <name>$uname</name>".PHP_EOL;
    $xml .= "       <class>$class</class>".PHP_EOL;
    $xml .= "       <school>$school</school>".PHP_EOL;
    $xml .= "   </person>".PHP_EOL;

}

$xml .= "</data>";

echo $xml;

Below is an image of the indexes of the table:

It would appear that the problem lies in trying to bind the parameters before executing the query. Can someone confirm that you can use this query with prepared statements?

Answer 1

Offhand, it would look like your SQL's got a syntax error: DES at the end should be DESC. You have no error checking on the prepare/execute calls, so there's no way to tell if either spit out an error.

If that's just a typo entering it here and the real query's fine, what happens when you run it manually in phpmyadmin? Any results there?