I'm sure these are just c++ errors as opposed to anything mysql++ related - if so you should follow this up on a c++ list somewhere.

Error 1, exactly what it says on the tin, constructors can't return a value of any type so just remove the "return -1;". Personally, I'd let whatever instanciates DatabaseControl handle the exception (or at least re-throw it), but otherwise making that change will correct the error.

I think error 2 is because "con" is a pointer, probably you need to use con->query(). I think error 3 you're missing the header file for mysqlpp::Connection.

Also, because you're shadowing the "con" member variable in the constructor it is probably not allocated anywhere. Result: app will probably crash when you call getCommands or DatabaseControl goes out of scope :) Enjoy more, and turn on -Wshadow to have the compiler let you know about it. Turn on -Wall for that matter :)

Joel