diff --git a/include/dba.php b/include/dba.php
index c94522829..53ee3e965 100644
--- a/include/dba.php
+++ b/include/dba.php
@@ -214,171 +214,22 @@ class dba {
 		}
 	}
 
-	public function q($sql, $onlyquery = false) {
-		$a = get_app();
+	public function q($sql) {
+		$ret = self::p($sql);
 
-		if (!$this->db || !$this->connected) {
-			return false;
+		if (is_bool($ret)) {
+			return $ret;
 		}
 
-		$this->error = '';
+		$columns = self::columnCount($ret);
 
-		$connstr = ($this->connected() ? "Connected" : "Disonnected");
+		$data = self::inArray($ret);
 
-		$stamp1 = microtime(true);
-
-		$orig_sql = $sql;
-
-		if (x($a->config,'system') && x($a->config['system'], 'db_callstack')) {
-			$sql = "/*".System::callstack()." */ ".$sql;
-		}
-
-		$columns = 0;
-
-		switch ($this->driver) {
-			case 'pdo':
-				$result = @$this->db->query($sql);
-				// Is used to separate between queries that returning data - or not
-				if (!is_bool($result)) {
-					$columns = $result->columnCount();
-				}
-				break;
-			case 'mysqli':
-				$result = @$this->db->query($sql);
-				break;
-			case 'mysql':
-				$result = @mysql_query($sql,$this->db);
-				break;
-		}
-		$stamp2 = microtime(true);
-		$duration = (float)($stamp2 - $stamp1);
-
-		$a->save_timestamp($stamp1, "database");
-
-		if (strtolower(substr($orig_sql, 0, 6)) != "select") {
-			$a->save_timestamp($stamp1, "database_write");
-		}
-		if (x($a->config,'system') && x($a->config['system'],'db_log')) {
-			if (($duration > $a->config["system"]["db_loglimit"])) {
-				$duration = round($duration, 3);
-				$backtrace = debug_backtrace(DEBUG_BACKTRACE_IGNORE_ARGS);
-				@file_put_contents($a->config["system"]["db_log"], datetime_convert()."\t".$duration."\t".
-						basename($backtrace[1]["file"])."\t".
-						$backtrace[1]["line"]."\t".$backtrace[2]["function"]."\t".
-						substr($sql, 0, 2000)."\n", FILE_APPEND);
-			}
-		}
-
-		switch ($this->driver) {
-			case 'pdo':
-				$errorInfo = $this->db->errorInfo();
-				if ($errorInfo) {
-					$this->error = $errorInfo[2];
-					$this->errorno = $errorInfo[1];
-				}
-				break;
-			case 'mysqli':
-				if ($this->db->errno) {
-					$this->error = $this->db->error;
-					$this->errorno = $this->db->errno;
-				}
-				break;
-			case 'mysql':
-				if (mysql_errno($this->db)) {
-					$this->error = mysql_error($this->db);
-					$this->errorno = mysql_errno($this->db);
-				}
-				break;
-		}
-		if (strlen($this->error)) {
-			logger('DB Error ('.$connstr.') '.$this->errorno.': '.$this->error);
-		}
-
-		if ($this->debug) {
-
-			$mesg = '';
-
-			if ($result === false) {
-				$mesg = 'false';
-			} elseif ($result === true) {
-				$mesg = 'true';
-			} else {
-				switch ($this->driver) {
-					case 'pdo':
-						$mesg = $result->rowCount().' results'.EOL;
-						break;
-					case 'mysqli':
-						$mesg = $result->num_rows.' results'.EOL;
-						break;
-					case 'mysql':
-						$mesg = mysql_num_rows($result).' results'.EOL;
-						break;
-				}
-			}
-
-			$str =  'SQL = ' . printable($sql) . EOL . 'SQL returned ' . $mesg
-				. (($this->error) ? ' error: ' . $this->error : '')
-				. EOL;
-
-			logger('dba: ' . $str );
-		}
-
-		/**
-		 * If dbfail.out exists, we will write any failed calls directly to it,
-		 * regardless of any logging that may or may nor be in effect.
-		 * These usually indicate SQL syntax errors that need to be resolved.
-		 */
-
-		if ($result === false) {
-			logger('dba: ' . printable($sql) . ' returned false.' . "\n" . $this->error);
-			if (file_exists('dbfail.out')) {
-				file_put_contents('dbfail.out', datetime_convert() . "\n" . printable($sql) . ' returned false' . "\n" . $this->error . "\n", FILE_APPEND);
-			}
-		}
-
-		if (is_bool($result)) {
-			return $result;
-		}
-		if ($onlyquery) {
-			$this->result = $result;
+		if ((count($data) == 0) && ($columns == 0)) {
 			return true;
 		}
 
-		$r = array();
-		switch ($this->driver) {
-			case 'pdo':
-				while ($x = $result->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
-					$r[] = $x;
-				}
-				$result->closeCursor();
-				break;
-			case 'mysqli':
-				while ($x = $result->fetch_array(MYSQLI_ASSOC)) {
-					$r[] = $x;
-				}
-				$result->free_result();
-				break;
-			case 'mysql':
-				while ($x = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
-					$r[] = $x;
-				}
-				mysql_free_result($result);
-				break;
-		}
-
-		// PDO doesn't return "true" on successful operations - like mysqli does
-		// Emulate this behaviour by checking if the query returned data and had columns
-		// This should be reliable enough
-		if (($this->driver == 'pdo') && (count($r) == 0) && ($columns == 0)) {
-			return true;
-		}
-
-		//$a->save_timestamp($stamp1, "database");
-
-		if ($this->debug) {
-			logger('dba: ' . printable(print_r($r, true)));
-		}
-		return($r);
+		return $data;
 	}
 
 	public function dbg($dbg) {
@@ -820,6 +671,26 @@ class dba {
 		return self::$dbo->affected_rows;
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * @brief Returns the number of columns of a statement
+	 *
+	 * @param object Statement object
+	 * @return int Number of columns
+	 */
+	public static function columnCount($stmt) {
+		if (!is_object($stmt)) {
+			return 0;
+		}
+		switch (self::$dbo->driver) {
+			case 'pdo':
+				return $stmt->columnCount();
+			case 'mysqli':
+				return $stmt->field_count;
+			case 'mysql':
+				return mysql_affected_rows($stmt);
+		}
+		return 0;
+	}
 	/**
 	 * @brief Returns the number of rows of a statement
 	 *
@@ -1415,38 +1286,44 @@ function dbesc($str) {
 //                   'user', 1);
 function q($sql) {
 	global $db;
+
 	$args = func_get_args();
 	unset($args[0]);
 
-	if ($db && $db->connected) {
-		$sql = $db->clean_query($sql);
-		$sql = $db->any_value_fallback($sql);
-		$stmt = @vsprintf($sql,$args); // Disabled warnings
-		//logger("dba: q: $stmt", LOGGER_ALL);
-		if ($stmt === false)
-			logger('dba: vsprintf error: ' . print_r(debug_backtrace(),true), LOGGER_DEBUG);
-
-		$db->log_index($stmt);
-
-		return $db->q($stmt);
+	if (!$db || !$db->connected) {
+		return false;
 	}
 
-	/**
-	 *
-	 * This will happen occasionally trying to store the
-	 * session data after abnormal program termination
-	 *
-	 */
-	logger('dba: no database: ' . print_r($args,true));
-	return false;
+	$sql = $db->clean_query($sql);
+	$sql = $db->any_value_fallback($sql);
+
+	$stmt = @vsprintf($sql, $args);
+
+	$ret = dba::p($stmt);
+
+	if (is_bool($ret)) {
+		return $ret;
+	}
+
+	$columns = dba::columnCount($ret);
+
+	$data = dba::inArray($ret);
+
+	if ((count($data) == 0) && ($columns == 0)) {
+		return true;
+	}
+
+	return $data;
 }
 
 /**
- * @brief Performs a query with "dirty reads"
+ * @brief Performs a query with "dirty reads" - deprecated
  *
  * By doing dirty reads (reading uncommitted data) no locks are performed
  * This function can be used to fetch data that doesn't need to be reliable.
  *
+ * Hadn't worked like expected and does now the same like the other function.
+ *
  * @param $args Query parameters (1 to N parameters of different types)
  * @return array Query array
  */
@@ -1465,9 +1342,7 @@ function qu($sql) {
 
 		$db->log_index($stmt);
 
-		$db->q("SET SESSION TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ UNCOMMITTED;");
 		$retval = $db->q($stmt);
-		$db->q("SET SESSION TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL REPEATABLE READ;");
 		return $retval;
 	}
 
diff --git a/include/dbstructure.php b/include/dbstructure.php
index d87f3948d..4d615a2f1 100644
--- a/include/dbstructure.php
+++ b/include/dbstructure.php
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ function convert_to_innodb() {
 		$sql = sprintf("ALTER TABLE `%s` engine=InnoDB;", dbesc($table['TABLE_NAME']));
 		echo $sql."\n";
 
-		$result = $db->q($sql);
+		$result = dba::e($sql);
 		if (!dbm::is_result($result)) {
 			print_update_error($db, $sql);
 		}
@@ -442,9 +442,9 @@ function update_structure($verbose, $action, $tables=null, $definition=null) {
 				// Ensure index conversion to unique removes duplicates
 				if ($is_unique) {
 					if ($ignore != "") {
-						$db->q("SET session old_alter_table=1;");
+						dba::e("SET session old_alter_table=1;");
 					} else {
-						$r = $db->q("CREATE TABLE `".$temp_name."` LIKE `".$name."`;");
+						$r = dba::e("CREATE TABLE `".$temp_name."` LIKE `".$name."`;");
 						if (!dbm::is_result($r)) {
 							$errors .= print_update_error($db, $sql3);
 							return $errors;
@@ -452,25 +452,25 @@ function update_structure($verbose, $action, $tables=null, $definition=null) {
 					}
 				}
 
-				$r = @$db->q($sql3);
+				$r = @dba::e($sql3);
 				if (!dbm::is_result($r)) {
 					$errors .= print_update_error($db, $sql3);
 				}
 				if ($is_unique) {
 					if ($ignore != "") {
-						$db->q("SET session old_alter_table=0;");
+						dba::e("SET session old_alter_table=0;");
 					} else {
-						$r = $db->q("INSERT INTO `".$temp_name."` SELECT ".$field_list." FROM `".$name."`".$group_by.";");
+						$r = dba::e("INSERT INTO `".$temp_name."` SELECT ".$field_list." FROM `".$name."`".$group_by.";");
 						if (!dbm::is_result($r)) {
 							$errors .= print_update_error($db, $sql3);
 							return $errors;
 						}
-						$r = $db->q("DROP TABLE `".$name."`;");
+						$r = dba::e("DROP TABLE `".$name."`;");
 						if (!dbm::is_result($r)) {
 							$errors .= print_update_error($db, $sql3);
 							return $errors;
 						}
-						$r = $db->q("RENAME TABLE `".$temp_name."` TO `".$name."`;");
+						$r = dba::e("RENAME TABLE `".$temp_name."` TO `".$name."`;");
 						if (!dbm::is_result($r)) {
 							$errors .= print_update_error($db, $sql3);
 							return $errors;
@@ -551,7 +551,7 @@ function db_create_table($name, $fields, $verbose, $action, $indexes=null) {
 		echo $sql.";\n";
 
 	if ($action)
-		$r = @$db->q($sql);
+		$r = @dba::e($sql);
 
 	return $r;
 }
diff --git a/mod/directory.php b/mod/directory.php
index cb0b1f4cd..9e004ab5d 100644
--- a/mod/directory.php
+++ b/mod/directory.php
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ function directory_content(App $a) {
 	$publish = ((get_config('system','publish_all')) ? '' : " AND `publish` = 1 " );
 
 
-	$r = $db->q("SELECT COUNT(*) AS `total` FROM `profile`
+	$r = q("SELECT COUNT(*) AS `total` FROM `profile`
 			LEFT JOIN `user` ON `user`.`uid` = `profile`.`uid`
 			WHERE `is-default` = 1 $publish AND `user`.`blocked` = 0 $sql_extra ");
 	if (dbm::is_result($r))
@@ -81,11 +81,11 @@ function directory_content(App $a) {
 
 	$limit = intval($a->pager['start']).",".intval($a->pager['itemspage']);
 
-	$r = $db->q("SELECT `profile`.*, `profile`.`uid` AS `profile_uid`, `user`.`nickname`, `user`.`timezone` , `user`.`page-flags`,
+	$r = q("SELECT `profile`.*, `profile`.`uid` AS `profile_uid`, `user`.`nickname`, `user`.`timezone` , `user`.`page-flags`,
 			`contact`.`addr`, `contact`.`url` AS profile_url FROM `profile`
 			LEFT JOIN `user` ON `user`.`uid` = `profile`.`uid`
 			LEFT JOIN `contact` ON `contact`.`uid` = `user`.`uid`
-			WHERE `is-default` = 1 $publish AND `user`.`blocked` = 0 AND `contact`.`self` $sql_extra $order LIMIT ".$limit);
+			WHERE `is-default` $publish AND `user`.`blocked` = 0 AND `contact`.`self` $sql_extra $order LIMIT ".$limit);
 	if (dbm::is_result($r)) {
 
 		if (in_array('small', $a->argv)) {