Working with MAMP.

MAMP seems to force me to place my databases in the Applications path. (Applications/MAMP/...) My localhost root is in username/Sites. I am trying to trying to build a website that uses PHP to connect to mySQL. But I cannot establish the connection. Here is the PHP.

<?php
    // 1. Create a database connection
    $dbhost = "localhost";
    $dbuser = "adminWidgetCorp";
    $dbpass = "adminUser01";
    $dbname = "widgetCorp";
    $connection = mysqli_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass, $dbname);
    // Test if connection succeeded
    if(mysqli_connect_errno()) {
        die("Database connection failed: " .
             mysqli_connect_error() .
             " (" . mysqli_connect_errno() . ")"
        );
    }
?>

Is my inability to connect because my db is not in my localhost root but is down the Applications path? If so can I use MAMP to redirect the creation of my db to my localhost root, and how do I do that? This is my first attempt at doing this and I am building a site for someone who is paying me, so I need to get this down. Thanks.

The code sample looks like phony data because I am doing a proof of concept before I plug it into my website.