Can't access global user object after drupal_bootstrap

Question

I have a stand-alone php script with the following lines at the beginning:

define('DRUPAL_ROOT', '../../../../../');

require_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/includes/bootstrap.inc';
drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL);                

And this is giving me access to all of Drupal's functions just fine, however, when I try to access the global user object, it's as if the user is not logged in (IE the user object says the user is anonymous and has a UID of 0), even though I know they are because when I browse the site normally, the user is logged in.

Why does it not pick up the user's session in my script?

Answer 1

The solution was a one line fix:

define('DRUPAL_ROOT', '../../../../../');
$base_url = 'http://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
require_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/includes/bootstrap.inc';
drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL); 

Note the addition of $base_url

Answer 2

Add global $user after drupal_bootstrap, that makes user's $user object available in your script.

Example:

require_once './includes/bootstrap.inc';
drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL); 
global $user;
print $user->name;

Answer 3

You need to set $base_url to $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] with 'http://' prepended and then it will work from a subdirectory.

Answer 4

This is my boilerplate for stand alone php. I mainly use it for debugging so adjust accordingly.

if (isset($_SERVER['argc']) || isset($_SERVER['argv'])) {
  // Set server variables if cli.
  $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']     = '127.0.0.1';
  $_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE'] = NULL;
  $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']  = 'GET';
  $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']    = '';
  $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] = 'console';
}

// Find index.php
$webroot = str_replace('\\', '/', dirname(__FILE__));
$webroot = str_replace('\\', '/', realpath(dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'])));
while (!empty($webroot)) {
  if (file_exists($webroot . '/index.php') && strpos(file_get_contents($webroot . '/index.php'), 'menu_execute_active_handler();') !== FALSE) {
    break;
  }
  $new_webroot = str_replace('\\', '/', dirname($webroot));
  if ($new_webroot == $webroot) {
    $webroot = str_replace('\\', '/', getcwd());
    break;
  }
  $webroot = $new_webroot;
}
chdir($webroot);
/**
  * Root directory of Drupal installation.
  */
define('DRUPAL_ROOT', getcwd());
require_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/includes/bootstrap.inc';

// Set the base URL.
$base_url = 'http://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
// Set https to on if it should be.
if ( (isset($_SERVER["HTTPS"]) && strtolower($_SERVER["HTTPS"]) == "on")
  || (isset($_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO"]) && $_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO"] == "https")
  || (isset($_SERVER["HTTP_HTTPS"]) && $_SERVER["HTTP_HTTPS"] == "on")
    ) {
  $_SERVER["HTTPS"] = "on";
}
// Fix base URL if HTTPS.
if (isset($_SERVER["HTTPS"]) && strtolower($_SERVER["HTTPS"]) == "on" && isset($base_url)) {
  $base_url = str_replace("http://", "https://", $base_url);
}

try {
  drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL);
  ini_set('memory_limit', '8000M');
  $output = array();
  $time_start = microtime(true);
  set_time_limit(0);
  // header('Content-Type: text/plain');



  // Run code here.



  $time_end = microtime(true);
  $time = round($time_end - $time_start, 4);
  echo "took $time seconds<br>\n";
}
catch (Exception $e) {
  echo 'Caught exception: ',  $e->getMessage(), "\n";
}