Joomla 2.5 Get User Data from External Script

Question

I need to get the information of the user that's currently logged in to Joomla from a program outside of Joomla itself. I upgraded from 1.5 to 2.5, and what I had before doesn't work anymore.

<?php

define( '_VALID_MOS', 1 );

include_once( 'globals.php' );
require_once( 'configuration.php' );
require_once( 'includes/joomla.php' );
$option="test";
$mainframe = new mosMainFrame( $database, $option, '.' );
$mainframe->initSession();

$my = $mainframe->getUser();
$joomla_name = $my->name;
$joomla_email = $my->email;
$joomla_password = $my->password;

After some research, I've come up with this:

<?php
define( '_JEXEC', 1 );
define( 'JPATH_BASE', dirname(__FILE__) );
define( 'DS', '/' );

require_once ( JPATH_BASE .DS.'configuration.php' );
require_once ( JPATH_BASE .DS.'includes'.DS.'defines.php' );
require_once ( JPATH_BASE .DS.'includes'.DS.'framework.php' );
require_once ( JPATH_BASE .DS.'libraries'.DS.'joomla'.DS.'factory.php' );

$my =& JFactory::getUser();
$joomla_name = $my->name;
$joomla_email = $my->email;
$joomla_password = $my->password;
$joomla_username = $my->username;

It doesn't produce any errors but seems to work. However, the user object is empty. This script is in the same directory as the Joomla installation. What may be the problem? Thanks!

Sources:

http://www.cmsbloke.com/accessing-joomla-objects-from-an-external-script/

Answer 1

Taken from http://docs.joomla.org/How_to_access_session_variables_set_by_an_external_script

Solution: Replace session_start(); in your external script with

define( '_JEXEC', 1 );
define( 'JPATH_BASE', realpath(dirname(__FILE__).'/../..' ));
define( 'DS', DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR );

require_once ( JPATH_BASE .DS.'includes'.DS.'defines.php' );
require_once ( JPATH_BASE .DS.'includes'.DS.'framework.php' );
$mainframe =& JFactory::getApplication('site');
$mainframe->initialise();

Be sure to change JPATH_BASE to suit your directory structure.

Replace the $_SESSION[ 'name' ] = "value"; in your external script with

$session =& JFactory::getSession();
$session->set('name', "value");
Now you can retrieve this session variable using:

$session =& JFactory::getSession();
echo $session->get('name');