Calling Drupal functions in external PHP file

Question

How can I call a Drupal function or get the global variable in a PHP file which is located under the drupal installation folder. I doing it for the first time. Are there any files I need to include in my code in order to access the Drupal function or variables?

Answer 1

Taken from the linked question in the comment above

You need to Bootstrap Drupal in the external PHP file:

/** bootstrap Drupal **/
chdir("/path/to/drupal/site/htdocs");
require_once './includes/bootstrap.inc';
drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL);

Be sure to change the path to your Drupal installation, then add your code below the code posted above.

Answer 2

If the above explained example doesn't work try this:

$path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
chdir($path."/drupal");
define('DRUPAL_ROOT', getcwd()); //the most important line
require_once './includes/bootstrap.inc';
drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL);

Answer 3

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

The above code works for me, when the script is in my Drupal root directory. This loads absolutely everything, not just Drupal core, including contributed module hooks.

Answer 4

define('DRUPAL_ROOT', getcwd());

require_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/includes/bootstrap.inc';
drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL);
global $user;
print_r($user);