Accessing session data outside Joomla

Question

I am trying to run an application outside Joomla (not as a plugin) and I would like to access the logged in user\'s information (userid). I am wondering how should I go abou

Answer 1

I cannot tell you how Joomla with versions above 1.5 does that but in Joomla 1.5 here is how you do that: ( I am sure for other versions procedure is very similar )

Joomla generates Unique session id for front-end of the website and back-end. To access session data all you need is know the session id.

In joomla configuration file there is a parameter called "secret"

For back-end this is how you generate session id:

$session_id = md5( md5( JConfig::$secret.'administrator' ) );

and for front end:

$session_id = md5( md5( JConfig::$secret.'site' ) );

After this a simple query

mysql_query( 'SELECT `data` FROM jos_session WHERE session_id="'.$sessionId.'"  )

will give you access to session data. All you need is to decrypt it with session_decode and session data will be in $_SESSION variable.

Don't forget to put session_start before session_decode otherwise it will not work