Using specific drupal-related functions in a non-drupal.php file INSIDE the drupal dir

Question

Good morning all. I'm having some issues while trying to make the function "field_file_load" work in a php script I've done to process an AJAX call.

I've read about bootstrapping drupal core elements inside, but it doesn't seem to work.

So far I've succesfully populated a Select Box using the data from another Select Box, making an AJAX call to this php file (which is in the drupal directory folder, in a theme to be precise)

<?php
$var = $_GET['q'];

$con = mysql_connect('*******', '******', '********');
if (!$con)
  {
  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
  }

mysql_select_db("drupal", $con);

$sql="SELECT DISTINCT xc.field_brand_value FROM node 
      INNER JOIN term_node AS tn ON node.vid = tn.vid
      LEFT JOIN content_type_extra_content AS xc ON node.vid = xc.vid 
      WHERE tn.tid IN (SELECT th.tid FROM term_hierarchy AS th WHERE th.parent = '149')
      AND xc.field_location_value = '".$var."'";

$result = mysql_query($sql);
      echo(' <select name="brand" id="brand">
      <option value="default" selected>Select a brand</option>
      ');

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
      {
      echo('<option value="'.$row['field_brand_value'].'">'.$row['field_brand_value'].'</option>');
      }

echo('</select>');
mysql_close($con);
?>

And this is working like a charm because all I have to do is connecting to the drupal db and fetch the desired values.

The problem arises when I want to fetch the url of some pictures (with a query that uses values from the first and second dropdown) and use the "file_field_load" to load the url of the given picture.

I get (obviously) a "call to undefined function" error. So I tried bootstrapping drupal.

But it doesn't work anyway.

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

Since I don't have full access to the server where the site is hosted, assuming that drupal is convenientrly installed in the root, how can I figure out the path to drupal site htdocs ?

Moreover, does calling a full bootstrap (instead of just the needed part) can cause some problems?

So, to be brief: 1] how can I call a drupal function (in this case which comes from the filefiled module) in a non-drupal php script which resides however in the drupal directory?

2] Which is the correct way of bootstrapping? 3] Do I need to connect to the db (like in the previous working example) IN ADDITION to bootstrapping?

Or, finally. there's a different, speedier way you know how to do what I need to do?

Thanks in advance for any reply.

Alexander Alexander · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-27T11:17:20

Hmm that's weird. If the FileField module is enabled, the function should be available. So maybe FileField is not actually enabled?

If that's the case you're gonna have to manually add the file that contains the function definition, which is the field_file.inc file in the module's directory, so you'd add that dependency to your bootstrapping code:

<?php
/** bootstrap Drupal **/
chdir("/path/to/drupal/site/htdocs");
require_once './includes/bootstrap.inc';
drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL);
module_load_include('filefield', 'inc', 'field_file');

AFAIK what you're doing for bootstrapping Drupal from an outside script is the "correct" way.

Now, I'm not sure if, on a big picture level, whatever you're trying to do is a good idea at all... That is: You're making a little nonDrupal script which:

manually connects to the Drupal database with plain mysql functions instead of Drupal's DB API functions, in order to
fetch CCK information using a query that's 100% vulnerable to SQL injection, and
all of this put in a theme directory no less!

So you might want to rethink your angle of attack here, you know?. Maybe making a custom module for this.

But if you just have to do things this way (for reasons I can't think of), then at least use db_query so you don't have to do the whole mysql_connect() stuff, and do something like

<?php 
db_query("YOUR BIG QUERY HERE... xc.field_location_value = '%s'", $var);

...for at least some degree of security.

I would also recommend that you browse the involved modules a bit (FileField, etc) to see if they have APIs (or at least some internal functions) that might return what you're trying to get through plain DB querying.

Using specific drupal-related functions in a non-drupal.php file INSIDE the drupal dir

1 Answers