Magento: Login and redirect to account page from outside magento - magento

Question

I am using this below code to login and redirect to account page:
<?php
include('store/app/Mage.php');
Mage::app();
if($_POST && $_POST['login']['username'] && $_POST['login']['password']){
$email = $_POST['login']['username'];
$password = $_POST['login']['password'];
$session = Mage::getSingleton('customer/session');
try {
$log = $session->login($email, $password);
$session->setCustomerAsLoggedIn($session->getCustomer());
$customer_id = $session->getCustomerId();
$send_data["success"] = true;
$send_data["message"] = "Login Success";
$send_data["customer_id"] = $customer_id;
Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->loginById($customer_id);
Mage_Core_Model_Session_Abstract_Varien::start();
}catch (Exception $ex) {
$send_data["success"] = false;
$send_data["message"] = $ex->getMessage();
}
}else {
$send_data["success"]=false;
$send_data["message"]="Enter both Email and Password";
}
echo json_encode($send_data);
?>
And then on file from where I am making ajax request, I am using this code:
if(data.success){
window.location = "http://domain.com/store/customer/account/"
}
But it always show user as logout, though I do get correct customer id as well as success.

Answer 1

$email = strip_tags($_GET["login"]);
$password = strip_tags($_GET["psw"]);
function loginUser( $email, $password ) {
umask(0);
ob_start();
session_start();
Mage::app('default');
Mage::getSingleton("core/session", array("name" => "frontend"));
$websiteId = Mage::app()->getWebsite()->getId();
$store = Mage::app()->getStore();
$customer = Mage::getModel("customer/customer");
$customer->website_id = $websiteId;
$customer->setStore($store);
try {
$customer->loadByEmail($email);
$session = Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->setCustomerAsLoggedIn($customer);
if($session->login($email, $password)){ return true;} else { };
}catch(Exception $e){
return $e->getMessage();
}
}
if (loginUser($email,$password) == 1) {
echo ".. user loged as ".Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->getCustomer()->getName()."<br>";} else {
//bad things goes here
}

Answer 2

In my case Martin's code works if I change the session name
session_name('frontend');
session_start();
If you leave the session name alone it defaults PHPSESSID which isn't the same as that created by Magento on a manual login and didn't work in my install. That may vary, try logging in manually and check your cookie names.
session_name documentation: http://php.net/manual/en/function.session-name.php