Magento. Customer online, but not logged in - magento

Question

Here is the problem:
I am using a script to create a user in Magento and trying to login this user if he he/she already exists.
try {
// If new, save customer information
$customer -> firstname = $firstname;
$customer -> lastname = $lastname;
$customer -> email = $email;
$customer -> password_hash = md5($password);
if ($customer -> save()) {
echo $customer -> firstname . " " . $customer -> lastname . " information is saved!";
$customer->setConfirmation(null);
$customer->save();
} else {
echo "An error occured while saving customer";
}
} catch(Exception $e) {
// If customer already exists, initiate login
if (preg_match('/This customer email already exists/', $e)) {
$customer -> loadByEmail($email);
$session = Mage::getSingleton('customer/session');
$session -> login($email, $password);
echo $session -> isLoggedIn() ? $session -> getCustomer() -> getName() . ' is online!' : 'not logged in';
}
}
the script echoes "user is online!", but when I go to the main page, it shows me the login button, as if I am not logged in. How do I login the user?

Answer 1

Did you set the website id?
You could also check if the customer exist by loadByEmail
$customer = Mage::getModel('customer/customer');
$customer->setWebsiteId(Mage::app()->getWebsite()->getId());
$customer->loadByEmail($email);
// This customer email exists
if($customer->getId()){
Mage::getSingleton('core/session', array('name' => 'frontend'));
Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->setCustomerAsLoggedIn($customer);
}
else{
.....
$customer->save();
}
or
$customer = Mage::getModel('customer/customer');
$customer->setWebsiteId(Mage::app()->getWebsite()->getId());
$customer->loadByEmail($email);
if(!$customer->getId()){
$customer->setFirstname($firstname);
$customer->setLastname($lastname);
.....
$customer->save();
}
Mage::getSingleton('core/session', array('name' => 'frontend'));
Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->setCustomerAsLoggedIn($customer);
See
Auto Login customer to Magento
Programatically create customer