PHPBB3 get_username_string() function woes

[RoxxorzIt]

Alright, all I'm trying to do at the moment is display who posted a topic from a page entirely separate from PHPBB. The problem is, it seems no matter what I do, I just can't find a way to do so.

Then, I heard about the get_username_string() function.

Well, it won't work for me and I don't even know why...

First of all, I have no idea what parameters need to be passed to it aside from the user_id of the account in question. Here's what I have written, if anyone could help me out I'd REALLY appreciate it, I've been stuck exactly right where I am for at least 15 hours...

Here's my error:
faultCode0faultStringFatal error:Call to a member function acl_get() on a non-object in /home/vol1/phpnet.us/g/gfgezpk/www/forums/includes/functions_content.php on line 1119

And here's my script:

<?php
define('IN_PHPBB', true);
include("forums/includes/functions_content.php");
 
$connection = mysql_connect("*****", "*****", "*****");
 
if (!$connection) {die ("An error has occured while attempting to access the MySQL database");}
 
mysql_selectdb('*****') or die(mysql_error());
 
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `phpbb_posts`");
 
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
    $username;
    $user = get_username_string('username', $row['poster_id'], $row['post_username']);
    echo "Posted by: " . $user;
}
mysql_close();
?>
 
Also, here's the function:
/**
* Get username details for placing into templates.
*
* @param string $mode Can be profile (for getting an url to the profile), username (for obtaining the username), colour (for obtaining the user colour), full (for obtaining a html string representing a coloured link to the users profile) or no_profile (the same as full but forcing no profile link)
* @param int $user_id The users id
* @param string $username The users name
* @param string $username_colour The users colour
* @param string $guest_username optional parameter to specify the guest username. It will be used in favor of the GUEST language variable then.
* @param string $custom_profile_url optional parameter to specify a profile url. The user id get appended to this url as &amp;u={user_id}
*
* @return string A string consisting of what is wanted based on $mode.
*/
function get_username_string($mode, $user_id, $username, $username_colour = '', $guest_username = false, $custom_profile_url = false)
{
    global $phpbb_root_path, $phpEx, $user, $auth;
 
    $profile_url = '';
    $username_colour = ($username_colour) ? '#' . $username_colour : '';
 
    if ($guest_username === false)
    {
        $username = ($username) ? $username : $user->lang['GUEST'];
    }
    else
    {
        $username = ($user_id && $user_id != ANONYMOUS) ? $username : ((!empty($guest_username)) ? $guest_username : $user->lang['GUEST']);
    }
 
    // Only show the link if not anonymous
    if ($mode != 'no_profile' && $user_id && $user_id != ANONYMOUS)
    {
        // Do not show the link if the user is already logged in but do not have u_viewprofile permissions (relevant for bots mostly).
        // For all others the link leads to a login page or the profile.
        if ($user->data['user_id'] != ANONYMOUS && !$auth->acl_get('u_viewprofile'))
        {
            $profile_url = '';
        }
        else
        {
            $profile_url = ($custom_profile_url !== false) ? $custom_profile_url . '&amp;u=' . (int) $user_id : append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}memberlist.$phpEx", 'mode=viewprofile&amp;u=' . (int) $user_id);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        $profile_url = '';
    }
 
    switch ($mode)
    {
        case 'profile':
            return $profile_url;
        break;
 
        case 'username':
            return $username;
        break;
 
        case 'colour':
            return $username_colour;
        break;
 
        case 'no_profile':
        case 'full':
        default:
 
            $tpl = '';
            if (!$profile_url && !$username_colour)
            {
                $tpl = '{USERNAME}';
            }
            else if (!$profile_url && $username_colour)
            {
                $tpl = '<span style="color: {USERNAME_COLOUR};" class="username-coloured">{USERNAME}</span>';
            }
            else if ($profile_url && !$username_colour)
            {
                $tpl = '<a href="{PROFILE_URL}">{USERNAME}</a>';
            }
            else if ($profile_url && $username_colour)
            {
                $tpl = '<a href="{PROFILE_URL}" style="color: {USERNAME_COLOUR};" class="username-coloured">{USERNAME}</a>';
            }
 
            return str_replace(array('{PROFILE_URL}', '{USERNAME_COLOUR}', '{USERNAME}'), array($profile_url, $username_colour, $username), $tpl);
        break;
    }
}

[pbmods]

Heya, RoxxorzIt. Welcome to TSDN!

Please use CODE tags when posting source code:

[CODE=php]
PHP code goes here.
[/CODE]

get_username_string() only works within phpbb (it requires the auth and session classes to be loaded).

Your best bet is to write a separate query to retrieve this data.

[RoxxorzIt]

Heya, RoxxorzIt. Welcome to TSDN!

Please use CODE tags when posting source code:

PHP code goes here.
 

get_username_string() only works within phpbb (it requires the auth and session classes to be loaded).

Your best bet is to write a separate query to retrieve this data.

Thanks for the tip and welcoming!

I would like to write a separate query, but for some reason I get an error when attempting to include a variable received from any other query. It says it can't convert it to a string, but shouldn't it already be a string?

Like if I write a query to compare a poster_id with a user_id, I'd try to first get the poster_id like:

mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `phpbb_posts` WHERE `forum_id` = 4 LIMIT 0,5");

and pass the $row['poster_id'] variable to another query which says:

mysql_query("SELECT `username` FROM `phpbb_users` WHERE `user_id` = $row['poster_id']");

[pbmods]

Heya, RoxxorzIt.

Try this:

mysql_query("SELECT `username` FROM `phpbb_users` WHERE `user_id` = '{$row['poster_id']}' LIMIT 1");