title: accessing $_SESSION when using file_get_contents in PHP
body: <p>I have a page called send.email.php which sends an email - pretty simple stuff - I pass an order id, it creates job request and sends it out.  This works fine when used in the context I developed it (Use javascript to make an AJAX call to the URL and pass the order_id as a query parameter)</p>
  
  <p>I am now trying to reuse the exact same page in another application however I am calling it using php <code>file_get_contents($base_url.'admin/send.email.php?order_id='.$order_id)</code>.  When I call the page this way, the $_SESSION array is empty <code>isempty()</code> = 1.</p>
  
  <p>Is this because I am initiating a new session using <code>file_get_contents</code> and the values I stored in the $_SESSION on login are not available to me within there?</p>
  
  <p>-->
  Thanks for the feedback. It makes sense that the new call doesn't have access to the existing session...</p>
  
  <p>New problem though:</p>
  
  <p>I now get: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! When trying to execute:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$opts = array('http' =&gt; array('header'=&gt; 'Cookie: ' . $_SERVER['HTTP_COOKIE']."\r\n"));
  $context = stream_context_create($opts);
  $contents = file_get_contents($base_url.'admin/send.sms.php?order_id='.order_id, false, $context);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>YET, the URL works fine if I call it as: (It just doesn't let me access session)</p>
  
  <pre><code>$result file_get_contents($base_url.'admin/send.sms.php?order_id='.$order_id);
  </code></pre>