wp login redirect loop reauth=1

Question

I am new to wordpress development and am trying to write a plugin. Following the recommendations in the book Professional Wordpress Plugin Development, I created a test page and placed it in the wordpress root directory. When I include wp-admin/admin.php to test the admin functionality of this plugin, I get routed to the login page. From there, after supplying the appropriate credentials, I get redirected to the same page. If I don't require wp-admin/admin.php this doesn't happen. I don't know where to begin troubleshooting this. Here is the very basic script they recommend:
<?php require('./wp-load.php'); require_once('./wp-admin/admin.php'); ?> <pre> <?php //code to test here var_dump(is_admin()); ?> </pre>
Here is the redirect url that keeps appearing:

http://mysite.com/wp-login.php?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fmysite.com%2Ftest.php&reauth=1

Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

Plugins don't live in the root directory, and they don't include wp-load.php or the admin.php files directly. Plugins live in the wp-content/plugins directory, and have a specific form of header, and they don't need to include anything because WordPress includes them.

You're doing it the wrong way around, basically. A plugin would not include/require WordPress's files.

Oh, and your code doesn't work because you're trying to include admin files from outside the admin directory, which means that the admin-specific cookies can't be set correctly. There are workarounds, but if you're starting off trying to develop plugins, then this is entirely the wrong approach.