Joomla woes

[eluser]jwindhorst[/eluser]
Maybe it would help if I posted the code I added to the beginning of the getUser function:

Code:

$ci_link=mysql_connect($params_to_ci_db);
mysql_select_db('database_name');

$uip=$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$cross_over_query = "SELECT user_data FROM ci_sessions WHERE ip_address='$uip'";
$cross_over_results = mysql_query($cross_over_query);

while($cross_over_row= mysql_fetch_object($cross_over_results))
{
    $user_data=unserialize($cross_over_row->user_data);
    $user_id=$user_data['cms_id'];  // assume this is our joomla user id.
}
if(is_numeric($user_id))
    $id=$user_id;

// THE NEXT LINE IS
jimport('joomla.user.user); // UNCHANGED AS IS THE REST OF THE FUNCTION

So, essentially I was trying to provide the $id if it was missing, but something that happens earlier in the app is being skipped.