$kirby->impersonate()

Become any existing user or disable the current user

$kirby->impersonate(string $who = null, Closure $callback = null): mixed

Parameters

Name	Type	Default	Description
$who	`string`	`null`	User ID or email address, `null` to use the actual user again, `'kirby'` for a virtual admin user or `'nobody'` to disable the actual user
$callback	`Closure`	`null`	Optional action function that will be run with the permissions of the impersonated user; the impersonation will be reset afterwards

Exceptions

Type	Description
`Throwable`

`$who`

There are four options for the $who parameter:

a username (impersonates the specific user with their permissions)
'kirby' (impersonates the allmighty user with full permissions)
'nobody' (disables the currently logged in user, added in Kirby 3.5.0)
null (resets the impersonation)

Example

<?php

$kirby = kirby();
$kirby->impersonate('kirby');

page('notes/a-great-article')->update([
  'author' => 'Homer Simpson'
]);

The impersonation will be active for all code that runs in the current request after the call to $kirby->impersonate(). If you want to limit the impact to a single operation, call the method with a callback (see below).

Since 3.4.0

With callback

If you only want a single operation to run with different privileges, use a callback:

<?php

$kirby = kirby();
$result = $kirby->impersonate('kirby', function () {
  page('notes/a-great-article')->update([
    'author' => 'Homer Simpson'
  ]);

  return 'this will be returned to $result above';
});

The impersonation automatically gets reset to the previous value after the callback returns.