How to keep always logged in development environment

I have a little non-standard WP dev environment, I use one WP core for all my projects and switch each project in core’s wp-config.php just changing the $project variable (e.g. proj1, proj2, example…). Projects and core are separated and each project has its own DB, wp-content folder, wp-config-dev.php (DB credentials and table prefix), and wp-config.php (usual wp-config that I deploy on the server).

//core's wp-config.php
<?php
$project="example";
define( 'WP_CONTENT_DIR', 'C:/dev/projects/'.$project.'/wp/wp-content' );
define( 'WP_CONTENT_URL', 'https://projects.folder/'.$project.'/wp/wp-content' );
include('C:/dev/projects/'.$project.'/wp/wp-config-dev.php');
if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {
    define( 'ABSPATH', dirname( __FILE__ ) . "https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/" );
}
require_once( ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php' );
// custom functions
include('custom.php');

All my projects on the development environment have the same user and password (e.g. foo and bar) and I change them when I export DB when my project is ready to production, so my goal to switch each project just with changing $project and not login in every time cuz it is really annoying.

When i switch beetwen projects i have always to log in again into switched project. In included custom.php file i have wp_signon() function that was worked on WP 4+ but since WP 5.0 it is stopped working. Earlier that approach automatically logged in each project and i even can’t log out cuz it keep me logged on page reload 🙂

$current_user = wp_get_current_user();
if (!user_can( $current_user, 'administrator' )) {
    //without if(){} i have same behaviour
    $creds = array();
    $creds['user_login'] = 'foo';
    $creds['user_password'] = 'bar';
    $creds['remember'] = false;
    wp_signon( $creds, false );
}

Now after the switch, I need to update the page again to the admin bar appear and when I go to the console it redirects me to wp-login.php where is user input had filled and the password input are empty.

So how to make it always automatically logged in when I change the project and make that each session has no expiration time?

Note. I need to make it work only in the custom.php file that I include to core’s wp-config, I don’t need to make it in each project instance that I deploy on the server.

Update. Now autologin works fine, the problem was in second parameter of the wp_signon() function, it should be true if you use HTTPS on your site.

//custom.php

echo "is_user_logged_in() — ";
var_dump(is_user_logged_in());

//this condition not working after switch project, have to reload page
if (!is_user_logged_in()) {
    $creds = array();
    $creds['user_login'] = 'foo';
    $creds['user_password'] = 'bar';
    $creds['remember'] = false;
    $user = wp_signon( $creds, true ); //set second parameter to true to enable secure cookies

    add_filter( 'auth_cookie_expiration', 'keep_me_logged_in_for_1_year' );
    function keep_me_logged_in_for_1_year( $expirein ) {
        return 31556926; // 1 year in seconds
    }
}

It always keep me logged in for current project and I haven’t problem with redirection to wp-login page but when i switch to another project I still need to reload page to login and for the admin bar to appear.

In drop down menu i switch project with changing $project var in core’s config

How to login immediately and without reloads after changing $project? Is there a problem with that engine got another DB and wp-content folder?

Here’s one milder suggestion to try out, assuming different cookie domains, if you’re using WordPress 5.5+

For your development installs, set the getenv environment variable WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE or define:

define( 'WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE', 'development' );

within the corresponding wp-config-development.php or the name you use for it.

Then extend the authentication cookie expiration period for the development installs with e.g.

add_filter( 'auth_cookie_expiration', function( $ttl, $user_id, $remember ) {

    // Adjust to your working environment needs.
    $my_working_types = [ 'development' ];
    $my_working_ttl   = YEAR_IN_SECONDS;

    return in_array( wp_get_environment_type(), $my_working_types, true ) 
        ? $my_working_ttl 
        : $ttl;

}, PHP_INT_MAX - 1, 3 );

So you would have to login once to start with, checking the “Remember me” on the login screen, else we get the session expiration.

There are four supported environment types of wp_get_environment_type() supported:

• local
• development
• staging
• production (default)

See the dev notes for the back story.

ps: The setup of using the same domain, with multiple sites in sub-directories, sharing the same WordPress install, reminds me of WordPress multisite.