Loading raster layer using PyQGIS?

I need to load a raster file from the provided file path. I wish to use it further in the Raster Calculator. I wrote a function which converts string (I assume it is a file path) to a raster object.

from qgis.core import QgsRasterLayer
from PyQt4.QtCore import QFileInfo
def StringToRaster(raster):
    # Check if string is provided
    if isinstance(raster,basestring):
        fileInfo = QFileInfo(raster)
        baseName = fileInfo.baseName()
        path = fileInfo.filePath()
        if (baseName and path):
            raster = QgsRasterLayer(path, baseName)

            if not raster.isValid():
                print "Layer failed to load!"
                return
        else:
            print "Unable to read basename and file path - Your string is probably invalid"
            return
    return raster

I have no idea why, but raster.isValid() always returns False. When I take exactly the same path which I provided to my function, I am able to add this layer to QGIS from the interface (from the menu Layer --> Add layer ---> Add raster layer).

My layer is a Float32 GeoTIFF with one band only.

Answer

If you keep getting non valid layers, even defining them correctly, you're probably missing the QGIS prefix definition in your script (in case that you work out of QGIS).

qgis_prefix="/usr"    
QgsApplication.setPrefixPath(qgis_prefix, True) 
QgsApplication.initQgis()

If you work on Windows, your qgis_prefix should be something like this:

qgis_prefix="C:\\Program Files\\QGIS Wiena\\apps\\qgis"

Now your raster layer should be valid.