Check user permission in php

Question

How can I create a PHP function or class that checks if a user who is a half-admin (set from a MySQL database) has some rights such as creating a new page, editing, or deleting? I need a function that checks the user permissions and then display the code like this:

  if ($he_can_create_page){
  //continue the script.....
  }else{
  //don`t continue
   }

In present I use sessions like this:

    If($_SESSION['user_type']=='Admin'||$_SESSION['user_type']=='premium'){
 //do stuff
 }else if()......... {
  // ..............
   }

but they become too many if statements, and I want a cleaner code :)

Answer 1

interface User {

    public function canCreatePage();
    public function canDeletePage();
    public function canEditPage();
    ....
}

class Admin implements User {

    public function canCreatePage(){
        return true;
    }

    public function canEditPage(){
        return true;
    }
    ...
}

class Editor implements User {

     public function canCreatePage() {
          return false;
     }

     public function canEditPage(){
        return true;
     }

     ...

}

then from what you get in the data base

if ($row['user_type'] == 'Admin') {
   $user = new Admin();
} else if $row['user_type'] == 'Editor') {
   $user = new Editor();
}  ....

in all your pages :

if ($user->canCreatePage()){
  //continue the script.....
}else{
  //don`t continue
}

If you want to store your user in session the first time you get it from the dataBase

$_SESSION['user'] = serialize($user);

in the next page

$user = unserialize($_SESSION['user']);

Or you can also just store the id of the user in session and get it back from de DB on every page.