Question

I have an if statement in a cakePHP app and I cant work out why its not doing what I would expect.

public function isAuthorized($user) {         
        if ($user['role'] === 'admin'){
            return true;
        }
        if ((in_array($this->action, array('view', 'index')))&&($user['role'] === 'senior' || 'junior')) {

          return true;
        }
        return false;
       }

I would expect that if there is a user with the role “agent” it would deny all actions.

If I use this instead everthing is rosey, just not sure why its not checking both arguments before setting the boolean to True?

public function isAuthorized($user) {
        if ($user['role'] === 'admin'){
            return true;
        }
        if ($user['role'] == 'agent'){
            return false;
        }
        if (in_array($this->action, array('edit', 'add', 'delete'))) {
            if ($user['role'] == 'senior' || 'junior') {
                return false;
            }

        }
        return true;
    }

Any Ideas?
Thanks

Answer 1

One of your test is wrong and always evaluates to true.

if($user['role'] === 'senior' || 'junior'){
  //will always be true 
}

because you are evaluating 'junior' as a boolean, which is true in PHP.

Your condition should be:

if($user['role'] == 'senior' || $user['role'] == 'junior'){
  ...
}

Note that you could also write it like this:

if(in_array($user['role'], array('senior', 'junior'))){

}