Question

this is my first time working with sessions, im working on a members area, which i have managed to make but i need some users (admins) to be able to see some links that normal users cant. this is what i have sofar :s

   <?php
require_once('auth.php');
    ?>
    <table border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' id='memberstitle'>
    <tr>
        <td background='images/box2_l.png' width='20' height='50'></td>
        <td background='images/box2_m.png' height='50'>Welcome <?php echo $_SESSION['SESS_FIRST_NAME'];?>
            <table border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' id='newsavatar'>
            <?php

        if(!isset($_SESSION['SESS_AUTH'] == '1') {
    echo '<tr>
                <td><a href='?p=post'>Post News</a> | <a href="">Post Screenshot</a> | <a href="">View Player List</a></td>
                <td rowspan='2' style='vertical-align:middle' width='34' height='34'><img src='images/<?php echo $_SESSION['SESS_AVATAR'];?>'></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td><a href="?p=logout">Logout</a> | <a href="">Change Password</a> | <a href="">Change Avatar</a></td>
            </tr>';
            }
            else {
            echo'<tr>
                <td>Control Panel</td>
                <td rowspan='2' style='vertical-align:middle' width='34' height='34'><img src='images/<?php echo $_SESSION['SESS_AVATAR'];?>'></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td><a href="?p=logout">Logout</a> | <a href="">Change Password</a> | <a href="">Change Avatar</a></td>
            </tr>';
            }

        ?>
        </table>

        </td>
        <td background='images/box2_r.png' width='20' height='50'></td>
    </tr>
    </table>

Answer 1

Did you start the session on the beginning of the file?

But even if you did, there are couple more errors in your code:

The if should be more like that:

    if(isset($_SESSION['SESS_AUTH']) && $_SESSION['SESS_AUTH'] == '1') {

And your ‘echo’ syntax is quite wrong as well:

• If you use ‘ to start the text you want to be written, you cannot use
  it in that text without an escape character. So you html attributes
  values should be \'value\' or "value", instead of simple
  'value'.
• You cannot use <?php ?> inside echo. Try string concatenation instead.

For example:

echo '<tr>
            <td><a href="?p=post">Post News</a> | <a href="">Post Screenshot</a> | <a href="">View Player List</a></td>
            <td rowspan="2" style="vertical-align:middle" width="34" height="34"><img src="images/' + $_SESSION['SESS_AVATAR'] + '"></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td><a href="?p=logout">Logout</a> | <a href="">Change Password</a> | <a href="">Change Avatar</a></td>
        </tr>';