How can PHP developers effectively hide or encrypt the URLs of certain pages, like download.php, to prevent unauthorized users from accessing them directly?

To effectively hide or encrypt URLs of certain pages in PHP, developers can use URL rewriting techniques or implement access control mechanisms such as session authentication. One common method is to use a combination of session variables and server-side checks to verify the user's authorization before allowing access to the page. Additionally, developers can also use obfuscation techniques to make the URLs less predictable and harder to access directly. 

<?php
session_start();

// Check if the user is authorized to access the page
if (!isset($_SESSION['logged_in']) || $_SESSION['logged_in'] !== true) {
    header("Location: login.php"); // Redirect unauthorized users to login page
    exit();
}

// Your page content here
?>

Keywords

URL encryption PHP development Access control Security measures Authorization restrictions

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