In the context of PHP development, what are some best practices for handling user authentication and restricting access to specific pages, such as download.php?

To handle user authentication and restrict access to specific pages in PHP development, it is best practice to use session management and implement user authentication checks before allowing access to restricted pages. One common approach is to create a login system where users must authenticate themselves before accessing restricted pages. Additionally, you can use session variables to store user credentials and check these variables on restricted pages to determine if the user is authorized to view the content.

session_start();

// Check if user is not logged in, redirect to login page
if(!isset($_SESSION['user_id'])) {
    header("Location: login.php");
    exit();
}

// Check if user is not authorized to access download.php, redirect to unauthorized page
if($_SESSION['role'] !== 'admin') {
    header("Location: unauthorized.php");
    exit();
}

// Your download.php code here