What is the recommended approach for managing user access rights in a PHP application with multiple categories?

To manage user access rights in a PHP application with multiple categories, it is recommended to use role-based access control (RBAC). This involves assigning roles to users and defining permissions for each role based on the categories they belong to. By implementing RBAC, you can easily control and restrict user access to different parts of the application.

// Define roles and permissions
$roles = [
    'admin' => ['manage_users', 'manage_categories', 'manage_posts'],
    'editor' => ['manage_posts'],
    'viewer' => ['view_posts']
];

// Check user role and permissions
$user_role = 'admin'; // Get user role from database
$user_permissions = $roles[$user_role];

// Check if user has permission to access a specific category
$category = 'manage_users';
if (in_array($category, $user_permissions)) {
    echo 'User has permission to access this category';
} else {
    echo 'User does not have permission to access this category';
}