restrict access to multiple pages

Hey y'all. Ok so I am working on the admin sectin of the e-commerce app I'm writing and I'm hoping there's a better way to do what I am currently doing. In an effort to prevent circumvention of the login page I've placed a check at the beginning of each page that basically does the following: <?php if(loggedin()) { // entire page of code goes here } else { // redirect back to login page } ?> By doing this people will not be able to just enter manually any URL they want and have the page load. As far as better ways go I was thinking that maybe I could employ .htaccess somehow? But then I think that might require having user accounts registered with the server instead of just using a db and I don't want to do that. I was thinking that maybe I could change it to this: <?php // define function stored in class file // (basic auth function, not at all what i'm using. // just an example.) function IsLoggedIn($input) { if(isset($input) && !empty($input)) { return 1; } else { // redirect to login page } } IsLoggedIn($input); // entire page of code goes here ?> Any want to share their experiences and ideas? Thanks, Chris. -- Don't like reformatting your Outlook replies? Now there's relief! http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/outlook-quotefix/