Question:

Why the policies in Laravel are not working

Summary

If the Laravel policies are not giving you answers as expected, then there must be several problems. Below are some of the troubleshooting options you can choose.

Not Registered Policy

Make sure the AuthServiceProvider has your policy registered correctly. Every policy needs to be listed in the array called protected $policies.

Authorization Model

Verify that the model in your controller or policy method corresponds to the model that is mentioned in the policy.

Names of Policy Methods

Make sure the names of the methods in your policy match the actions you are attempting to grant authorization for. For instance, the method name in your policy should be update if you are approving an update action.

Policy Autodiscovery

Make sure the policy autodiscovery feature is operational if you're using Laravel 8 or later. The app/Policies directory should be automatically populated with policies by Laravel. In the event that you have modified your directory structure, make sure the AuthServiceProvider is adjusted.

Intermediary software

Make sure the route or controller method of the authenticated user has the required middleware applied. Usually, the auth middleware is needed for policies to function.

Authorization Gate

Make sure the gate conditions are configured properly if you are using the Gate facade directly. Gates and policies frequently cooperate.

User Model Configuration

Confirm that your User model is using the Authorizable trait.

Debugging

Utilize Laravel's debugging tools. Use dd() or var_dump() in your policy methods to check variables and conditions.

Solution

If you are looking for confirmation whether the user is authorized to access the page. Verify that the person attempting to access the page is a user in order for the policy to determine whether or not to grant access.

Make a user account and use it to log in to test without a starter kit.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

class UserController extends Controller

{

public function index()

{

// create a new user

$user = \App\Models\User::factory()->create();

// login with the created user

Auth::login($user);