Using if logged_id & auther_id="CURRENT_USER" creating scattered results

Question

I'm trying to use if logged_id & auther_id="CURRENT_USER" to load a specific entry back to users. However I'm seeing mixed results. I'm using EE 2.5.2 and Safecracker and have had success with this, however I have also had have had about 1/2 of the people who have resubmitted end up with new entries vs. updating the entry already stored. The first line of code is what I'm using to check to see if a user has already submitted a entry.

{if logged_id}<a href="/template-group/template/{exp:channel:entries channel="my_channel_name" author_id="CURRENT_USER" status="open" dynamic="no"}{username}/{/exp:channel:entries}">

This line of code is the start of the template, which should display the past entry if a user has submitted one.

{if logged_in}
{exp:safecracker channel="my_channel_name" id="my_channel_name" return="/" url_title="{segment_3}" author_only="yes"}

Any help in figuring out what is causing this would be greatly appreciated, Thank you!

Answer 1

The {if logged_in} is checked last in the template (advanced conditional). There are several addons available that create early parsed global variables from user data. Use the template debugger to verify if tags and modules are or are not called at all.

{if logged_in_member_id} ... {/if} // mo-variables, low-vars($)
{if global_member_id} ... {/if}    // global_member_vars

The first part can be a channel:entries tag by itself, current_user will be 0 when not logged in, giving the no_results part back.

{exp:channel:entries channel="my_channel_name" 
    author_id="CURRENT_USER" status="open" dynamic="no"
}
    {if no_results} -- redirect or show other info -- {/if}
    <a href="{path=/group/template/{username}/"></a>
{/exp:channel:entries}