What is the difference between @section and @include.

You typically would @extend the layout, and in the layout template you would @yield the contents of the @section that is defined in the child template, e.g.

// layout.dashboard
@yield('content')

// child template
@section('content')
 // markup
@endsection

The 'content' section name connects to the yield placeholder in the layout

But I want the dashboard only to be seen by an admin and not by a user. With the laravel auth system, would not the user also see this dashboard.

You have to think of it in terms of child and parent, but opposite to what you would do with includes.

You might think of starting with a 'parent' view and then including sub-views

Most blade templates are the other way around.

You start with the child and then extend to the parent. So, the parent is processed, and when it encounters a yield it reverts control back to a named section in the child

Please format your code by putting 3 backticks ``` on a line before and after each code block if you want better help

I don't know how to answer this... because it is not really related to the original question.

Route-level protection

The users who are authorized to visit URLs in your application is not defined at the View level, you would use the auth middleware to protect those routes. Similarly, you can use the can middleware (along with the associated gates and policies) to protect some routes from authenticated, but unauthorized users

View-level protection

Within a view template, you can conditionally render different parts of your view depending on a user being authenticated using the @auth or @guest directives as appropriate to your situation

@auth
	// only visible to authenticated users
@endauth
@guest
	// only visible to 
@endguest

Similarly, whenever you have different permissions for authenticated users, you can use the @can directive to conditionally render parts of the view depending on the authenticated user being authorized.

How blade templates work

http://novate.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/blade-layouts.png