Hi,

Is there a way to restrict file downloads from a directory (residing in root hierarchy ) to login users only. Meaning if a user get to know the url of a file, it can be downloaded without requiring to login to the system.

Any solution to it?

Thanks

The first solution that came in my mind is to password protect this directory so the content is available only to the users that know that password. You should have this option in your control panel. Do you have CPanel?

Yes and as the directory is accessed by number of user accounts not just a single one. Directory is not within the website structure so website password doesnt imply on that, but during download one can get to know the address of that directory.

1) Is there a way to put .htaccess restriction for many accounts ?
2) And to hide status bar url address visibility during download of file ?


Thanks

You could have a database refer to all your downloadable contents, and have php serve the content, only giving away an ID instead of the url. So the url would be like download.php?fileID=12345

I'm not sure I remeber exactly how to do this but at least you need to call the header() function and tell the browser that it is to be interpreted as an image, then I believe you can use the function readfile(). So your download.php file should look something like this.

PHP Code:

<?php

$id = $_GET['fileID'];

// validate the id

// connect to database and retrieve actual url to file
$file = "the url to your file, retreived from the database";

// Example of a pdf document
// See the manual for all the different data types
header('Content-type: application/pdf');
readfile($file);

?>

And you would call it as in

<a href="download.php?fileID=12345">Download PDF</a>

EDIT: I meant for hiding the files true urls. Can't help you with the .htaccess :P

Hey Lizciz,

Thanks for replying and forwarding a solution, it sure provided the idea to solve my problem.

Cheers and Regards.