asked on

htaccess file to restrict download of pdf files unless they are a registered user

I'm new to this. I want to make sure that my pdf files cannot be downloaded if someone just types that path to the pdf file in the browser. I plan on restricting the link to the pdf files on my webpages in my php code.

It sounds like I need to use an .htaccess file but I'm not sure how to write it. Can anyone help me???

Thanks in advance...

dsmile

Try this: any attempt to get .pdf files directly will be redirected to somesite you want.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} \.pdf$ [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://somesite [L,R]

Open in new window

dsmile

If you just want to show a 403 page, to any request on pdf file, then you can use this instead

<FilesMatch "\.(pdf)$">
order deny,allow
deny from all
</FilesMatch>

Open in new window

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

benschwartz

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

ChampagneGal

ASKER

Thank you so much. I did not know that was possible so I'm looking forward to trying this.

ChampagneGal

ASKER

If I put my video files outside of the root will that keep people from being able to download them via Real Player?

benschwartz

yeah, same principal - just proxy it through with php's file_get_contents()

If you run into trouble with the browser recognizing the file type, you may have to apply a mime type with the header function. You can also force the file to download as it's original name (and any number of other things) with the header function:

header('Content-type: application/pdf');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="downloaded.pdf"');

If you like, also look at "readfile()" as a file_get_contents() alternative.

ChampagneGal

ASKER

Thanks, I'll try it tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving :-)