Download Link

A client needs to have download links sent to customers automatically after purchases. The links must expire after three days. I would prefer not to have the files be stored in a static location that is publicly accessible. I am wondering if there is any good way of having the permissions on a file be dynamically changing without constantly having scripts update .htaccess files. The other way I had been thinking about doing this would be to have the files to be downloaded be stored above the public_html folder but then somehow link to the files when an authorized user needs to download them. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

re: Download Link

I was doing some more thinking about this and was wondering if it would be feasible to make a perl script that printed a binary file(zip file probably)... Any thoughts?

re: Download Link

Use a php script to control downloading. You can then interface with a database to check how long the download should be available for download and what file the customer has access to.

re: Download Link

That was my initial thought, but I don't want users to be able to find out where the actual file is stored. If I just point to a static file location they could look at that and share it with whomever, not to mention that they could then get around the three day limit.

re: Download Link

Not if you have the file outside of the root folder. If your directory setup is server/domain/htdocs/, putting the file in the /domain/ directory means anyone browsing your site does not have access to it. You can then use a php file to read the file (readfile()) and force a download - after checking the user has permissions, etc.