deny direct access to a single folder with .htaccess

[psion]

Hello,
I have not found a clear way of doing what I want and resort to posting
my question.

I have a php file that will link to pdf files from a directory called
pdf (within the apache htdocs folder). The way I have it coded now, the
address to the pdf shows in the address bar, and a user can modify just
the file name to read other files, which is something I don't want.
I am trying to deny access to this pdf directory to anyone except the
localhost, so that changing the file name will not allow viewing it. Is
this the proper way I should go about resolving the matter?
Is there a better way?

Thank you,
psion

P.S. I have tried what I think would be best, which is to display a pdf
file by "printing" it with the php file, ie:

$file_contents = file_get_contents('$filename');
header('Content-type: application/pdf');
print $file_contents;

but I get an error, stating that the pdf file can't be displayed
because it may be corrupt, and it isn't. Was anyone successful in doing
something like this?

[Tommy Gildseth]

psion wrote:

P.S. I have tried what I think would be best, which is to display a pdf
file by "printing" it with the php file, ie:

$file_contents = file_get_contents('$filename');
header('Content-type: application/pdf');
print $file_contents;

but I get an error, stating that the pdf file can't be displayed
because it may be corrupt, and it isn't. Was anyone successful in doing
something like this?

The reason you get an error, is because you are trying to read the
content of the file named $filename, as opposed to the file named
whatever the variable $filename contains. Check up on the difference
between single ' and double " quotes. Another thing is that you
shouldn't be using quotes at all in this case. The line should read
something like this:

$file_contents = file_get_contents($filename);
--
Tommy Gildseth
http://design.twobarks.com/

[psion]

Either way, without quotes or with quote (single or double), I seem to
end up with an error:

File does not begin with 'PDF%'

Searching for this on google does not point to solutions.